Texts: Hebrews 4: 12 – 16 & John 14:15 - 21
It has been a long hard winter. Even with spring here according to the calendar we are feeling more of winter's chill. At least the days are getting longer. But we began our Lenten time of reflection early in the year while there was more night than day. And with the cold dragging on we may find ourselves more challenged to complete the course of Lent than if we had begun it in warmer weather with longer daylight hours.
My relationship with Lent is not without tension regardless of what time of year it begins. I believe that an intentional time of reflection is good – it's healthy for our spirits. I also believe that remembering Jesus' suffering on our behalf is good. But then the conflict begins for me. I do not believe that we should remember Jesus' suffering so that we walk with our head hung down and our spirits in shame. Giving up something in our lives or adding something to our lives for 40 days can be a useful tool toward intentional reflection and gratitude. It is, I believe, a tool. We don't perform ritual because the ritual needs us to. We perform ritual for us. It may expand our understanding of a spiritual concept by using physical resources. It might help lead us in the direction toward God that we feel we need to go. Still other times ritual reflects back to us what it is we are doing in the spirit.
According to the scripture passage in the book of Hebrews, we don't have to give up or add anything to our lives for our vulnerabilities to be known by God in Christ. We are all "naked and laid bare" before the Spirit. Our vulnerabilities are already known. The essence of who we are is not hid from God – our strengths and our weaknesses alike. This is meant as an encouragement but so often it inspires fear in our hearts. The encouragement comes in understanding that we are not known to a hateful God but to a loving God. The passage continues in telling us that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are." We are looked upon and known, and then compassion – no, not just compassion, but empathy flows from the heart of Christ. Our Lenten rituals can help to remind us that Christ, through his suffering, knows us and reaches out toward us.
The next line of that passage sometimes brings us back to feeling guilty and shamed. It goes on to say that Jesus endured his testing but without sinning. "Ahhh", you might say,"but I have sinned." How can Jesus sympathize with us? He overcame sin when he was tested and we still sin. Herein lies a mystery. Humans are apt to look down upon someone whose weakness shows when tested. Jesus, though fully human, is not like that. Instead of being wary of the wrath of Jesus because we are weak, we are told to "approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Jesus knows it's hard. Jesus knows that sometimes everything in life falls apart and it's scary, painful and infuriating. The turmoil, suffering, and testing that Jesus endured elicited compassion and sympathy toward us. Praise be to God! We have a high priest – a Messiah – who not only understands us but who offers us grace at the hardest and weakest times in our lives.
Here's the tricky part – we have to believe it, and believe it strong enough to make that approach to the throne of grace with boldness. Do we really believe that we will "receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need?" Do we? Do you? How can we find that strength when we are at our weakest to approach the throne of grace boldly? The only way I know to find this strength is through the one Jesus calls the Advocate, the abiding Holy Spirit. This "other Advocate," as Jesus calls the Spirit, was given to us so that we would not be left alone, fulfilling Jesus' promise that he would not leave us orphaned.
The Spirit doesn't just hang around us. The Spirit lives within us. The passage in The Gospel of John reads, "In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." The Spirit lives amoung us and lives within us. There is an integration between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and us. We are like woven threads worked together to make a whole piece of cloth. Separate one and you unravel the many. We can come boldly to the throne of grace because we are strengthened by the bond between all the threads Spirit has woven within our soul.
There is another thing mentioned in the Gospel of John – the need to keep the commandments of Jesus. Once again we may feel discouraged. Keeping the commandments sounds very hard. I hope that I can encourage you by telling you that there are only two commandments. Very soon we will be addressing these in Sunday morning Bible Study. They are simple commandments, but intense and challenging. In the Gospel of Mark we read, "One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked Jesus, 'Which commandment is the first of all?' Jesus answered, "The first is, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.’"
These are the commandments that Jesus wants us to obey. All other rules and rituals are to be in line with these two. Love God with everything that you are and love others as you love yourself. The question that needs to be asked, which we will be asking in Bible study, is how can we better love ourselves so that we can better love others?
Love God. Love yourself. Love others. The more you live into these commandments the more you will recognize the Advocate who lives in you as well as the strength of the woven threads of the Spirit, Jesus, and Divine Parent with your very soul.
