Lent Day 16 - The blessedness of breaks

This Sunday marks the beginning of spring break for many in our community. Friends and family will embark upon road trips across this country. For many, a road trip is a necessary evil required for getting from point A to point B. For the attentive, however, the trip can be as meaningful as the destination so long as we remember to stop along the way. Eugene Peterson, who makes his home in Montana, explains that when his family takes a road trip they make a point of paying attention to those signs that announce “Roadside Vista Ahead.” He writes, “In anticipation we slow down. And then we look. We see where we’ve been; we see where we’re headed. Take a breather. Eat a snack. Enjoy the scenery. We can’t always be driving, watching the road closely. Not driving is also part of the trip – savoring what we’ve done, absorbing the landscape, letting the contours of the land and the colors of the horizon sink into our imaginations.”[i]

In the road trip of life, we often call such moments holidays or vacations or possibly even Sabbaths – moments when we can pause and relax and reflect. Sometimes, like during spring break, the holidays are set on the calendar for some general purpose – like resting in the midst of our work or school. Other times, these “rest stops” occur at the culmination of some great process and are often accompanied by some type of ceremony – a wedding, a graduation, the birth of a child. Sometimes they surprise us – like when we realize our children are no longer babies and wonder when that happened and how we missed it. Some such moments grab us when we’d rather not be taken hold of, like the death of someone we love. It seems almost sacrileges to call the death of a loved one a holiday – but if we trace the root of the word back to its original sense – a holy day, perhaps you’ll understand what I’m attempting to get at. For what can be more holy than pausing at the time of a friend’s passing from this life to the next to offer thanks, to express grief, and to ponder the meaning of it all?

True life requires such moments, moments of thanksgiving, moments of grief, moments of reflection. That is, if you want your life to be a human life and not like those of the animals who rush from moment to moment with no thought for the past and no understanding of the future. Moments of reflection help us put today in its proper perspective. They help us see the truth of our present situations in light of the larger narrative of our lives and, ultimately, in the light the even larger narrative of God’s life. Sabbath, after all, is not a repudiation of the rest of the week, but rather an invitation to put the rest of the week into proper perspective. Rest stops, whatever form they take, don’t keep us from the journey so much as they keep us journeying in the way God intends.

So this week blessings on you many travels, but also, blessings upon the pit stops along the way.

[i] Eugene H. Peterson, Leap Over a Wall (New York: HarperOne, 1997), 137.

Lent: Day 15 - Broken Things by Julie Miller

Read Psalm 51


 

Lent Day 14: A Masterpiece of My Mess (Revisited)

Easier Than Honesty by Erick Sandlin

This is a re-posting of the very first entry on this blog. It fits in well with the season of Lent.

Have you ever had something you were working on become messed up? It’s a horrible feeling. I can remember a time as a child I was working on a painting. I had been taking art classes, and whether or not my talent warranted it, I took the whole endeavor rather seriously. Just weeks before the county fair (where I hoped to enter my painting and maybe win a prize) I was putting the finishing touches upon a dramatic landscape filled with billowing clouds and mighty evergreens. I was cleaning some brushes when I turned in time to see a classmate bump up against my painting creating an ugly streak right across the face of the clouds. “AHHHH! It’s ruined,” I exclaimed. My third grade heart with its oversized ambitions was devastated. My teacher came over to see what the commotion was about. She tried to calm me and assured me, that sometimes, what are initially mistakes, can become the workings of a masterpiece. And with skill and grace, she took brush in hand and worked magic on that canvas, redeeming the scar and making it an integral part of a glorious sky.


When I think about the grand story of the Bible, I see God at much the same work. Again and again, through our sins, we mar the work of God. Last Sunday, we looked at that first sin in the garden. We talked about the sad fact that in Adam and Eve we became takers instead of receivers. The pattern plays itself out in the next few chapters. Cain took Abel’s life. Lamech took revenge on a young man who had injured him by killing him and then took delight in having done so. Evil became so great that God attempted a new start with Noah after the flood, but even then, our fallen humanity failed to receive the new start with open hands. With the ground still moist, Canaan took some potshots at his drunk, naked father. Noah then took Canaan’s folly as a chance to curse his own flesh and blood. And then in chapter 11, the whole world, it says, took on heaven, building a tower to the skies that they might make a name for themselves.

The first eleven chapters of the Bible are enough of a mess that it’s a wonder God allowed there to be a twelfth. But as is his nature, we find God giving once more. His gift in chapter 12 is a simple but lasting promise. God gives Abram a promise that serves as the initial brush strokes in his great work of salvation history. For the rest of the Bible, the painting unfolds, stroke by stroke, color by color until God redeems our errors for his glory by painting the picture that culminates in Jesus Christ and the redemption of our souls – God’s masterpiece from our mess. Whatever messes existed in your past or exist in your life today, take time to thank God that he makes, as Isaiah puts it, beauty of our ashes (see Isaiah 61:1-4).

