Tag: Lent

Lent 2022

For the Christian community, we are about halfway through Lent. I wrote this for a video reflection shared by the Second Congregational Church in Londonderry, VT.

Unless it is pouring down rain, I walk nearly every day.
Some days my walk is through town, but on other days I walk on one of the dirt roads near where we live. As you know, if you live here in Vermont, there were some very cold days this winter. On those days it would have been easy to stay home. Inside where it was warm and safe.
But, there I was…
Hat. Mittens. Vest. Winter coat.
Going for my walk.
Walking in one direction often wasn’t too bad.
But, when I turned into the wind…it was cold!
I could feel myself shrink into my coat in an effort to hold onto whatever heat my body was generating. And, looking around, it seemed like even the trees were doing the very same thing. Holding onto whatever life energy they had until it became warmer and they could breathe and spread out again.

It occurred to me that maybe Lent is a bit like that.
A time set aside to intentionally acknowledge and to do our best to see and to face into the brokenness and frailty of our humanity. A frailty and brokenness we know and feel all too well. Everything from the war in Ukraine to the stain of racism to the anxiousness of waiting for the doctor’s report. A brokenness and frailty which often makes us want to pull back and to pull in. To find and to stay in that place where it is safe and warm. And yet, because we are people of faith, we dare to turn towards the world around us just as it is. Both heartbreakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly awful, and to walk in the direction of God’s Kingdom come and the promises of Easter.
The promises…
That Life is stronger than Death.
That Death does not have the final word.
That in the end, the power of Love will prevail over the love of power.

Lent reminds us we live in both places at the very same time.
Surrounded by the what is and yet, in faith…because of our faith…continuing to walk towards the what shall be.

May I offer this prayer…
Meet us where we are, O God, but leave us not there as we continue to walk through these days towards the promises of Easter. Amen.

In Clay Jars

Lent used to be a big deal.
Granted, not as big a deal as Advent as we get ready for Christmas, but it still registered on our radar screen. Lent is those 40 days, not counting Sundays, between Ash Wednesday on one end and Easter on the other. It was and is to be time of preparation for the celebration of Easter. The early Christian community used Lent as a time to teach and instruct converts who were then baptized into the Christian community early on Easter Sunday morning. After Christianity became the recognized religion of the realm, Lent became a time penance and reflection and introspection. Still focused on getting ready for Easter.

It used to be you gave up something for Lent.
Meat. Wine. Sweets.
More recently some people have found it more meaningful to add something for Lent.
Reading the Bible or a daily reflection.
Daily or weekly acts of charity.
Additional or more intentional time set aside for prayer or meditation.
When I was a child our family always gave us some type of food for Lent setting aside the money we saved to be used as a part of our Easter offering.

Maybe Lent still is a big deal in some places for some people.
But those places and people are dwindling in number and size.
Yet, even in our busyness and our moving away from liturgical times like this, the Christian calendar and church bulletin still say Lent. And, Easter still awaits on the horizon. And, because for me, and I hope for you as well, Easter is about more than baskets and bunnies and the arrival of spring and has something to do with life made new and full and this promise of God we name as resurrection, Lent is worth paying attention to and Easter is worth getting ready for.

So, after a month of snow storms and changed plans and our trip to Nicaragua, I finally found myself with a few moments this week to think about Lent and to look ahead to Easter. And to ask myself where I was and how I was and what I needed to do so I was ready to stand here in this spot in front of all of you on Easter Sunday morning. As I often do as I try to get a sense of my own spirit and to plan for Sunday mornings, I flip through and read my Bible. This week I found myself drawn to two very different passages. The first is from the Apostle Paul’s Second Letter to the Christian community in Corinth. In the midst of the struggles faced by that young Christian community seeking to embody and to live a different vision of what life and world might be like than the one offered by the accepted norms of the surrounding culture and by Pax Romana, the Apostle Paul wrote:
“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair.”

