Season of Lent Week 4 - Repentance: Turning and Becoming (2)

Last week we looked at the idea of repentance, the act of turning away from doing things our way and embracing God’s Kingdom through Jesus. This week I want to look at the larger context of that dynamic - who we become through the process.

Recently the elders and I walked through a passage in Matthew 18 and a phrase jumped out at me - highlighted below:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-4 ESV)

Jesus is calling us here to enter the Kingdom of heaven and in order to do that we need to “turn and become like children.” Sin ages us; it makes us act independent in inappropriate ways - ways that don’t involve God or community. Think of children who are forced to “grow up too fast,” usually victims of some form of abuse that forces them to look after themselves (and/or siblings) from a young age. Perhaps this was your experience.

Sin forces us to age in inappropriate ways. In one way or another, we have all learned this and need to be made young again so that Jesus and the foolish offer of the gospel of the Kingdom of God can make sense to us.

Chesterton put it best:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.”^[1]

As we journey through Lent, take time to become young again. Cultivate vulnerability, wonder, slowness, repetition, creativity and play. Otherwise, the foolishness of Good Friday and Easter Sunday may have no practical relevance to your life.

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^[1] G. K. Chesterton, ‘The Ethics of Elfland,’ Orthodoxy (House of Stratus, 2001), p. 41.

Season of Lent - Week 3 - Repentance: Turning and Becoming (1)

If someone asked you, “What was the gospel that Jesus preached?” how would you respond? I was surprised at my ignorance when I first considered this question. I was used to seeing Jesus and his life primarily through the lens of how they impacted the Cross and the debt that was paid there. To my sorrow, I didn’t pay much attention to what Jesus actually taught. In the gospel of Mark we see one aspect of our answer:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15 ESV)

For Jesus, the “gospel” was the announcement of the availability of the Kingdom of God through trust in Him. This kind of announcement requires repentance because of all the other kingdoms we have our hands into (mainly our own).

The meaning of “repentance” in the New Testament comes down to two senses: a change of mind and a sense of remorse.^[1] Jesus is inviting us to “re-think our thinking” about our lives in light of the fact that in Him, the Kingdom of God is available to all persons. The extent to which we are committed to other kingdoms above his Kingdom means our turning will involve regret and what Paul called “godly sorrow” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

As one teacher paraphrased it, “"Reconsider your strategy for life in view of the fact that you can now live under the rule of the heavens, the invisible reality of God immediately accessible to you by trust."^[2]

This week during Lent, take time to “reconsider your strategy for life” in light of who Jesus is, what he has done and what he is doing. God’s intimate holy presence is closer than the air we breathe! Let us turn away from “making things happen” and press into Jesus. Then we can let go of outcomes and agendas and be free to experience his voice and presence in new ways together.

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^[1] Walter M. Dunnett, “Repentance,” in Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Accessed online 3/14/19 at https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/repentance.html

^[2] Dallas Willard, “Kingdom of God Teaching Series,” 1990.

Season of Lent - Week 2 - Desert Spaces

(I am writing a series of short articles for our church newsletter as we journey through the season of Lent.)

Last week we looked at what the Lord might be asking us to give up for Lent. This week I want to continue to reflect a bit on this process. Whenever we give something up or have something taken from us (i.e., suffering), I want to suggest that a desert space is created within us. These spaces are dry, arid spaces that make us uncomfortable and thirsty. We respond to these desert spaces in various ways - we might double-down in other areas, trying to reassert a feeling of control; we might throw ourselves into self-indulgence (food, lust, shopping, etc); we might throw ourselves into spiritual practices in a misguided attempt to get God to respond and restore things, or we might lose heart and give in to despair.

Part of the purpose of this season is to intentionally follow our Lord into the desert. I invite you to embrace this process and not run from it. Resist trying to numb the experience. There are only certain things you can learn from the Lord in the desert, where the silence is deafening and the landscape harsh and painful. The desert can become a place where we find out who we really are, and who our God is.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. (Luke 4:1-2 NIV)

It is possible that there are already places of lack and barrenness in your life and you don’t need to “add” any more. If this is the case for you, don’t feel pressure to start cutting out things (unless the Lord specifically puts his finger on something, then by all means!). Your invitation is to pay attention to the desert spaces you already have and not run from them or try to make them go away.

Take the time to explore your desert spaces -

What does it feel like?

How do you typically respond to it?

How is the Lord inviting you to respond to it in new ways?

What temptations do you face there?

What are you most afraid of?

Talk to the Lord and some safe friends about what you discover.

Desert Places (poem by Robert Frost).

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less--

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars--on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Season of Lent - Week 1 - Introduction

(I am writing a series of short articles for our church newsletter as we journey through the season of Lent.)

Historically, Christians have sought to intentionally align their lives with the large rhythms of God’s story revealed in the Scriptures. One of the ways this has been done is developing the “Christian Year,” which is an attempt to think through the yearly seasons with the story of the Bible in mind. Within this calendar are some things familiar and not so familiar to us: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Ordinary Time etc. Our ancestors in the faith discovered that the Scriptures become more deeply ingrained in us as we align our lives with these larger categories.

The season of Lent refers to a 40 day (6 week) period leading up to the Easter celebration of Jesus’ resurrection (this year: March 6 – April 21, 2019). It is linked to the period of 40 days of fasting before Jesus began his public ministry.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2 ESV)

During the first three centuries of the church, Lent developed gradually into a process of preparation for new Christians (called Catechumens) to receive baptism on Easter. This involved a focus on prayer, giving and fasting. As Lent gets us in touch with the spirit of fasting we ask, what might I need to give up in order to give more of myself to God? Obviously sin falls into this category and we need to be diligent in putting sin off with the Lord’s help. Here, however, we are talking about more “neutral” things like drinking coffee, checking Facebook and enjoying sweets.

Since it is far too easy to become legalistic we want to remember that if we give something up it is in order to give ourselves to something better. For example, if you cut out TV for Lent (yes, that’s possible), give yourself to creating or celebrating works of beauty; if you give up social media, give yourself to making more of an effort to spending “face time” with others or reading a good book; if you give up sweets, take time to exercise and get outside. Hurry will ruin all efforts to be reflective and intentional, so we need to be aware of how that is infecting us.

Lent has much to offer us as we prepare to celebrate and remember the redemption that has come to us through Christ. In the coming weeks, we will be thinking together and meditating on these things as a body.

I encourage you to ask these two questions in prayer:

Lord, what fills my life that keeps me distracted and unable to hear or see you?

How can I be more attentive to you during this season?

O God, help us to use this season of Lent

to examine our attachments,

and to sense where You invite us

to live more simply and deeply.

Shine the light of Your love

into the private corners of our lives

where we have acquired so much clutter

that it has begun to restrict our freedom.

Grant us the strength to free ourselves

from appetites and needs that drive us

into taking, having and wanting

more than we need or have time for.

Teach us that in letting go

we become free, rather than deprived,

generous rather than covetous,

and spacious rather than restricted.

We offer You our Lenten observance,

and today we place our feet

on the road to Easter, and walk

the Way that You have walked before us. Amen.

(written by Ann Siddall)