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Lenten Reading for February 28

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 10:48 pm on Wednesday, February 28, 2007

In the Gospels, Jesus often challenged his disciples, saying, “O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” When he said this, it could be absolutely baffling to his disciples. “We’re in a boat at night with high winds and waves, and he expects us to trust?”In the Gospels, Jesus often challenged his disciples, saying, When he said this, it could be absolutely baffling to his disciples.Apparently though, that is exactly what Jesus was hoping to see grow in his disciples. The word “doubt” as it is used here doesn’t mean disbelieving some kind of abstract creed; it refers instead to the opposite of trust. Doubting means believing we are not ultimately safe in God’s hands.

In a certain sense, there is a choice given to us in each moment throughout the day: faith or doubt?  This day, let us be mindful of the choices we are given, and let us more often choose faith.

Lenten Reading for February 27

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 8:44 am on Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Jesus is our model for trusting God.  During Lent, we remember the long walk Jesus took to Jerusalem, knowing that when he got there he would be rejected and die a painful death.  Did keeping faith in God mean that Jesus didn’t suffer from sadness and fear?  No, being a human being like us, he experienced these things as well.  Did keeping faith in God mean everything would always turn out nicely? Of course not, the cross wasn’t nice. 

Jesus’ trust came from a deeper place. He felt fear, but he wasn’t ruled by his fear. He trusted that ultimately God would take that which was painful and full of sadness and transform it into something beautiful and good.

Unfortunately, much of the time we can’t see how in our lives this will be so. We walk by faith, not sight.

Lord, we want to have within us the same faith that was in Jesus. Amen.

Lenten Reading for February 26

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 3:20 pm on Monday, February 26, 2007

Consider for a moment the process by which a small child grows towards adulthood. Hopefully, overtime, the child comes to trust in the love and support of her parents, even when Mommy or Daddy are out of sight. And consider this: the child will never learn what it means to trust if Mommy or Daddy never leave her sight.

In the spiritual life, we are all children learning what it means to trust the unseen God, our Heavenly Parent, who is always on our side. To what extent do we trust this fact, even when God’s “presence” is not readily evident to us?

This day there will be moments for each of us where we will be tempted to give up our trust in God — to assume we are abandoned. These are the moments when the future seems uncertain, perhaps scary — problems appear overwhelming. Can we view these moments as opportunities to learn what it means to strengthen our capacity for trust?

Lenten Reading for February 25

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 10:48 pm on Sunday, February 25, 2007

In the Lord’s Prayer we are invited to pray daily these words, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  There is an honest acknowledgement of our human frailty in these words.

Alone we cannot make it. We need God. We need other people.

If we are unable to be with our faith community as we gather in worship this

morning, let us pause now to pray for our Church family, particular as it gathers for worship.

Lenten Reading for February 24

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 10:47 pm on Sunday, February 25, 2007

Memory is a powerful function in our lives. How we remember our past impacts who we are in the present, and where we are headed in the future. Unfortunately, we often put great energy into remembering that which keeps us in bondage, and forgetting that which has been a blessing. We remember what seems to have gone wrong, and take for granted so much that is, in truth, stunningly gracious.

Take a moment to remember… that we were born. There was no necessity to our existing other than the basic truth that God chose for us to be alive. God gave us life as a gift. It is a privilege to be alive. We are here not by chance; we were placed here by God for a purpose. How are we doing in finding that purpose?

 

Lenten Reading for February 23

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 12:20 pm on Friday, February 23, 2007

When Jesus was alone in the wilderness, the temptations presented to him by the devil were real, precisely because they touched a real desire within Jesus for power, for recognition, for taking the east way. He had to confront the darkness within.

Perhaps the strongest resistance we have to examining deeply our own hearts is the fear that what we will find there will somehow render us as unacceptable, unlovable. This fear is where our great defensiveness arises from: criticism of how we’ve been living our lives seems to call into question our very worth.