I think I found myself paying attention to this verse because I get the clay jars part.
Fragile. Chipped. Easily broken
The jar with duct tape over a hole.
Leaking, yet the only jar available for me to use.
Clay jars describe my life.
Some days more broken and chipped and leaking than on other days.
Yet every day, no matter the condition, with work to do. Living to do. Interactions with others. Every day with both responsibilities and opportunities. Some days I feel serviceable. Other days I am leaking like a sieve.

I have this treasure which is my life, my faith, my gifts, my convictions, my small glimpse of truth and of God’s vision for tomorrow, in this fragile, chipped, leaking clay jar which is my life.
I have…
You have…
We have this treasure in clay jars.

Then there was this other verse.
A counterbalance to the first.
From John’s Gospel where the author of the Gospel has Jesus saying:
“I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.”
Abundant life.
Wow.
Full. Rich. Meaningful. Purposeful.
Embracing deeply both joy and sorrow.
That sounds so different from the chipped, fragile, leaking clay pot of my life. But, somewhere, somehow wrapped up in that abundant life waits the promise of Easter.

And, maybe that is something of what Lent is about.
Living in that tension between those two verses.
Being honest about how we are.
And about what our lives look like and feel like.
Honest, at least with ourselves.
And, maybe, if we can, with the ones we love the most and who love us the most. Stripping away the the masks and the smiles and the expected perfection. The doing all we can to appear to others that we are anything, but fragile and chipped.
And, yet holding onto…
Not letting go of…
That promise of Jesus of what God intends for us and for all.

Now this is the part of the sermon when I am suppose to wisely tell you how to do that. How to live creatively and well in that tension. Or, what the three steps or the five steps or the twelve steps are to help you get you from here to there.
From chipped to polished.
From broken to whole.
From leaking like sieve to perfectly put together.
So, if that is your expectations, my apologies.
I can’t do that.
I am trying to figure it out just like you are trying to figure it out. But, if I can’t tell you the steps, maybe I can offer you some clues in the form of reminders then we can work together on figuring it out.

First, there is abundant life.
I don’t know exactly what it is or what it feels like, but sages and saints to say nothing of Jesus remind me it is there. And so I do my best to remember. I do my best to remind myself to aim in that direction even if I don’t exactly know the way. I hold onto that hope and promise which is more than optimism or wishful thinking or naivete.

Second, abundant life is plural, not singular.
My abundant life has something to do with your abundant life.
Somehow I think we figure it out together.
As disciples.
As a community.
As God’s people doing our best to find our way.

Third, gratitude has something to do with it.
The more we are able to live saying Thank you…
The more gratitude shapes and drives our daily living…
The closer we get to knowing and living what Jesus was talking about.

Finally, there is love.
I hesitate to use this word because it too easily gets misused or misconstrued. Yet here it is the only word to use. Love as intimacy and honesty which, each day, pushes deeper and further into the wonderful mess of the world as it is which God has entrusted to our care and keeping. Love in action which expresses itself as compassion and justice.

So, here we are in the middle of Lent.
With clay jars.
Chipped. Fragile. Leaking.
Doing our best to find our way to that promised Life meant for us and for all.

From Dust…

Today is Ash Wednesday.
The beginning of Lent.
The 40 days, excluding Sundays, prior to the celebration of Easter.
Dark crosses marked on foreheads with these words:
From dust you came. To dust you shall return.
My thinking spins beyond the traditional understanding of those words.

I am from dust.
And so are you.
The dust of the earth mixed with stardust spun into the uniqueness which is you.
And, me.
Earthbound.
Always.
Our lives intertwined with soil and rocks and trees and rivers.
Life from.
Life to.
Yet, with our head in the stars.
That we might dream.
And, imagine.
Always.
Of what might yet be.

