Lenten Reflection 2/19

Talk about a God of second chances - or third, or fourth, or hundredth...

Today in Deuteronomy  Moses tells the people that the only reason they're getting the chance to go into the land of milk and honey is because the people who lived there before were even worse than they are and are being booted out.  The land happens to be free right now.  It's not because they earned it or deserve it - in fact, Moses describes well the multiple infractions against God's law these people have committed.  Why, even at the very moment Moses was up on the mountain receiving the commandments written in stone, the people were down below merrily messing up big time once again!

Yet, God still gives them another chance to come into a better place.  The whole 40 years in the wilderness was one instance after another of the people screwing up and God giving them another chance.

Which brings me to Mark Sanford.  Remember him?  He was the governor of South Carolina that "disappeared" on a hike in the Appalachians few years ago, but then it turned out that the married governor wasn't hiking, but using state funds to go visit his mistress in Argentina.  Sanford resigned in shame back then, and he's now divorced, has paid the state back for his South American romps, and is now--- wait for it --- he's now running for congress in South Carolina's 1st congressional district.

"I've experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. But in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it," Sanford says in an ad that is currently on the airwaves in South Carolina.

OK, a space has opened up, and Mark Sanford does now have the chance to enter it.  And who knows, maybe he has 'wandered around in the wilderness' long enough and is ready to enter politics again (not to say that politics is a land of milk and honey). But you can see the Biblical references he's calling on here, right?  In his ad he says he's humbly stepping forward and asking for the voter's help in getting another chance to change Washington.

OK, although I absolutely believe that God gives Mark Sanford (and even people who've done far more heinous things than he has) second, third - even seventy times seven chances in life - that doesn't mean I'd vote for him as my congressman.  Try some real humility, Mr. Sanford.

Today's Readings: Deut. 9:4-12; Heb. 3:1-11; John 2:13-22
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year.

Lenten Reflection 2/18

Lenten Reflection 2/18

In Deuteronomy, Moses has been assuring the people that God will soon bring them into the land of milk and honey.  Today, he warns them: 

"When you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up-- make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget GOD... If you start thinking to yourselves, 'I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!'-- well, think again."

Paul often refers to the principalities and powers of the world.  In our world, oil companies and tobacco companies seem to fit that bill.  Intent on profits first, they wield their lobbying power over both the  government and consumers, despite the fact - and I do believe this is a fact - that their products do not contribute to the common welfare and good of all.  We know tobacco addicts and kills people.  We know that we are addicted to fossil fuels, even thought they are of limited supply and are leading to environmental ruin.  These industries throw into our faces that the dominant and most powerful operating principle of our society is Profits First.  "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"

Over 40,000 protesters gathered in Washington yesterday, raising their voices against oil company greed.  It seems like a lot of people, and it is!  However it is just a tiny voice compared to the principalities and powers of the oil industry.  It's at times like these that I need to remember that with God's help, little David slew a giant, and a stuttering shepherd named Moses was able to convince a powerful Pharaoh to let his people go.  And I need to remember that even plain old water can become the finest wine whenever Jesus is among us.  God often has surprises up God's sleeve.  And with God's help, our nation could 'come to itself,' like the prodigal son did that day in the pigsty, and turn away from our addiction to profits and return home to the true abundance of God.

Today's readings: Deut 8:11-20, Hebrews 2:11-18, John 2:1-12

On the topic of the XL Pipeline and one faithful reaction to it, I also highly recommend reading  this article about a little Baptist church in TX.

Lenten Reflection 2/15

A passenger from the cruise ship Triumph kisses the ground
upon returning to land

Lenten Reflection 2/15

The people who got onto Carnival cruise line's luxury liner "Triumph" did not get the cruise they'd hoped for.  A fire on board knocked out the power system, disrupting food preparation, sanitation systems and even forward movement.  For five days, passengers floated in the Gulf of Mexico while tugs slowly got them to shore and toilets overflowed and food went from lavish buffets to cold sandwiches.  The passengers finally made it onto dry land today and a whole lot of press has been devoted to their "ordeal."

OK, so I'm not going to poo poo the stress this caused.  People did not sign up for what they got.  And clearly it was an unpleasant experience, though not life threatening.  People lost out on having a fun and relaxing vacation - and I bet that for some of them, it'll be a whole year before they get another one.  However, I've got to say that what many call an ordeal might be no worse than what some people in the world live with everyday.  In Kampala, Uganda, for example, only 17% of the people have access to piped water.  And that's EVERY day.

In the reading from Deuteronomy today, it says that when you love God and God's commandments, God will love you, bless you, increase you, bless your family, your crops - and basically you'll never have anything bad happen to you ever again - no sickness or afflictions.  Not only that, all your enemies will be complete toast.

I've got to wonder about this.  I've got to wonder about the entitlement of it.  I've got to wonder about how it makes us God fearing westerners think everything should always go great for us, and when it doesn't, some horrible enemy must be to blame (and darn it, we're going to SUE them for it!)

I've got to wonder.  I've heard stories of crew members on that boat continuing to be supportive and cheerful.  Well, sure, that's their job.  But I also heard about people who made the best of the situation and had a vacation anyway, despite the stress and chaos of the unexpected situation.  I wonder if an attitude of gratitude toward God does - truly - bless us deeply.  I wonder if even sickness and affliction can be born with gratitute and peace if you can get into that God loving space.

And I've got to wonder if most of the time our enemies are not outside us - others inflicting things upon us that we are helpless victims of - but live within us.  I wonder if the attitudes we harbor inside us that make us feel entitled to have things the way we want them and that make us blind to the plight of others and keep us isolated at the center of our own universes could be the enemies that really hold us hostage on a daily basis.

If that kind of enemy were made complete toast, I've got to wonder how the world would look.


Readings for today: Deut. 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42
Readings for Saturday: Deut. 7:17-26; Titus 3:1-15; John 1:43-51
Readings for Sunday: Deut. 8:1-10; 1 Cor. 1:17-31; Mark 2:18-22 
Elsa is reading "The Message" translation this year.

Lenten Reflection 2/14

 

Lenten Reflection - 2/14


 This morning, as I was getting the kids off to school, NPR news was on in the background.  Oscar Pistorius, olympic and paraolympic hero, was reported to have been arrested under suspicion of killing his girlfriend.  My boys looked at each other and they looked at me.  How could I find words for this?  How could an athlete so recently praised as a hero to anyone burdened with limitations (which all of us are, in some way) have fallen so far?

In Lent we are reminded that it doesn't matter how fine your reputation is or how good you are at what you do.  Everyone is broken and therefore prone to sin.  It feels very sad to me to hear that someone I have greatly admired has perhaps been involved in perpetrating domestic violence - a sin I find particularly troubling.  It reminds me once again, as I have been reminded so often lately, that the world is very broken, and that any of us might succumb to our most uncontrollable human weaknesses.

In this morning's reading in Deuteronomy, the Israelites, God's chosen people, are told that "God wasn't attracted to you and didn't choose you because you were big and important - the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. God did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise God made to your ancestors."  (Deut. 7:7,8a)

God can indeed stoop down into our most broken places and free us from slavery to our worst impulses. And "God keeps this covenant of loyal love with those who love God."

Loving our reputations, our possessions, our power, our control, our perceived safety, our own desires or anything else more than loving God and God's good, orderly direction leads to nothing but trouble.  That goes for you, for me, for celebrities, athletes, politicians, kings - Everyone.

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Want to follow along with the daily lectionary readings this Lent?  They can be found HERE. Scroll down to the section that is headed Daily Office and Daily Eucharistic Lectionary to find the readings for each day.

Lenten Reflection 2/13

Our mortality is front and center on Ash Wednesday - the first day of the season of Lent.  As the creaky, dry ashes are rubbed into your forehead, the priest says, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."  This afternoon, about 75 people came to "Ashes to Go" in front of Starbucks.  After Louise and I said a little prayer, applied the ashes and said the words about dust, people would look up, smile, and say thank you.  Thank you?  I just told you that you're going to die and you say thank you?

Old churches were intentionally built with cemeteries right outside their windows to remind the people in the pews of their own deaths every Sunday.  Early monastics would keep all their worldly possessions in their coffins as a reminder of their mortality, and early missionaries would often use their own coffins as their traveling trunks - sometimes even sleeping in them once they arrived at their destination!  There is a certain freedom in living like you're dying - like you've got nothing to lose.  And for the Christian, there is freedom in dying in Christ, for only when we die with him can we be raised into new life.  It's letting go of our own lives to gain them.

I met an Anglican priest from Uganda this morning.  He noted that Ash Wednesday is the one day of the year that you get to visit your own funeral.  And I got to wondering, if I were at my own funeral, what would I like to hear people saying about me?  What kind of love would I hope I'd left behind?  Ash Wednesday is like a wake up call to get moving on making my life into the kind of life that results in the kind of funeral I hope someday to have.  It's also a reminder that I'm already dead in Christ and can therefore trust God in stepping into a whole new life - a whole new me that is more fully in God.

It takes just a small correction of the wheel for a ship's destination to be completely different.  What little corrections can you make in the way you live, love and act in this world to change the outcome of your whole life?  If you can think of even just a little thing you can let go of that will free you from the burden of self, or if you can think of even just a little new practice you can adopt that will mold you more into who you are being called to be - today's the day to start trying these things on.  Lent is a season of practicing being new.