Thursday, February 18, 2010

lent.

Until recent years, I had little to no understanding of the liturgical calendar, and, although my liturgical education is still in its infancy, it is becoming more and more alive with each significant event on the calendar.

As I said, I am still very much in the learning process, so I will step aside and allow a favorite professor and brother, Dr. John Mark Hicks explain the significance of Lent.

If you are like me, and still learning about liturgy, I would encourage you to dive into this post to see what beauty can be found in its significance, and how the Body is built up by practicing communal acts like the repentance and submission displayed during Lent.

Hungering for God (Lent Reflections)

Text: Luke 4:1-13

Lent is forty days of letting go of some of our normal habits in order to pursue God with a special focus. The pursuit of God during these forty days comes in various forms: repentance, meditation, Scripture reading, prayer, immersion in sacred music, communal worship, almsgiving, etc. Lent was originally named “Forty Days” (quadragesima) and only became known as “Lent” (meaning Spring) in later years.

Lent is a season where we, in some sense and to some degree, follow Jesus into the wilderness for forty days. We followed Jesus into the waters of baptism and so now, in the narrative of Luke, we follow Jesus into the wilderness. Before Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, Moses spent forty days on the mountain with God (Exodus 32; Deuteronomy 9:9), Israel spent forty years in the wilderness where God probed and tested their hearts (Deuteronomy 8:1-5) and Elijah devoted forty days to God at Mt. Sinai (1 Kings 9:8).

It is not surprising, then, that the ancient church decided “forty” was a good number for a season of renewed dedication to God. The roots of this practice are baptismal, though there are also penitential backgrounds where those seeking reunion with the community fasted for a period of time. Those preparing for baptism would spend a specified time (usually three days or 40 hours) fasting. As Easter Eve became an annual baptism festival, the practice of “forty days” of preparation emerged. Eventually, the whole church was invited to fast for forty days before Easter (late fourth century). The form of this fasting varied and was not necessarily a total fast on every day of the forty. Indeed, the tradition arose that Sundays during Lent were “mini-Easters” which celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and thus were not fast days. Consequently, “Ash Wednesday” arose in the West (probably eighth century) as a way of adding days to compensate for the loss of fast days due to Sunda. This kept the number of fast days at forty. It is called “Ash” Wednesday because ashes are used as symbols of penitence and death as we humble ourselves in preparation for the Forty Days.

The Forty Days, most significantly, connects believers with the life of Jesus as they join Jesus in the wilderness in some small measure. Just as Jesus was led to fast for forty days, so believers seek to follow Jesus into the wilderness for forty days. It is a specified time dedicated to seeking God. It was valuable for Jesus, and many believers find it valuable for their own relationship with the Father.

Though Jesus had regular habits of spiritual discipline (e.g., being alone with God), it was nevertheless important for Jesus to experience these forty days as a way of probing his own heart, being tested by Satan, and hungering after God. We, too, need special moments, days or seasons to devote ourselves to probing, testing and hungering. Lent is a season which many believers choose to practice for this very purpose.
What did Jesus discover about himself in these days of probing, testing and hungering? He learned existentially what perhaps he only knew provisionally or intellectually previously. He learned to feed on the word of God rather than bread. He learned that devotion to God is more important than power among the nations. He learned trusting God rather than testing God is the way to peace and joy. He experienced the wilderness—he experienced his faith in action as he connected with the Father and his own soul.

He had other options. Satan provided opportunity and attempted persuasion. But Jesus chose God. He quoted Scripture, but the effect of quoting Scripture was not the cognitive information he articulated. Rather, Scripture pointed to God. Jesus hungered for God rather than food, power or fame.

Jesus chose the way of the cross rather than the spectacular, the power and the luxury. He owned his baptismal vocation when he rejected the Satanic offers and embraced his identity as Son of God.

Lent is an opportunity, not an obligation. No one is forced to practice the Forty Days. We are led into it for the sake of embracing our vocational identity as children of God. These are days when we seek and hunger after God; days when we spend time with Jesus in the wilderness; days when we, too, may discover again our own souls, own our baptism and encounter God anew.

1. Read the text of Luke 4:1-13 slowly several times. What are the significant lines and repeated ideas in the text?

2. How do you think Jesus experienced the different temptations or testings? What was the draw or allure of each?

3. What do you think Jesus “learned” through this experience? Why was it important for the Spirit to lead Jesus into the wilderness? Why do we need wildernesses in our own faith journey?

4. How does Lent pattern itself after Jesus’ own experience? How does this deepen the significance and importance of Lent for those who choose to practice it? How is Lent similar and dissimilar to the experience of Jesus?

    Monday, February 1, 2010

    purpose.

    I hated The Purpose Driven Life when I tried to read it in high school, and I think I hate it more now that it has become the Purpose Driven Empire. (Harsh right? Some writers use strong opinions draw you in, I'm trying it out. If you liked the book, I'm sorry, I think no less of you.)

    The idea that you can some how ramble in a self-help style of writing for twenty or so chapters and expect your readers to have found the one thing they need to do in life in order to enjoy it most is at least self-indulgent if not simply absurd.

    Yes, we all have purpose, but the Rick Warren definition of purpose (at least as I understood it after a few redundant chapters) is not quite on point.

    I think we have a collective purpose to bring restoration and reconciliation with all that God created... man, plant, animal, planet, and all else there may be, because it has fallen, and we have seen that there is a Great Force for Good that never intended it to be this way.

    So in that sense, yes, we all very much have a purpose. One that is tangible, doable, and so important that it simply cannot be left to just one of us. Obviously, there is not much an individual can do on his/her own in the the quest to restore creation to wholeness, but together, the possibilities are simply beautiful to imagine.

    Even more beautiful is the body of many parts metaphor (1 Cor. 12). So, yes, we have a collective purpose, but yes, we also have some form of "individual" purpose that fits like a finely carved puzzle piece into the mosaic masterpiece that is the Church.

    But does that "individual" purpose exist outside of the body and function freely without influence from the rest of the body? Of course not, it is still part of the collective.

    So what is this purpose? Well I sure don't know, but I don't think Rick Warren can quite point you there either. As a matter of fact, the more I wonder on this, the more I'm led to believe that we'd be arrogant to try to assume a specific, narrow purpose for our lives that limits the possibility to have God do amazing, seemingly random things with us that glorify Him and the express the beauty of His Kingdom.

    In that sense, maybe our "individual" purpose or calling is simply as Jesus described, the one that calls us to pick up a cross daily and continue dying that same death we did the day before to the broken tattered sinner we once were, and dragging that cross through the muck and mire hoping that the light of our resurrection leaves a distinct path of reconciliation in our wake. (Matt. 16:24, Mk. 8:34, and Lk. 9:23)

    So, perhaps our purpose isn't for us to find, perhaps our purpose is surrender.

    Father,
    May our lives end where Yours begins. Take our hands, our hearts, our steps, our breath, or minds, our desires, and make them Yours. Give us a passion for your Kingdom that burns so brightly we are led to a purpose, but teach us that this purpose is to submit to Your will and not our own. Help us ask we seek to die to our own will and come alive to Yours. Your ways are perfect, Your heart is Love, Your will is Peace.
    May we love as You first loved us.
    Amen.