Lent Devotional Series, Good Friday: It is Finished

The Cross of Fitzpatrick

Today recalls a moment of collision.  Humility clashes with cowardice.  Authority bangs against power.  Righteousness crashes into corruption.  The women mourn and witness a murder and the sheep-men scatter as their shepherd hangs.   The executioner begins to understand.  A man waiting for the Kingdom boldly prepares for a burial.  Then the moment of collision happens.  The thunder claps, the lights go out, the creator dies, and evil wins the day.  Or so it seems today.  But…

We did not understand the creator-God’s promise.  So we mourn with the women and scatter with the men.  We missed the truth.  Everything is different.

We have a choice to make.

Isaiah 50:4-9a  •  Psalm 31:9-16  •  Philippians 2:5-11  •  Mark 14:1-15:47

Lent Devotional Series, Fourth Sunday: A Battle Between Serpents

Moses by Benjamin West,1793

Some of our neighbours are terminal.  The symptoms are severe and we know that death is about to make its last turn before staring our neighbour directly in the eye in a contest it will inevitably win.  Then we look at ourselves.  We are sick too.  It is a nagging sickness that seems to have no cure.  We are also terminal but the symptoms are mild enough that we can normally go about our days even though we know that something is not right, or knowing that we are out of sorts, or even knowing that something should be different.  Every so often we get a glimpse of a miracle cure that comes seemingly out of nowhere.   We doubt it will work so we try to create our own miracle.  We fail, we wretch, and we take another foggy step toward our death.  The consequence of sin has become acute.  

Lent Devotional Series, Third Sunday: A foolish option

Cleansing of the Temple, detail by Pieter Aertsen
17th Century

For some people I know, my being a Christian is an odd quirk.  It doesn’t make me anathema to them but it also doesn’t seem to make them think I am a particularly good person.  It, among other things, is what makes me a bit odd but still more-or-less likeable.  I remember walking into a conversation one day that one of these people – I’ll call him Jimmy – was having with a mutual friend, who is also a Christian.  As soon as I walked into the room Jimmy looked at me and said, “Can you honestly tell me that you believe in angels and a devil?”  He had a smirk and a curious laugh as he spoke but it was not to mock me.  It communicated more that he thought these were beyond credulity.  I like talking to Jimmy because I can be frank about what I believe with him and we can have a serious conversation about it but when the conversation gets too intense we can easily slide into a chat about Doctor Who and he’ll let me proselytize again in a few weeks.  “I do,” I replied to Jimmy.  “But you need to realize that isn’t nearly so weird as the fact that I believe a guy who died came back to life after a few days.  Angels are way easier than that.”

  

“Well, I suppose,” said Jimmy.  “So... David Tennant or Matt Smith?”

“Foolish question.  Tennant.  Of course!”

Lent Devotional Series, Second Sunday: Two Stories

Get Behind Me, Satan!, James Tissot

Faith is a crucial piece to the Christian walk.  A truism, for sure.  Faith is also a frustrating piece to the Christian walk.  Perhaps not faith, but at least the way some Christians talk about faith, with statements like Just have faith or God has a plan and things will work out.  I am certain that God does have a plan and I am equally certain that things will ultimately “work out” but I am nervous when our statement of faith gets tied up with such ideas.  My adverb in the last sentence was intentional – ultimately.  Today though, when I need faith, is penultimate.  Today, in the penultimate moment, things ultimately working out may not seem that helpful to me.  A lot of horrendous things happen on the way to the ultimate and, for all intents and purposes, it looks like things typically do not work out.  What does faith mean during these moments?

Lent Devotional Series, First Sunday: The Impossible Cousins

The First Temptation—
 "Command that these stones be made bread."
William Blake

Sin is top of mind.  A good creation exists all around us.  A very good creation peers back at us from a phone selfie setting or, perhaps even, a mirror.  Our status before God – his creation, his servant, his image – should be without question.  Then we began to question it.  We wanted a different status so we changed it.  We rejected who we are and who God is.  We were created to be one thing but began to pretend we were something more and so we became something less.  Sin crowded out who we were, who we are.  Grace crowds out sin.

Lent Devotional Series: Ash Wednesday and a Stomach in Knots

Ash Wednesday by Karl Spitzweg

Today marks the beginning of Lent.  Lent always seems like a new thing in my life because, although I was raised in the church, Lent was not part of my tradition growing up.  I knew Ash Wednesday was a day on the calendar and Palm Sunday was noted on the appropriate Sunday morning, but that was about as far as it went.  Truth be told, however, I was introduced to Lent about two decades ago by an Anglican friend and I began practicing it about 13 years ago, which is a bit more than a third of my life.  Looking at Lent always gives me a tiny knot in my stomach.  On one side, my Baptist upbringing still whispers in my ear that this sort of thing seems like outward religion, while the other side whispers that I need to step up my game and give up something really good this year.  The only way to remove the first knot is to replace it with the second and vice versa.  The Ash Wednesday readings gave me three alternative ways to eliminate the knots.  The knot is removed with a reminder of what the purpose of fasting actually is.  The knot is removed with a warning that fasting has a significant limitation.  The knot is removed with a blunt statement that I am in fact a sinner.  A sinner saved, most certainly, but a sinner nonetheless.         

Scripture Readings:
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17;Isaiah 58:1-12;Psalm 51:1-17;2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10;Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21