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We begin our Lenten Series on the Biblical Stations of the Cross. Today’s central passage is Luke 2:39-46, Jesus praying in the Garden. A highlight of the service includes the baptism of Wade Severns.

Misdirected Piety, Matthew 6:1-6,16-20

Lent is as important to the faithful as it is to the believer who has strayed. Lent reminds the faithful follower not to display his or her faithfulness as a badge of honor. The very idea flies in the face of humility and gratitude. Boasting negates the devotion it would have us believe it achieved. Lent has us focus on Christ, his suffering, and our yearning toward Christ-likeness. But, it is a fact that we can feign or even engage in suffering for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. Misdirected is a nice word for such piety.

I have a friend who says that he has always wished he could be a former Marine. He has never wanted to go through the rigors of becoming a Marine; he just wants to be known as a former Marine. His quip is not only a left-handed compliment to the Marine Corps, it also sheds light on the one who wants to be known as dedicated to God. Dedication that focuses the spotlight on us was never dedication to God.

So, “beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them” (v 1). That is timely advice for us during the season of Lent. The wanderer who returns to God will probably be sufficiently humbled by the process to stay humble during the process, but what of the faithful? What of those who welcome Lent even as they welcome Advent? One cannot be puffed up in their journey toward Christ-likeness, for the closer they get the more clearly they will see the one who humbled himself, taking upon himself the form of a servant, even unto death on the cross.

What glory was there in the betrayal, the mock trial, the scourging, the nakedness, the pain, the public humiliation? To boast in the glory of the cross is to see the irony of the suggestion. We are humbled by the cross, humbled all the more as we come closer to the cross and the Christ who died there. Shall we boast in that journey? Dare we draw attention to ourselves in light of Jesus’ magnificent suffering? No. Turn from us as we return to God. Our righteousness is as filthy rags.

In stark contrast Jesus says that a right understanding of fasting and giving and praying will have us engage in such acts of devotion in secret. This is the test of our devotion – done in secret, known only to God. It seems a waste at first, a waste like anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. Think what could have been gained with the perfume. Think what could have been gained by acts of devotion done in the spotlight. It was the pastor/hymn-writer Isaac Watts who gave us the great lines to sing in worship, “My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride” and “Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God.”

While Lent may call us to public confession and congregational humility, it calls us equally to private devotion, to new and deeper commitments that can only remain at that depth if kept in secret. This is our personal salvation. This is our personal walk with God. This is Christ in us – the deep commitments made only to God and known only to God. They form us from within, producing a glow of which we are unaware.

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. 

-Isaac Watts, 1707

 

Reconciled to God, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

We have a tough time sorting out faithfulness, sin, persecution, and blessing. There are some styles of worship and concepts of Christianity that see life’s difficulties as evidence of sin in the individual and weakness in their faith. The continuation of such thinking has servants of God experiencing ease, prosperity, and comfort as evidence of God’s blessing and God’s way of saying, well done.î Christianity of that sort must ignore Lent and much of St. Paul’s writings to stay in business.

Paul’s way of describing God’s call to – Return to me – is to use the phrase and the image of being reconciled to God (5:20). Now, says Paul, is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!î (6:2). With reconciliation to God addressed, Paul proceeds to describe his life as a Christ-follower. What we might expect to be a list of resultant blessings turns out to be a heads-up.

Paul lists, as personal Christ-following experiences, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger. Some might say, ìWe have that already. Why go through the returning to God disciplines of Lent if, having turned, life isn’t noticeably better? We turn back to God for God’s sake, and for the sake of God’s kingdom and God’s desires for the people of earth. We return to God so that a reconciled people might worship God. We do not turn back to God to make our lives easier.

We observe Lent so that our Christ-following might be renewed, restored, and reoriented to its proper focus. Paul explained in 6:3, ìWe are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way. (6:4). But difficulties still come. Having turned or returned to God, we are able to face the difficulties with endurance, purity, and righteousness. All of these come from God, and everything is seen with new eyes. When we are in proper alignment with God we see the sufferings listed as what happens when we swim upstream against the wisdom of this world. We cannot be that kind of servant with a posture of having turned our back to God.

Lent reorients and emboldens us with humility and a proper understanding of the life and truth and joy that is in Jesus who is our example and whose Spirit dwells in us. Lent reacquaints us with the suffering, humiliation, and false accusations that Jesus (our model) incurred as he embodied the Good News.
Lent calls us to a returning that gives us a new basis for embracing and processing life, a new understanding of meaningful life. Lent reminds us that we may have become too accustomed to a life that seeks comfort, pays dearly for entertainment, and looks at the teachings of Christ with the same sideways glance and skepticism that the world does. Lent reminds us that our sin, as personal as it is, is not just a personal matter. We are obliged to be worshipers of God, disciples of Jesus, and a light to those around us who might otherwise stumble in the dark.

Paul warns that people will not understand our truth, our joy, or our poverty. But we must understand it, and Lent helps us to do so today, and to the glory of God.
We give thanks that through the suffering of Christ we are reconciled to God.
Let Christ be seen in us.