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”Ephesians 3:20-21

Lent: Day 13 - I'm bad at Lent (and I'm ok with that)

Read Luke 11:37-44 

Every religious tradition has a set of rules that helps distinguish insiders from outsiders. In my tradition (at least in the past) that involved no dancing, no drinking, wearing nice clothes to church, etc. I imagine in your tradition the rules might be a little different but the point is the same – to differentiate us from them. Where’s the danger in that? Well, Jesus says there’s plenty. First, we tend to pick the rules we like to keep, the rules that are easy for us to keep – so that we do indeed look different from “sinners” (at least on the outside, on the inside we have a way of looking a lot like them). And we create these little systems by which we reward one another for keeping the rules that are easy for us to keep. We puff ourselves up and put others down. And that’s why Jesus gets so upset. He’s upset with our self-deception. He’s upset with our self righteousness. He’s upset with the fact that we think we’ve arrived without his help. He’s upset, because he loves us and he knows that our game of self-righteousness is mortally dangerous. Unlike the grosser sins where our distance from God is fairly obvious, we’ve whitewashed our tombs so that no one, at times not even ourselves, knows the deadness inside. This is dangerous because we tend not do anything about the sins we are unaware of. It’s like undiagnosed high blood pressure. Self-righteousness is the silent killer of a life of faith.

Lent, itself, can be a practice that when done poorly perpetuates self-righteousness. One of my professors, Roger Olson, recently wrote of the trend of more and more Baptists celebrating Lent. He doesn't view Lent as an evil, but rather, something that's not necessary for the life of faith. As one of those Baptists he talks about, I appreciate his article. First, I appreciate it because I firmly believe that wisdom is often found in a dissenting voice especially when that dissent is about popular trends (This keeps me squarely in the Baptist tradition!). Second, I appreciate the warning that whether we observe Lent or not, the issue of our spiritual vitality cannot be reduced to our religious practices even if it involves them. Observing Lent or not observing Lent, just like the washing of hands or not washing hands, isn't what matters. Rather, Jesus says, what's required is obedience to all of God's ways, a complete surrendering of our lives to him. When we reduce our faith to either keeping or not keeping a certain ritual, we run the risk of thinking that by keeping our small list of rules, we have arrived at God's will for our lives.

Truth be told, I’ve had a lot of trouble keeping up with my Lenten commitments. And at least for the moment, I’m glad I’m not good at it. You see, I’ve been a Baptist for a long time. I’m pretty good at being a Baptist. I know all the ins and outs of keeping the outside of my Baptist cup pretty clean, as I’m sure you know how to keep the outside of your Methodist or Episcopalian or Catholic cup pretty clean as well. But I’m not so good at Lent. I’ve already messed up plenty this year. You'll notice I have not blogged like I said I would. Remarkably, like I said, I’ve found that failure to be a gift – a reminder that I too am a sinner in need of grace, a work in progress, a person who though not perfect, is still being made perfect by the One who already is.

Lent: Day 8 - The Lord is my portion

Read Psalm 73


"In Feast or Fallow" by Sandra McCracken

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.
                    - Psalm 73:25-28

Lent: Day 7

Read Mark 8:31-38

At the center of the Christian faith stands the cross of Jesus Christ, which would appall most of us, if we identified the cross with actual crucifixions and not simply as a symbol of faith or a piece of jewelry. Remember, the cross in Jesus’ day didn’t represent faith or hope. It certainly didn't represent love. If it represented anything it represented the end of such aspirations. A cross was the symbol of a lost cause, a dead end, the place where messianic pretenders and common criminals shared a humiliating fate.

We might wonder why the early Christians did not adopt another symbol – there were other symbols to be found – the Chi-Rho, the Icthus, even the peacock, a symbol of resurrection. But the symbol that stuck was the cross. Try as we may, we can never quite escape the truth that at the center of our faith stands a horrific defeat. Paul makes clear that the crucifixion was a centerpiece of early Christian preaching, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The cross is still a stumbling block when we read passages like Mark 8 and hear Jesus speaking not just of his own cross but ours as well. The cross remains palatable so long as it's just Jesus upon it. It becomes less so when the conversation turns towards our own cross bearing. But the scriptures make plain, the cross isn't just the price paid, it is also the path paved.

David Garland explains this dual purpose of the cross with a simple story (that he borrowed from scholar Eduard Schweitzer) about a heavy snowfall that strands a young boy in the home of a friend after school. “He cannot get home, ‘until his father comes, with his strong shoulders, and breaks the way through three feet of snow. The boy ‘follows him’ in his footsteps and yet walks in a totally different way. Father is not merely his teacher or example – or otherwise the boy would have to break his own way, only copying the action of the father – nor is it a vicarious act of the father – otherwise the boy would just remain in the warm room of his friend and think that his father would go home instead of himself.’ The problem is that the way Jesus prepares for us to go home is not the one we want to travel. It is arduous and paved with suffering, but it is one that we must journey to get home.”

