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

#LetsTalk about mental health and homelessness

She is a mystery.  She runs a footrace from the corner of Waterloo and Union but can’t catch Godot.  She bottles a letter every day that is carried away from the shore by the rising tides but does not reach the other side of the harbour.  She is Thunder Road’s saviour and we waste our summers (and winters too) praying in vain for her to rise up from The Village’s streets.  I’ve never met her but I am supposed to expect her and to wait for her today.  As soon as she arrives I need to let Mick know that she is there for him.  Mick does not know her name.  He has not met her.  He does not know what she looks like, how old she is, or what she will do when she arrives.  She is coming, though.  She is coming for him.  She is coming to make everything better.

Advent 2017: An unlikely joy

Jesus came to our world and brought with him the offer of restoration, as we saw in Advent 1,* and of righteousness, which was highlighted by Advent 2.  With these offers, Jesus fixes us and forgives us.  There is an obvious reaction to such action, and it became apparent during Advent 3.  Our response to restoration and forgiveness is joy.  Much like its precursors, though, joy is something that comes as the result of God’s initiative, rather than our own effort. 

Advent 2017: Hope in the Shadow

A hint of restoration appeared as we meditated through Advent 1.  This hint should nudge us to a question: Why restoration?  Advent 2 answers that question.  Restoration happens to make way for righteousness.  That righteousness shows itself so prominently in the Advent 2* readings makes sense.  We are anticipating Jesus’ arrival and the reason Jesus arrived was to make us – you and me – righteous.