Psalm 51:1-17: A Clean Heart

The point of this passage is not difficult to discern. Verse 17 is the summation: ìThe sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.    The strength of our spirit is often seen as our first line of defense and the ultimate source of our victory in any sort of battle. Here the psalmist calls for our spirits to be broken. Such vulnerability as a lifestyle is difficult to imagine, but this passage imagines in us a new and right spirit (v 10), God’s holy spirit (v 11), and a willing spirit (v 12). The bases are covered. Our orientation is turned toward God, secure in God, returned to God and God’s way of seeing the world. The psalmist refers to this process as a cleansing (v 2), a purging (v 7), and a washing (v 7). All result in a clean heart (v 10).   This is a thorough cleansing in which all things are made new. Lent may be the starting point, but this change is not seasonal. It is not an experiment. In the middle of this psalm and in the middle of the process it suggests, the joy of God’s salvation is restored. For many, this would be nothing short of a miracle. For our relationship to God to be rescued from the mundane, for our Christianity to be more than a political issue, for God’s salvation to put our sin and struggle on God’s screen and off of ours, this would be joy of the deepest sort. The Lenten season exposes the darkness and heaviness of our spirit, but to what light or for what purpose?

The goal of all this is to put us into a position of praise – praise in our corporate worship and praise in our daily lives. What sacrifice would it take to move us from this darkness of struggle and stumbling to the light of joy? This season will eventually answer that question. There is sacrifice, but Jesus is the one who will make it. Our part in it is a broken spirit: a spirit broken enough to admit our helplessness; a spirit broken enough to see the darkness we have become accustomed to; a spirit broken enough to believe that Jesus’ sacrifice just might be our hope.    Our determined spirit is not our first line of defense. Our tough spirit is not the source of our ultimate victory in the battles we face. Turn it all upside down; return it all to God. It is a broken spirit, broken in the face of fear and frustration, that does the trick – broken, vulnerable, humble, given over fully to God. This is counter-intuitive. Such a turning is seen as naive and irresponsible. The concept of a broken spirit ignores our strength; it embraces rather than erases our weakness; it is the thinking of some other world.

It is the thinking of some other kingdom, one that Lent reminds us of. Turning, or re-turning, of this magnitude is a miracle. Can we really speak of miracles in the reality of our world and our time? The Lenten season can take us, in the last portion of the journey, from relying on our hardened, experienced spirit, to final release and reliance on the Spirit of God in us. It is a miracle, but our lying face down before God will make this renewed spirit look normal. It is a rational first line of defense and a reliable ultimate source of victory.   The Lenten path, even with its cross, is the Way to the joy of salvation.

Have mercy, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

 

 

Isaiah 58:1-12

Lenten Trumpets   In this passage of scripture, Isaiah is instructed to be God’s trumpet, sounded to wake the people from their half-hearted worship, half-hearted because they are doing the Sunday part of worship but not the Monday-Saturday part. Worship, God says, has become something that serves our own interests. (v 3) The accusation clouds the sun of our Sunday. The evidence brought forth to support God’s case presses us down and casts a shadow on all we would call success.    We oppress our workers, quarrel and fight, tighten the bonds of injustice, withhold our bread from the hungry, and ignore the homeless. These truths point to the other half, the missing half of our half-hearted worship. This passage of scripture calls us to sackcloth and ashes, and for a bowing of the head in shame and repentance. We cannot ignore or fail to acknowledge that the issues raised are the issues of our national politics. These issues are the issues of our congregational budgets. They shed light on our individual and family budgets, our to-do lists, and our understanding of neighbor. These are the issues that distort our Sunday songs and prayers.

 

God instructs the prophet Isaiah, ìDo not hold back!î (v 1).   But the Lenten trumpets do not seal our doom. Instead, they awaken us to the necessary points of turning. The term ìturning pointî means something to us. This list of accusations can be a list of turning points, of ìre-turningî points. The weight of Lenten grey and gloom, of Lenten honesty and guilt rightly brings us to our knees, but we do not have to be crushed by the weight.    Worship that turns us and leads us in returning to God, and Godís desire for justice and mercy for and among the poor and oppressed, is the whole-hearted worship God desires and deserves. It is the only approach to God that can confidently be termed worship. God said this through the prophet Isaiah. The season of Lent stops our self-centered rushing around and unstops our self-focused ears. We speak of the relevance of worship while God speaks of its acceptability. We speak of worshipís connection with culture, and God speaks of worshipís disconnect with justice, mercy, and human dignity. Turn. Return. Quarreling over issues of health, hunger, and poverty is not addressing those issues (v 4). Quarreling and fighting exposes our half-heartedness.