Serious Stuff

So, this morning, these challenging (at least to me!) words from Matthew’s Gospel:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world, but forfeit their life? Or what will the give in return for their life?”
Jesus probably didn’t actually say this. The writer of Matthew’s gospel probably put these words in the mouth of Jesus as instruction to the early Christian community to whom he was writing. But, the image here is stark. Taking up your cross didn’t mean shouldering the burdens and challenges and sorrows that come with life as we know it which is how some today read and interpret and understand these verses. Those to whom these words were first addressed carrying your cross was a concrete and awful reality. The Roman authorities crucified not just Jesus. The crucified thousands. Those who were forced to carry their cross, literally, carried them on their way to their own execution.
Serious stuff if we take the Bible seriously.
So, what are we to do with passages like this?

Before you run for the doors or cover your ears;
And because some part of all this is to be good news and not guilt news;
Guidance and encouragement for who we might be and how we might live;
Let me tell you what I think this passage means.
The problem with Jesus which got him into trouble with the powers that be, both religious and political, was that his vision of the world was fundamentally different from theirs. He constantly pushed beyond the carefully prescribed and tacitly agreed upon social and religious and political boundaries in almost everything he said and did.

Instead of God being locked in the Temple and accessible only through prescribed rituals and sacrifices and religious leaders, he talked and taught about an intimacy with God. And referred to God using the word which means Daddy or Papa.
He touched and healed and included and shared meals with those who everyone else deemed as sinful or unclean or dangerous or aliens or enemies and told everyone else they should do the same and that if they didn’t they were turning their backs on God.
He talked about God’s Kingdom come. Not after you die or on some distant day, but God’s Kingdom come right here and right now. Any time and any place where compassion and kindness and welcome and hospitality are extended and received.
He talked about God’s Kingdom and not Rome’s empire.
He talked about the peace of God and not Pax Romana, and about peacemaking more than peacekeeping.
He talked about all having enough and all having a place in a time and place where most did not have enough and most did not have a place and there was little to no hope with the way things were that it would ever be different.
He talked about allegiance to God and not allegiance to Ceasar.
He said compassion was more important than following the rules.
He continued to speak up when they told him to be quiet.
He reached out to others when they told him to keep his hands to himself.

And all that is what got him into trouble.
And, in the end, because of politics and pressure and potential unrest, it he was forced to carry a cross.
That’s all well and good.
And all about Jesus.
But where does that leave you and me?

Here I think.
This passage is not about martyrdom, but about fearlessness.
It is not about self denial, but about self control.
It is not about asceticism, but about seeing how our lives might be lived in partnership with God and God’s ongoing work in the world.
Here is what I mean.
The values wrapped up in God’s Kingdom come;
The values and witness taught and testified to by Jesus come with a cost.
Hope comes with a cost.
Compassion comes with a cost.
Kindness comes with a cost.
Welcoming the stranger and the disenfranchised comes with a cost.
Peace comes with a cost.
New life comes with a cost.
A cost measured in terms of:
Time.
Energy.
Commitment.
Sorrow.
Hard work.
Frustration.
Finances.
Fatigue.
A cost measured in terms of your life and mine.

The question before us always is:
Are we willing to accept that cost?
Are we willing to spend ourselves on compassion?
Are we willing to be fearless in building hope?
Are we willing to risk ourselves or something of ourselves setting aside self interest for the sake of another? Are we willing to give up something; to say No to something so that another might, at least, have what is needed?
Are we willing to lose your life walking towards peace?

The witness of the Gospel is this.
If we do;
When we do;
Then, we will find our lives and begin to live.

Lent and the Commercial for Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Here we are one week away from Holy Week arguably the most important and most sacred time of the year for Christians. It is that week when we remember and re-enact the final week of Jesus’ life.

Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus’ going to Jerusalem to stand toe to toe with the religious and political forces of his day placing his vision of the Kingdom of God alongside the Roman Empire’s vision of kingdom; God’s peace alongside Pax Romana.

Maundy Thursday when Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples. That shared meal becoming the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for Christians.

Good Friday when Jesus was executed by the Roman authorities.

All leading up to the celebration of Easter.

