Skip to main content

Lent 2018

This year Easter falls on April 1st. We invite you and your neighbors to join us in about a month and a half as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection isn't just about a guy who was dead, coming back to life. It is after all, not the first time someone was brought back to life; there are both Old Testament and New Testament examples of those who were dead and were raised. The resurrection of Jesus though is special, unique. Paul tells us that this resurrection was of God himself, without any other agent and because of this, Paul tells us that the resurrection of Jesus is the basis or evidence of our hope in the gospel. If Jesus has not been raised, we are the most pitiable of all men. The resurrection then is one of the critical moments, one of the critical truths of our faith. 

The resurrection though only comes – only can come after the death of Jesus. This death was both horrible and beautiful. Horrible in its method; beautiful in the love it reveals and the rejoicing it prepares. Jesus's death is the culmination of his faithful life to God. In the garden we find that Jesus would like to have avoided this death but at the same time he says, "not my will, but your will be done." This is the key to Jesus's life and the place of his death as part of that life. It is the capstone, the finishing of a life that was focused solely on the will of God.  

The will of God was to reconcile the world to himself, which he did through the final death of Jesus, following a life of perfect obedience and faithfulness. God loves us and while we "were yet sinners," Christ died for us because God wants us – wants you – with him because that life is the best life for you. God seeks to bless, to heal, to cleanse, to restore. 

Before Easter, before remembering the resurrection, we have an opportunity to stop, to reflect, to consider why it was that Jesus had to die. What was it that caused God to have Jesus lay down his life for us? In short, we were and are that cause. Our lives are not always lived in the same faithfulness toward God as Jesus's life was. We have separated ourselves from God by our own pride, our own meanness, our own selfishness. Having separated ourselves from God, we have no way to set ourselves right; to fix the breach between God and us. Our separateness from God causes or results in separateness from each other and so we find that we haven't caused only one breach, but multiple breaches and we struggle to repair these breaches and find that we cannot fully do this. Jesus died to repair all of those breaches, between God and us, and others and us. 

Reflection prior to Easter is not limited to moroseness, to silently beating ourselves up for being "bad," to feel the burden we have given ourselves. Reflection prior to Easter also includes how we might move forward from where we are. Are there relationships we can heal, emotions we might soothe, others we might lift up? Having admitted to ourselves our role in bringing about the death of Jesus, we can sneak a glance at the resurrection and grace those around us with a bit of resurrection right now. Fasting is something that is often associated with the time before Easter – and so some will "give up" something during this period. Giving up something, denying ourselves intentionally so that we might join Jesus in his giving up of himself – even just a little bit can be a very shaping exercise. This is most effective if in giving that thing up, we transfer the time, the money, and energy into helping others, giving of ourselves truly in the service of others. As Paul tells us, in dying to ourselves, we look forward to resurrection with Jesu. Another, slightly different idea during this period is to not give something up, but to begin something new or to redirect our lives toward greater imitation of Jesus's love and faithfulness. Have you wanted to pray more regularly, more intentionally? Want to get those extra coats out of the closet and to the shelter? This period is an excellent time to make these adjustments to become more like Jesus and in these small ways of dying to ourselves, we point toward the promised resurrection offered to all persons. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Passover, The First Born, Abraham, and You

Israel has been in captivity in Egypt, Moses has completed his contests with Pharaoh, and the People of Israel have been expelled from Egypt. The death of Egyptian firstborn children and livestock has compelled their removal into the wilderness. At the end of Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of the Angel of Death passing by the homes of Jews on the night the Egyptian firstborn children were killed. Notably, they were spared if in a house with blood around the door.  The Passover is established for Israel herself, including their slaves who have been circumcised. If a sojourner wants to celebrate the Passover with you, he can after he circumcises all males with him. I suspect that pretty much eliminated any visitors participating. In chapter 13, the protocols include redeeming Israel's firstborn. In this discussion, God says your firstborn belongs to God, and you must redeem your firstborn or you must kill it. God has redeemed Israel's firstborn by the blood...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wineskins II

       In chapter 16 of Matthew, Peter ‘makes the great confession’ - Jesus he says is the Son of the Living God. At Covenant, when someone wants to become a member or to be baptized, we ask them who Jesus is and we expect this response. Peter is correct when he says this, but it is not clear that Peter (or the other disciples) understood the ramifications of his statement. Following Peter’s statement we find a series of incidents that make us wonder just how much Peters actually believed what he had said.      In the first instance, Jesus compares Peter to Satan. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem and there he will die. Peter exclaims that he will not let that happen; Jesus will not be killed. Peter is expecting great things from Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God on behalf of Israel and he cannot fit Jesus dying into his hope for a greater Israel under this Messiah. This cannot happen, he reasons. Jesus’s response is a harsh re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Faith to Faith

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (Romans 1.16-17, ESV) There are various renderings and understandings of the phrase as it is used here, "faith for faith." Both words for faith derive from pistis, with the first being pisteos (genitive) and the second, pistin (accusative) . Faith, we are told, begins in faith and leads to faith. The import of this origin and fulfillment is found in the next sentence above, the righteous shall live by faith (genitive). We might word this as "already held or possessed faith will result in or lead to faith. As it is written, the one who has faith will parlay that faith into a salvific faith. Faith held by the believer will lead the believer to greater or more complete faith, resulting in her s...
Post a Comment
Read more