It's the first Thursday in Lent. Still have the dark smudge on my right thumb from imposing ashes at yesterday's Ash Wednesday services. I really like the Lenten season. It is a time for becoming "more real"--growing beyond our hypocritical selves (hypocrites were actors in Jesus' day) into the kind of person we really want to be. Could this also be the kind of person God wants us to be? I hope that is where this is going.
In the Matthew 6 passage, Jesus warns Christians to do our sacrificial stuff in private, and to put on our "best face" in public. This way the rest of the world sees the joy and love, and God witnesses the "giving up" part. Jesus says if we gloat about all of our suffering and sacrifices on his behalf then the world's "adoration" of us will be our reward. If we keep these efforts private, then God "who sees in secret will reward us." Honestly, I think I'd rather have my reward from God than from these other people. Besides, "the world" is tired of professing Christians (or practioners of any other religion, for that matter) trumpeting the "suffering" they are doing or the sacrifices we are making "to the glory of God." Rather than "adore" these proclamations, I think they just see the ones making them as jerks.
What sacrifices are we called on to do in Lent? Don't give up pizza or chocolate and think you're doing God a favor. I bet God sees us as jerks when we do things like that and call it a sacrifice. Now if you eat LOTS of pizza or chocolate and take all of the money you would typically spend on it and give it to a local food pantry, then maybe this makes some sense. This would be a type of "almsgiving," and might be on the right track. But if you are just "giving something up" for Lent and think it blesses God, think again. Where did we get this idea, anyway?
Why not take something UP for Lent? Do something serious to further your personal spiritual growth; go to your pastor and volunteer to start a new ministry or aid one already in progress; get involved in some new type of community service that benefits persons less fortunate than you. Now we're talking.
You know what else might be a project for Lent? Thinking. I don't believe we do enough thinking in our day. We either just jump into things or let others do our thinking for us. Pondering, meditating, day-dreaming, cogitating--whatever you want to call it: Just do MORE of it in the next 40 days. It exercises the mind, might lead to some original thoughts, and for the spiritual seeker, it might even provide space for divine inspiration. If you don't believe people are going off half-cocked today, just observe their driving habits. There's not much thinking going on out there.
Enough for my first post. I don't know if I will have enough discipline to keep up with this; I think I'm one of those adult ADD people. Anyway, feel free to chime in. If you agree with everything I say, I don't want to hear from you. If you take issue with all of it, that might be much more interesting, but then one of us is wrong a higher percent of the time, and my fear is it may be me. Hey, Wesley said we're going on to perfection. It's Lent, so let's get going. Shalom.
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2 comments:
Hi Pastor Jeff, Never have done this before, didn't even know what a blog was, but love reading your comments, because again it might help me to learn something or get more spiritual (which is my dream)so maybe instead of walking around with a lead umbrella I should find more faith and just walk around and carry a camera to see what may fall out of the sky. Carol
You are correct in stating that lent is a time to be "more real." But I'm not sure what your definition of "more real" is. Lent is a time of repentence in which we get more real by comparing ourselves to God's law. When we compare ourselves to the law, the simplest of which and the most damning of which, is "love your neighbor as yourself" (i.e. the summary of the second table of the ten commandments) we realize that we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. Even if we do give up pizza or whatever and give that money to a charity we are still not loving our neighbor as ourself!! In order to say that it would literally have to be a 50-50 split. If we loved our neighbor as we love ourselves we would spend a dollar on our neighbor for every dollar we spend on ourself. Of course nobody does this, I don't do this. If I decide to spend $15.00 on a new CD, a luxury that I don't need, I am loving myself more than every single person in the world who could have used that money for food or medicine that they really need. This is sin, and nearly ever single American is constanly guilty of it.
This is what lent is about, it is a season of repentance in which we look at the law, look at ourselves and can do nothing else buy cry out Lord Have Mercy! We cannot do enough to make it right, but in lent we look forward to the one who did do enough to make us right with God. We look forward to the one who bore our sins and iniquities, not only those we have commited but those that continue to commit and those that we will commit. We look forward to seeing the lamb slain for our sins, and eventually rising again.
As you have said, Lent is a time to think. Lent is a time to meditate on God's Holy and Perfect law. The more we do so, the more we realize that we are neither Holy nor Perfect, we do not measure up. The more we realize that, the more we comprehend and realize our sin, the more we look to the Cross where these very sins are forgiven. Throughout lent, we realize that we are not perfect, but Jesus Christ is perfect and his perfection is credited to us.
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