It isn’t so. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are loved unconditionally by the God who gave us life as a gift and cherishes us. Because of this, we can feel a deep security that makes it possible to look openly and honestly at ourselves, knowing that darkness we will encounter within ourselves won’t cast us out of God’s love. In fact, the willingness to examine ourselves honestly is a gift we give to God. Therese of Lisieux said,

“If you are willing to serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself, you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.”

Can we imagine what it would be like to “serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself”?

Willingness

Filed under: Conversatons with Pastor Jeff — Pastor Jeff at 10:24 pm on Thursday, February 22, 2007

Random thoughts: This past Sunday, in the wee hours of the morning, I woke up with a gut renching virus that forced me to my knees before the porcelain throne.  In 25 years of preaching, I think that this was only the second Sunday in which I was too sick to lead worship.  I felt oddly calm about the necessity of surrendering my pulpit, and in a few moments of abdominal steadiness, telephoned Darryl, a willing layperson in my church, asking him to please pull together a couple of people to improvise a worship service in my absence.  He embraced the challenge without hesitation.  At about the same time that worship was being convened, I was finally falling into a sound sleep that would mark the end of my upchucking. I was pretty much back to normal within 48 hours. Today I got a chance to listen to the tape of the service. David, Bob and Darryl divided up the parts of the service and did a marvelous, inspired job.  We ordained clergy rarely think of it this way, but since our calling is to “equip the saints for ministry”, ideally we should be working ourselves out of a job. The tape lead me to believe I’m doing a pretty good job in this regard.

****

A few weeks back it occured to me that a labyrinth would be a good thing for us to experience on Ash Wednesday, and so this past Saturday some willing folks gathered Saturday and put down a temporary labyrinth on the floor of our fellowship hall as I largely stood around and watched.  At our worship on Ash Wednesday evening, congregants flowed from the altar in the sanctuary where I had anointed them with ashes, to the fellowship hall where they walked the labyrinth by candlelight, flowing into the center, and then out again.  The labyrinth provided a new experience for most folks, but people of all ages — two year olds to octogenarians — gave themselves over to it, again, quite willingly. Five little brothers and sisters, ages two to six processed with great reverence and shining eyes, one by one to kneel at the altar that I might make the sign of the cross on their forehead, and then happily, merrily walked the winding ways of the labyrinth. God moments happened for me, that’s for sure. “Unless you turn and become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” ****

An important new movie is being released Friday.  Entitled “Amazing Grace“, it tells the story of William Wilborforce who willingly responded to the flow of God’s grace to work to set God’s people free, leading the movement to abolish slavery in the British Empire is being released this Friday. John Newton, the slave trader who gave his life to Jesus and quit the dirty business of treating human beings with eternal souls as objects for profit – and then penned the all time favorite hymn praising grace – appears in his old age to play the role of spiritual guide to the young William; hence the title of the movie. From what I can tell, the film aspires to offer the very best of what a movie can be in terms of telling a story well and inspiring a truly Christian, deeply moral vision of life.  Sadly, it isn’t being offered but in a handful of theaters in New Jersey.  The movie houses are more ready to book the films that don’t aspire to as much as “Amazing Grace” does; these films seem more reliable in terms of selling tickets. 

 

 

 

Lenten Reading for February 22

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 8:49 am on Thursday, February 22, 2007

We are not making this journey of renewal alone, and this is important to remember. Did you ever think about the fact that when Jesus taught us the “Lord’s Prayer”, he instructed us to use the word “us” rather than “me”?

We are not making this journey of renewal alone, and this is important to remember. Did you ever think about the fact that when Jesus taught us the he instructed us to use the word rather thanWhen people profess their faith in Christ and take the vows of membership, the whole congregation responses with these words:

With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to theexample of Christ. We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their service to others. We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.

 

During this season of Lent, we hope to embody the spirit of these words that we have all promised to God and to one another.

For whom are we setting aside this time of daily reflection and prayer? There are different answers we can give to this, all with validity: We do it to honor God. We do it for ourselves, and our own spiritual need to grow. But we also are doing this for the sake of the others to whom we are yoked through the fellowship of this Church. Others are counting on us to be faithful in setting this time apart. Some of these others are living. Some of these others have already died and passed on into heaven. Some have not yet been born.

Ash Wednesday

Filed under: Lent 2007 Daily Readings — Pastor Jeff at 10:07 am on Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a period of forty days* in which we are invited to examine our hearts and return to God. The concept of forty days is linked to the time Jesus spent alone in the wilderness before he began his work. Jesus himself understood the need to set aside time to find his deepest desire of his heart, and to reconnect with God.

There is something about the ongoing routines of life — the daily grind — that takes a toll on our souls. We inevitably drift from our true center. The fact that this drifting is a slow, gradual process can make it so hard to notice. We assume that the quality of life that we are experiencing is “normal”, but we’ve lost the perspective to realize that this isn’t so. It’s understandable that we would consider the life we are living to be “normal”; most everyone else is similarly adrift as well.

Coming away from the daily grind, we begin to recognize what we have overlooked. The irritability, the anxiety, the hostility, the emptiness, the perpetual sense of being hurried, the resentments, the compulsive need to prove ourselves acceptable, the absence of joy… it becomes all so commonplace, but it isn’t “normal” in the sense that it isn’t what God

has designed life to be. God desires something much better. And as we step apart from the frantic rush for a time, we sense the possibility that life could indeed be lived quite differently. We sense a call back to our spiritual center.

Are we willing to make this season of Lent a special time in which we begin to imagine our lives lived once more out of the abundance of God’s grace? Everyone knows how hard it is to change old habits. We’d like to say, “here and now, we will live lives truly centered in God.” But we know ourselves well enough to recognize it’s not as easy as that. The pull away from our true center is so strong and persistent.

Perhaps, though, we can make a commitment to set aside a few minutes each day during which we will attempt to live more fully in God’s presence. In doing so, we will share with our church family our common quest for spiritual renewal, and the seeds of a new life will be planted.

Gracious God, we sense the desire to return to you — the One who has given us life and every good gift. Strengthen this desire within us. Give us a taste in this moment of what a life grounded in your love feels like. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

*Traditionally the forty days of Lent does not include Sundays. We will, however, have daily readings for Sundays in Lent as well.

My intentions for Lent

Filed under: Conversatons with Pastor Jeff — Pastor Jeff at 10:06 am on Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Intentions are strengthened when you share them with others.  Having promoted the idea of coming up with intentions/spiritual practices for the season of Lent, I hereby make my intentions public. 

1) To be in a time of prayer first thing in the morning.

2) To become more mindful in my eating.  I am a notoriously fast eater.  I want to slow down my eating during the season of Lent and make it a time of prayer. 

   A) In connection with this intention, I want to remember and pray for the hungry of the world.  I want to set aside money (especially the money I would spend on mindless eating) and give it to Heifer International.

3) I want to give up my mindless internet surfing, which usually consists on checking out sports scores and the like.  I will only use the Internet when I have a purpose.  I will find other ways to relax and unwind.  (Perhaps banjo playing, which I haven’t done in the longest time.) 

4) I will go for more walks for the sake of mind, body and soul.

5) I will drink more water in hopes of flushing out toxins. 

There.  Having put this things out there on my blog, I put more pressure on my will to keep them.  I realize that it is a fairly ambitious list.  I am, however, aware that I am entering this Lent with a greater motivation to truly engage the season than I can recall having within me before. 

By an interesting coincidence, it was exactly two years ago today that I began my Spiritual Quest when I was on my Sabbatical, in which I spent four days and nights in the wilderness alone, fasting.  I am re-reading my journal to remember that precious time. 

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