Dr. Garland's words ring so true to my own experience, "The problem is that the way Jesus prepares for us to go home is not the one we want to travel" and yet "it is one we must journey to get home."

God, thank you for making a way home for us where there was no way.  Give us the courage to now walk in your steps as we follow you towards the kingdom come.

Lent: Day 6



Return of the Prodigal Son
The Church of St. Mary Abott
Kensington, London
Photo by Lawrence OP

Reading for Today: Psalm 32

Christians often have a reputation for sourness. Misunderstandings about the season of Lent can perpetuate this perception. During this season, we often spend even more time than normal focussing upon our sins. We confess, and we repent. If we're not careful, we stop there. Our spirit becomes trapped in perpetual state of sorrow over our sinfulness. While sorrow over one's sin is a part of the Christian life, it is meant to be a fleeting part.

The overwhelming emotion that Christians ought to experience when thinking of their own sins, is joy, not joy over the sin committed, but joy over the sin forgiven.   The Psalmist declares, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2). There are no Christian merit badges for wallowing in guilt and shame. God has spoken the ultimate word of forgiveness over our lives in and through the person of  Jesus Christ.

Our appropriate response should be nothing less than joy!

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" - 2 Corinthians 7:10.

Lent: Day 3

Today's reading: Matthew 4:1-11

When we read the Bible we often jump straight to the application of a passage asking, "What does this text say about me?" While there are plenty of passages in the Bible that have a word to say about us, many passages don't have us as the subject. The primarily word these texts speak is a word about God. The story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness is one of those stories.

We read this text and often jump straight into a lesson on how to resist temptation, but if you'll notice, we are nowhere to be found in this story. Our representatives in the scripture had already had their shot at resisting temptation and failed. We now follow their well trodden path. This is a story that tells us that Jesus took a different road. When faced with the temptation to be driven by his desires or to take an easier, less painful path to the kingdom come, Jesus remained faithful to God's will and not his own.

During this season of Lent and during every other season, as well, our hope is not found in our ability to resist temptation, but in the fact that Jesus already has. We shall find release from those sins that so easily entangle us not by reinforcing our already broken will power, but by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart - Hebrews 12:1-3.

Lenten Resources

For too many, the focus of Lent is on giving something up. To only focus upon what we give up misses the true focus. Lent is a season of turning our attention evermore towards Christ. We give up something good in order to lay hold of something better. The best approach to Lent may be to say, what shall I take up this season in order to focus on Christ. Then only secondarily, to ask what one could give up to make that pursuit of Christ a reality.

One of the great things to take up would be an additional devotional time each day. Here are some online resources I've found that might be a good place to start.

• Journey to the Cross - this online devotional is from the folks over at d365.org. The devotionals are simple and yet stirring. It's worth stopping by for the the Ken Medema music alone.

• Lent for Everyone - This is a Lenten devotional by one of my favorite writers, N.T. Wright. I can only find this on the YouVersion website / app. I don't think you have to sign-up in order to use it, but you might. It's free, and the YouVersion app is a great way to read the Bible on your phone or tablet. 

• Lenten Blog by the Huffington Post - As strange as this one is, two days in I've been pleasantly surprised by this Huffington Post Lenten blog. I'll say up front, I have no idea who all the contributors will be and so I don't vouch for any of them. That being said, so far they've had piece from the late Henri Nouwen and from Walter Brueggemann two of my favorite authors.

Lent: Day 2

Today's Reading: Matthew 3:1-12


Political season is in full swing here in the States. That means debates and ads and any number of speeches in which politicians tell us what is wrong with the world and how they aim to fix it. As of yesterday, we also entered into the season of Lent, a season which also invites us to diagnose the world’s ills and move towards a remedy. Some of can’t get enough of the politicians speeches. Others do their best to avoid them altogether. But all of us, could benefit from listening to and meditating upon the words the church associates with the Lenten season.


When reading through the gospels, the first sermon we hear is a Lenten sermon found on the lips of John the Baptist. “Repent,” he shouts, “for the kingdom of heaven is near.” How different are his words than so many of ours. We assure ourselves of our status with God. We’re the good guys we think, because of our denominational affiliation or our nationality or our political affiliations which ever they may be! We can think of plenty of people who need to repent. We just don't think of ourselves as needing to be on that list.

We know the world is a mess, but we didn’t make it. We blame it on the poor or the rich. We blame on the immoral or the religiously uptight. We blame it on the older generation for not knowing what we now know or we blame it on the young for squandering all we provided them. We blame it on those who refuse to take individual responsibility for their shortcomings. We blame it on systems that keep people from reaching their full potential. We blame it on anyone and everyone but ourselves. Above our political debating, John, waist deep in the Jordon keeps shouting from the water to anyone who will listen, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” – 1 John 1:8