 

The turning to God that the Lenten season would facilitate changes the scene drastically. Sharing our food with the hungry, opening our houses to the homeless, covering the naked with clothes and dignityóthis turning will cause light to break forth like the dawn and the springing up of healing (V 8). God will guide us in the timing, strategy, and focus of it all. Such turning will result in the meeting of needs of parched places and the rebuilding of places ruined by warís greed and fear and cruelty. Worship that honors and reflects Godís embracing of the poor will bring about a new normalcy for generations to come.   But clouds roll inónot clouds of refreshing rain, but clouds of fear. We need the food. We need the economic and political structure that we associate with freedom. We need the security that forces us into oppressing barriers and profiling and guardedness. And our worship loses half of its heart, and the weeping that should be ours, is Godís.   Then comes Lent with its trumpets and tears, and hope of returning to God turns blackness toward grey. God, who would be worshiped, we turn our hearts to youand ask for your guidance into wholeness.

 

A Word about our Lenten Series:

The Lenten season has always inspired many people to create everything from poems, art and music to a completely new direction in their lives.  This Lenten season Tabernacle will be exploring many of those creations in the hope of inspiring you to compose in a medium that is natural for you.   The paintings in the Sanctuary are of the Biblical Stations of the Cross.  The artist, Grieg Leach, completed them in 2010.  They will help us to visualize the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.  In addition to the paintings there is a Lenten devotional booklet, Return to Me, which is available in print or online.  The Stations of the Cross also inspired these devotions, written by Terry York of Baylor University.   Living with these two bodies of artistic expression based on the Biblical Stations of the Cross throughout the season of Lent should help us as we seek to return our lives to God by walking with Jesus though his final days.

 

Pray, read, think and return to God.

Day One: Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 The Trumpet Sounds

A trumpet blows at the beginning and again near the end of this passage. It blows in the midst of the believers, like reveille awaking an army. The trumpet blows, and we are alerted to the fact that judgment is coming and that we should tremble. The trumpet blows a second time, calling us to solemn assembly and weeping.

Between the two bugle calls life happens, both its trembling and its hope. We all know days of darkness and thick clouds. We all know the feeling that overpowering armies are upon us and continue to advance over the horizon. “ ‘Yet even now,’ says the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.’ ” (v 12). The prophet Joel immediately encourages us toward God’s mercy, “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows?” (v 13), asks Joel, perhaps the Lord will turn from punishing and “leave a blessing behind” instead.

God’s loving call is “Return to me.”

The scripture between the trumpets tries to describe the consequences of turning away from God, but Joel finally grows weary of painting the gloomy scene and simply asks, “Who can endure it?” (v. 11) God and Joel know the question is rhetorical. No one can endure it. Arguments too small often emerge here. Are we to give up something for Lent, or are we to add some new righteous activity to our busy routines and schedules? The call is to return. What will it require of us? Simply adding or subtracting for a season is an attempt to avoid the weeping and mourning that come with the realization that a turning is needed; a much deeper response.

Lent is a time of responding to God’s call, “Return to me.” At great cost, God steps into our struggle and calls us. We listen to the call and engage once again in a struggle of the soul. It is a dark time, a storm stirred by the clash of judgment and hope.

“Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ” (v.17). Joel asks the question of God and of us. We can drift so far away that God doesn’t seem to be in the picture with us. It seems to us and to those around us that God has walked away from us. In like manner, God’s judgment rained down on professed believers can cause observers to ask, “Where is their God?”… That is to say, the loving and merciful God. We, too, have asked, “Where is our God?” Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” All humans know the feeling; all humans know the isolation of the “day of darkness and gloom.”

Somehow, weeping is key. The first trumpet blows and there is weeping that wells up from fear and hopelessness, from sins that will not cease to haunt us. Then the second trumpet blows and our tears are spawned by the hope found in two little words, “what if?” What if God should relent from the punishment we deserve and bless us instead? Fresh tears come, although not as stinging as the earlier flow. But the tears of our returning must come. They must come from the priests and the people. The call, “return to me,” is directed toward priests and people and systems and structures.

The season of Lent sounds a terrible trumpet, a harsh and revealing trumpet. Hear its call and weep. Know the truth of its sounding. Hear its call and turn. Lord, help us to listen, accept, and see the truth; help us to return to you so that we might again rejoice in the sound of the trumpet.

 

 

A word about the series

The Lenten season has always inspired many people to create everything from poems, art and music to a completely new direction in their lives.  This Lenten season Tabernacle will be exploring many of those creations in the hope of inspiring you to compose in a medium that is natural for you.   The paintings in the Sanctuary are of the Biblical Stations of the Cross.  The artist, Grieg Leach, completed them in 2010.  They will help us to visualize the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.  In addition to the paintings there is a Lenten devotional booklet, Return to Me, which is available in print or online.  The Stations of the Cross also inspired these devotions, written by Terry York of Baylor University.   Living with these two bodies of artistic expression based on the Biblical Stations of the Cross throughout the season of Lent should help us as we seek to return our lives to God by walking with Jesus though his final days.

Pray, read, think and return to God.

Our Worship Service centers on the transfiguration of Jesus.

Our worship service centers on Luke 4:18-30. Rev. Sterling Severns’ sermon is entitled, “Local Boy Makes Trouble”.  Worship leaders include Ram Peng, Children’s Choir, Denise Walters, Sarah Petty, Mamie Ruth Blanton and the church staff.