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Tag Archive - Lent

Good Friday: Death…Awaiting Resurrection

April 10, 2009 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

Painting: White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall

How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I rejoice fully in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death?

Yes, Lord, I have to die—with you, through you, and in you—and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess…. I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen. (A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee by Henri Nouwen)

NO TV: 36 Days and Counting

April 1, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Technology-Social Media with 16 Comments

My wife and I have been talking for months about whether or not we should get rid of our TV. And it’s a slow process. It first began by reducing from two DVR’s to one. Then it continued with cutting all of our cable but the bare minimum/basics so we can keep the one DVR to record the shows we like. Then my wife said, “Let’s give up TV for Lent.” And I immediately agreed.

This is not a big deal for a lot of you. Many of you don’t have TV’s, or you watch the bare minimum anyways. But for some of you, it would be a big deal. And it was a big deal for us, but an easy decision.

Here are some reasons…

We found ourselves coming home and immediately turning the TV on, even if we weren’t watching it. That was scary.
We noticed our 20mos old daughter always asking to watch her shows (Dora, Signing Time, etc.)
We felt like we were in a big transition in life and needed the quiet to pray, hear God’s voice and discern wisely.
We had lots to do that wasn’t getting done.
We felt exhausted all the time and watching TV seem to perpetuate that.
Lots of people we admire don’t own, or watch TV (The Saddington’s, The Steward’s, my cousins, my brother and sister-inlaw, etc.). We kept looking around and noticed that there was a correlation between those who didn’t have a TV, or watched it very limited, and the effectiveness of how they spent their time, their success, as well as the joy they seemed to have.
It’s hard to really maintain a healthy level of relational connectivity and intimacy in our marriage if the TV is always on.
We wanted to read more (our Bibles, as well as just our novels, theology, therapy texts, etc.).
We wanted to set a better example for each other, especially our daughter.
This is the testing ground to help us determine if we should cut cable completely and possibly get rid of our TV, or at least put it away.

And 36 Days In….

Continue Reading…

Lent: The Beginning of a Journey-Do You Participate?

February 25, 2009 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Growing up in a non-denominational Bible church as I did, I had no concept of Ash Wednesday. Rather, that was something my Catholic friends did, but not Protestants, and certainly not Evangelical Bible church goers.

It was not until about 1999 that I attended my first Ash Wednesday service at a Lutheran Church, where my friend was a youth pastor. I remember to this day being very nervous at the prospect of going. What would happen? What did they do? Did I have to get the ashes on my forehead?

But that service was a real turning point for me, and marked the beginning of a real transformation in how I celebrated the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I had always grown up just going to the Easter service where I celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And of course, that aspect is vital to our faith, and is in fact the pivotal event on which our faith is built. According to Paul in I Corinthians 15, that if we don’t believe in the resurrection, and if Christ did not rise from the dead, then our faith is basically in vain, and we are to be pitied.

But there was something mysterious and life changing as I started my Easter season, not with resurrection Sunday, but with Ash Wednesday, where I marked the beginning of Christ’s journey of suffering to the cross. Those 40 days to Easter (not counting Sundays) was a time of intense reflection….of ups and downs, but each day constantly moving us closer and closer to Christ’s death.

As Christ’s crucifixion was the culmination of many events along his journey of suffering and betrayal, Ash Wednesday places us as Christians on a journey as well. It puts us on a 40 day journey to reflect and explore our sin, our suffering, our trials, our joys, our mountains and valleys. And as the pastor or priest puts the ashes on our forehead, the words are a reminder to us that:

“Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

It is a reminder of our position or status before God. That we were created out of the ground of the earth, and that one day we shall return. Those are sobering words. But those words are words that set us on a journey for 40 days to really bring us closer to the miracle event of resurrection.

There is no resurrection without death. And as we are reminded of our own mortality, we know as Christians that resurrected life awaits us. But do we really ever think and ponder and pray about these things, or are we so quick to move to Easter.

The journey from Ash Wednesday…to Maunday Thursday, to Good Friday, and then to Black Saturday is quite sobering. We start with a reminder that we are but dust….we move to the betrayal of the Last Supper…then to the dark Friday of Crucifixion…and finally to Saturday….silence. As Christ is in the tomb. We know as Christians that Christ will rise on Sunday, but think what that experience must have been like for the followers of Christ and his disciples. All of their hopes and dreams dashed….death, and then silence. This Lenten journey gives us the opportunity to reflect on the journey of Christ and his followers, and for us to really take more seriously those events.

When I do come to Easter it is a most amazing day….it is most amazing because I have been on the journey, and the culmination of any journey is only worth something because we have been on it. To simply move us to Easter without reflection on Christ’s life, suffering, betrayal, crucifixion and death, is to rob us of the importance of that resurrection Sunday.

There are many traditions that do and that do not celebrate the Lent Season. I grew up without it, but I am now thankful that I am a part of a community and tradition that celebrates it. The Lent season has brought me more meaning to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ than it had in years past. I think that as Christians we often take for granted many things, as we sometimes too often have the luxury of hindsight and history. But for the first followers of Christ they did not have this luxury. And sometimes I wonder if we too often take for granted the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lent journey that I think can make our Easter, our life…more meaningful.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near–a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from old, nor will be again after them in ages to come……Joel 2:1-2.

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