The Madness of March

The first Christians were a contrast society. The church was built on the primal claim that Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified, is now raised from the dead. And so, in sharp tension with the world, the ancient church loved Christ as Lord instead of Caesar, and their lives were ordered around Christ’s resurrection instead of Rome’s activities and offerings.

This is the life to which we too are called, particularly in Lent, the church’s time of repentance and returning to God. There are signs of repentance and reconciliation everywhere – the deep purple paraments in the sanctuary, the devotion books at our bedsides and ELCA World Hunger calendars on our refrigerators, the alternating gray and sunny days of pre-spring, even the “March Madness” headlines starting to hit the news.

As the 2026 Winter Olympic Games are gripping us now, March Madness will grab us soon – the concentrated hype of 68 NCAA Division 1 teams vying for college basketball's biggest prize, the last-second, buzzer-beating baskets, the euphoria of winning to play another day, and the agony of losing and going home.

Christians are gripped by a totally different kind of March Madness. We are focused on renewing our faith and becoming ever more aware of the role Jesus plays in our lives. Our concentration is on prayer, fasting from all that would divert us from God, and serving our neighbor, and the prize we are all awarded is righteousness through Christ. 8,500 ELCA congregations and several billion Christians all over the world will feel agony on Good Friday and euphoria on Easter Sunday. And thanks be to God we have the whole month of March to prepare, to be “mad” for Christ in a whole new, and very ancient, way.

Lenten blessings,

Pastor Robin