For as important and meaningful as those days are, I approach them cautiously. Not because what took place during that week or what those events mean for us today are not important, but because, in my opinion, the language we commonly use in talking about those events and about what they mean is often misused or misunderstood.
We talk about Jesus dying for our sins…for your sins and mine.
We talk about the idea that for you and me to be accepted by God or loved by God, God required the sacrifice of an innocent victim – Jesus.
We talk about Jesus giving his life for us.
Underneath that way of thinking lays what scholars identify as the myth of redemptive violence; the premise that violence or another’s sacrifice is somehow necessary for our salvation.
All of which is the understanding with which I grew up.
And, which is still deeply ingrained in the language and imagery of not only Holy Week, but the larger Christian message. And, an understanding which, I have come to believe, is a misreading and a misunderstanding of the Biblical witness, and of who Jesus was…and is.
And, so I am careful.

And, yet…
I do have an understanding of and a belief in Jesus giving his life for us. Or, better yet…Jesus giving his life to us. Not so much as a sacrifice in the way it usually talked about in Christian circles, but, he gave his life for us in a way similar to the way a parent gives her or his life for their child.
In raising children, there are sacrifices yes…
But not because our children are bad and somehow in need of redemption, but our sacrifices are out of love, and in terms of time and dreams and the hopes we have for our children and for the future. We give life to our children and I understand Jesus giving his life for us and to us in this way.

And, I understand Jesus giving his life for us in the way you give something of your life for another.
The part of yourself you give when you listen to a friend.
The time you give when you teach a child.
The strength you give when you help another with food.
The hope you give when you rebuild a home.
The witness you give when you practice generosity.
The vision you give when you stand alongside those who are, too often left standing alone.
Jesus gave his life for us and to us in that way, as well.
His life…
His understanding of God…
His dream of God’s Kingdom come…
His vision of community and neighbor and who is included in the circle of God’s love.
All of that which was so much a part of what he taught and how he lived;
All of which was so wrapped up in his life and being.
This is the life he gave…
The life he offered to those who would take it.
And today, if we allow it and make room for it and believe that it might be so it becomes or can become a part of your life and mine.
Helping to make us both more human and more holy.
So we might not only live our lives, but give our lives;
And, pass on Jesus’ life…
To another.
That is what I understand the meaning of Holy Week to be about.

And, if that is so…
And, I am right…
Then this is where Lent meets the commercial for Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Maybe you have seen it.
The commercial highlights the reasons business and individuals should relocate to Ft. Lauderdale.
Several airports in the area.
Easy access to commercial shipping ports.
Beautiful weather.
Responsible government.
Low taxes.
And, it ends with this…
A local business person looking directly at the camera; directly at you and me and saying:
“After all, it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.”
Really???
To the extent that commercials like this are professionally researched and produced, that tag line is not a mistake or a “throw away” line, but reflects an attitude and way of thinking that is at play at least in the lives of those for whom the commercial is intended if not in the larger culture, as well.
But for those of us in the Christian community whose responsibility it is to allow the witness of the Bible and the words of Jesus to be a lens through which we see our lives and the larger communities and culture in which we live that attitude and way of thinking raises questions.
On one side is this:
After all, it is not what you make, it is what you keep.
And, on the other side is this…
Those who save their lives will lose it, and those who give their lives away will save them.

And so, a week away from Holy Week we are left to decide…
Which of those two is true?
Which of those two will shape who we are and how we live?

Lent and the Harvard Business Review

Let me begin with a quick survey…
How many of have already mailed your Lenten greeting cards to family and friends? If you have, did it include Lenten family picture and/or a letter highlighting family events since Lent last year? Anyone?
How many of you have already planned or are going to Lenten holiday parties? Have you sent your invitations or responded with your RSVPs?
No?
Not to make any of you feel guilty…
How many of you realize that on the Christian calendar it is the season of Lent?

Obviously, Lent does not have the same pizzazz as Advent which is when and how we get ready for Christmas. We don’t see Lenten decorations up in stores or in the community. We don’t get the boxes down from the attic and fill our home with Lenten decorations. We do not pull out our favorite Lenten music to listen to allowing it to evoke memories of Lents gone by.
Yet, here we are more than halfway through Lent, well on our way to Easter.