As we move day by day and week by week through Lent, reflecting on the suffering of Christ and our own humanness, let us do so in the strength of Christ's compassion. When you feel weak, either due to the testing of this Lenten season or just because it’s been a hard day ... or a hard winter ... take a deep breath and remember the promised Holy Spirit. Lean back on the woven threads within your soul and approach the throne of grace with boldness. Life can be hard. We don't often have the answers that we want, but at the throne of grace we can breathe in mercy and grace.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Jesus, Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday
Texts: Mt 22:15 – 22; Mt 23:1 – 12
In a recent status on my Facebook page I wrote that I thought Jesus was a Fat Tuesday kind of guy rather than an Ash Wednesday kind of guy. Following that status were some thought-provoking comments out of which could have begun some very interesting conversations. The idea of the combination of holy feast and holy fast was mentioned. Having a reflective faith and the seriousness of Jesus' sacrifice were also part of the thread. Another comment had to do with Jesus' probable practiced ability to make it through the fasting and trials of his forty days in the desert.
My Facebook status was based on my understanding of Jesus as a man who turned water into wine for parties and who taught such things as we heard in the 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard because he didn't observe the law the way those in religious authority wished him to. He also spoke harshly against those in authority who "tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulder of others; but they are unwilling to lift a finger to move them."
Lent has often felt like that to me – a heavy burden of shame that we are supposed to carry for forty days so that we can better appreciate the suffering of Jesus on our behalf. In some theologies it is our fault that Jesus died on the cross – our sin put him there. I do not believe that any of us are without sin and I think it is an important practice of our faith to reflect continually upon our lives so that we have ample motivation and opportunity to repent when we operate out of selfishness, greed, and the like. However, I understand Jesus’ sacrifice as being accomplished out of an extreme kind of love, a love that we can't even begin to understand because it runs so deep, so long, so high, and so wide. Jesus was sent because "God so loved the world." Jesus died because he would not back down in defending the powerless, healing the sick, feeding the poor, and gathering instead of scattering. He threatened leaders of his time because he was not showy and pompous, thus putting the rest of the people in their place. Instead Jesus made people and communities whole as often as he could.
He called us to be humble – to not exalt ourselves. Jesus addressed the pride of the Pharisees and Scribes, and their lust for power, by teaching his disciples to not do what they did. In chapter 22 of Matthew we read of the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus with a question about taxes. Jesus asked them what image was on the coin and responded, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." That shut them up for awhile. It seems that the act of paying tribute with money, performing deeds of great sacrifice, or of having the appearance of being righteous is not the point. Humility is the point of this teaching. Humility – that is the image of our Divine Beloved. No matter what we offer in tribute, the image it should bear is the image of our God.
Shame and humility are different. I see shame as a consequence of oppressive power dynamics. Humility shapes an environment of equality while maintaining a person's wholeness. I believe Jesus is teaching that we are not to exalt ourselves – to give ourselves over to ranking and climbing up some imaginary ladder of religious success, but rather we are to be humble – to live a life where we value everyone, especially those who serve.
Lent is a time of intentional reflection. These next few weeks are a created opportunity to examine how we move through this world. Are we humble? Do we honor everyone, especially those who serve? Do we try to posture so that we appear respectable, spiritual, or obedient? Do our actions come from a place of humility; a place where we can stand solid in what we believe and how we behave without it becoming an oppressive power or a false standard of how others should believe or behave?
If you are giving something up or adding something like prayer to your life for lent, will whatever you are doing help guide you toward the kind of reflection that leads toward humility and an increased marveling at the resurrection when at last we celebrate Easter? Might what you do with this time change your life a little? What are you giving to God? Whose image is on the tribute you offer?
Give to God what is God's. Giving up something may be a wonderful way for you to remember that this is a time of active reflection. Adding more Bible reading or prayer to your week may be a good way for others. Whatever you do, give to God what is God's.
Ash Wednesday is a solemn ceremony where people are marked on the forehead with the ashes from the burned palm leaves of the ecstatic celebration from the year before. Just like the marking of lamb's blood on the lintels of the doors of the Hebrews in Egypt or the phylacteries on the foreheads of Jewish men, the mark of the ashes reminds us and tells others who we are and whose we are.
Fat Tuesday, known in French as Mardi Gras, is the last day of the festival called Carnival which means, "farewell to the flesh." It is the last big party before the fast and is the holy feast my Facebook friend mentioned. During this celebration they killed the fattened calf and used up the last of their eggs and dairy making all kinds of wonderful pastries.
Would Jesus have gotten more into Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday? No one really knows. I still have a hunch that he would dig the abundance and revelry of Fat Tuesday. I also think it would be important to him that everyone got to go to the party; to dance, laugh, and eat their fill. Still, he did steal away whenever he could to pray. He taught that some things could only be accomplished through fasting and praying. He also taught his disciples that sometimes they needed time to get away from everyone and rest. So, just as Jesus would want everyone to come to the party, my guess is that he would want everyone to share in a time of reflection.
Even more than that, I am confident Jesus would want the revelers to revel to the glory of God and the reflectors to reflect to the glory of God.
In a recent status on my Facebook page I wrote that I thought Jesus was a Fat Tuesday kind of guy rather than an Ash Wednesday kind of guy. Following that status were some thought-provoking comments out of which could have begun some very interesting conversations. The idea of the combination of holy feast and holy fast was mentioned. Having a reflective faith and the seriousness of Jesus' sacrifice were also part of the thread. Another comment had to do with Jesus' probable practiced ability to make it through the fasting and trials of his forty days in the desert.
My Facebook status was based on my understanding of Jesus as a man who turned water into wine for parties and who taught such things as we heard in the 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard because he didn't observe the law the way those in religious authority wished him to. He also spoke harshly against those in authority who "tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulder of others; but they are unwilling to lift a finger to move them."
Lent has often felt like that to me – a heavy burden of shame that we are supposed to carry for forty days so that we can better appreciate the suffering of Jesus on our behalf. In some theologies it is our fault that Jesus died on the cross – our sin put him there. I do not believe that any of us are without sin and I think it is an important practice of our faith to reflect continually upon our lives so that we have ample motivation and opportunity to repent when we operate out of selfishness, greed, and the like. However, I understand Jesus’ sacrifice as being accomplished out of an extreme kind of love, a love that we can't even begin to understand because it runs so deep, so long, so high, and so wide. Jesus was sent because "God so loved the world." Jesus died because he would not back down in defending the powerless, healing the sick, feeding the poor, and gathering instead of scattering. He threatened leaders of his time because he was not showy and pompous, thus putting the rest of the people in their place. Instead Jesus made people and communities whole as often as he could.
He called us to be humble – to not exalt ourselves. Jesus addressed the pride of the Pharisees and Scribes, and their lust for power, by teaching his disciples to not do what they did. In chapter 22 of Matthew we read of the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus with a question about taxes. Jesus asked them what image was on the coin and responded, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." That shut them up for awhile. It seems that the act of paying tribute with money, performing deeds of great sacrifice, or of having the appearance of being righteous is not the point. Humility is the point of this teaching. Humility – that is the image of our Divine Beloved. No matter what we offer in tribute, the image it should bear is the image of our God.
Shame and humility are different. I see shame as a consequence of oppressive power dynamics. Humility shapes an environment of equality while maintaining a person's wholeness. I believe Jesus is teaching that we are not to exalt ourselves – to give ourselves over to ranking and climbing up some imaginary ladder of religious success, but rather we are to be humble – to live a life where we value everyone, especially those who serve.
Lent is a time of intentional reflection. These next few weeks are a created opportunity to examine how we move through this world. Are we humble? Do we honor everyone, especially those who serve? Do we try to posture so that we appear respectable, spiritual, or obedient? Do our actions come from a place of humility; a place where we can stand solid in what we believe and how we behave without it becoming an oppressive power or a false standard of how others should believe or behave?
If you are giving something up or adding something like prayer to your life for lent, will whatever you are doing help guide you toward the kind of reflection that leads toward humility and an increased marveling at the resurrection when at last we celebrate Easter? Might what you do with this time change your life a little? What are you giving to God? Whose image is on the tribute you offer?
Give to God what is God's. Giving up something may be a wonderful way for you to remember that this is a time of active reflection. Adding more Bible reading or prayer to your week may be a good way for others. Whatever you do, give to God what is God's.
Ash Wednesday is a solemn ceremony where people are marked on the forehead with the ashes from the burned palm leaves of the ecstatic celebration from the year before. Just like the marking of lamb's blood on the lintels of the doors of the Hebrews in Egypt or the phylacteries on the foreheads of Jewish men, the mark of the ashes reminds us and tells others who we are and whose we are.
Fat Tuesday, known in French as Mardi Gras, is the last day of the festival called Carnival which means, "farewell to the flesh." It is the last big party before the fast and is the holy feast my Facebook friend mentioned. During this celebration they killed the fattened calf and used up the last of their eggs and dairy making all kinds of wonderful pastries.
Would Jesus have gotten more into Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday? No one really knows. I still have a hunch that he would dig the abundance and revelry of Fat Tuesday. I also think it would be important to him that everyone got to go to the party; to dance, laugh, and eat their fill. Still, he did steal away whenever he could to pray. He taught that some things could only be accomplished through fasting and praying. He also taught his disciples that sometimes they needed time to get away from everyone and rest. So, just as Jesus would want everyone to come to the party, my guess is that he would want everyone to share in a time of reflection.
Even more than that, I am confident Jesus would want the revelers to revel to the glory of God and the reflectors to reflect to the glory of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