So, just as a reminder…
The season of Lent is the 40 days, excluding Sundays, that precede Easter. This year it began on February 13^th. Originally, Lent was the time set aside for those who were new to the Christian community to learn about the teachings of Jesus and to undergo an initiation into those communities who were doing their best to live the vision of God’s Kingdom come which they believed was not for someday, but for right here and right now. Later, as traditions developed, Lent became a time set aside for personal reflection and introspection. A period of time to intentionally deepen and sustain one’s faith which sometimes gets a bit frayed in the push and pull world in which we live. It was and is a time to do our best to be emotionally and spiritually ready for the celebration of Easter which, as we know, is about more than Easter eggs and Easter candy and Easter bunnies.

When I was growing up, Christians were encouraged to give up something for Lent. Dessert. Alcohol. A favorite food. Roman Catholics, I remember, were not to eat meat on Fridays during Lent. One year my family gave up drinking whole milk for Lent and instead mixed whole milk with powdered milk and the money we saved became our One Great Hour of Sharing offering. In more recent years, instead of giving something up, people were encouraged to add something during Lent. Not another appointment to your calendar or another should or ought to your list.
But something like…
15 minutes each day to read something that inspires you or which deepens your faith.
15 minutes set aside to write in your journal or to pray with some intentionality.
For some of us it may be 15 minutes when we turn off smart phones and i Pads and computers and pay undivided attention to where we are and to who we are with.

All of which is to say that Lent was and is serious business because…
This thing we call faith is not always easy and sometimes quite challenging. Figuring out how you take what we talk about in a place like this and translate it into how you live and act when you walk out these doors and into work or into school is often complicated. There is something about the values and the way of life that is reflected in words like gratitude and compassion and justice and peace and community that is serious business because that way of life often runs counter to the prevailing push and pull of the culture around us.
And, all of those things, if we take them seriously…
If we want them to be a part of who we are and how we live, don’t just happen any more than running a marathon just happens or becoming fluent in another language just happens.
It take time.
And practice.
And patience.
And trying.
And falling short.
And failing.
And starting over.
And trying again.
God, after all, is not a spoonful of sugar.
And, what God imagines for us and for all is not a quick fix solution.
God and what God intends is more like the long, hard work of building a relationship. And, relationships, as you know, are built day by day and week by week and year by year. After a while, adding up to a lifetime.

And, this is where Lent meets the Harvard Business Review.
One of the great things about technology and digital media is that we now have access to information and articles and news that I, at least, would otherwise, never see or read. One of those sources of information is the Harvard Business Review which is regularly updated multiple times each day on my i Pad. Not too long ago the headline of one of their articles caught my attention. I read:
Why Many CEOs Can’t Build Legacies Anymore.
The thesis of the article was that CEOs no longer have the time necessary to develop skills and a strategy for long term success. The push is for instantaneous results rather than long term growth. The focus is on maximum short term return on investment rather than a smaller return sustained over a long period of time. Unlike many of you, I do not live each day in that world and so cannot critique the accuracy of the article in the same way that you might, but the overall point of the article rings true for me in terms of the larger culture in which we live.

We live surrounded by the push for right now.
To get it done.
To do it quickly.
To do this one thing and then move on to whatever it is that might come next.
To be in it for the long haul…
To do the hard, pain-staking work that is able to be sustained over time…
To start and to not stop and to not give up…
Is not the mind set with which most of us begin each day.

Do you see the tension?
Between what we experience and live with each day and what we call the journey of faith? And, maybe, that is why there is something just a bit hard and off-putting about Lent? The journey towards God, whatever you imagine when you hear that word…
Is not a walk in the park or a one shot deal;
But an intentional day-in/day-out journey;
An intentional day-in/day-out decision to orient your life in the direction of that Something More that has something to do with our bravest hopes and our deepest desires.

A journey measured going forward one small step at a time, but often understood only when we have gone far enough to turn and to look back to see how far we have come.

There is something about faith that is always about Lent.
Always about being on our way towards understanding the meaning and the message and the impact of Easter.

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Several things I believe: