Ash Wednesday

Palm leaves with paper bearing the burdens that are holding
some people back.  We are giving it all to God

Ash Wednesday

                This is the beginning of the 40 day journey to Easter.  As Christians our eyes are ever on the empty tomb of Jesus as the source of our hope.  But these 40 days we turn our gaze inward and zero-in on the brokenness of our human nature, we contemplate our mortality and commit to a more God-focused life.

                It would be easy to overlook the difficult things of our spiritual journey and go straight to the cross.  Our faith tells us that we have forgiveness for our sin because of the sacrificial love of Jesus
Christ and what he did on that cross. 

                We have been justified! We have been redeemed! We have been saved!

                It would be easy to take the truth of what Jesus did and lay that over the story of our lives and say, “it’s all good.”  Well, my friends, that’s not the whole picture.  Jesus did sacrifice himself for humanity.  Your sins are indeed forgiven when you have faith in him.  But that does not mean that you are getting the full measure of the love that he is trying to pour out on to you.  You are not necessarily receiving all the blessings that God has intended for you.  It’s because those who have life eternal may be mostly dead and have only the appearance of life about them. 

                The appearance of life. 

                There is no escaping death.  There is no other alternative on this earth.  We are all temporary inhabitants of this world we are all impermanent.  The palms used nearly a year ago for our Palm Sunday celebration were green and leafy and apparently full of life.  But the moment they were cut and delivered to the flower shop where I picked them up they were essentially dead, though they had the appearance of life. 

                We took those green leafy branches and we celebrated and remembered the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.   There were shouts of great joy.  Then when the celebration was over I took the remaining palm leaves and I stored them for nearly a year. Slowly the chlorophyll faded from them and they turned brown.  They were no longer supple.  They were rigid.  And just this morning I burned them.  And what was once green and leafy is now a pile of ash.  We too, in our mortal bodies, are living.  But if we are not connected to the eternal source of life; if we are not connected to God, we only have the appearance of life and are, in fact, dead already.  When we have that connection to God, through Jesus Christ we have eternal life, though the mark of death is still in us. Our mortal bodies will still die.  We have weakness in our body. Our bodies fail us.  Cancer cells develop. We have weakness. Temptations arise. Sometimes well-meaning folk give in to those temptations. Sometimes we do things that distract us from the eternal source of life.  We have to be careful not to cut ourselves off from communion with God.  We have to take care to keep ourselves connected to our God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

                While we live on this earth we would like the mark of death to be as slight in us as possible, and the connection to God through Jesus Christ as strong as possible.  We cannot earn merit before God.  We cannot do well enough on our own through good deeds to merit eternal life. Just like no matter how good that palm leaf that you held in your hand was. It may have been a beautiful palm leaf.  No matter how much joy it brought, since it was already cut off, it was already dead. 

These 40 days are about making the connection to God stronger than ever.  Faith and trust in Jesus Christ does that.  Eliminating things in your life that distract you from your relationship with god helps you live by faith.  We have to take care though.  We cannot make the sacrifice the center of our attention. 

I hear it every year, “what are you going to give up for Lent?” 

Chocolate?

Coffee?

Meat?

The question should be, “what are you going to change in your life that will bring you closer to God?”

And really it shouldn’t even be a question that you ask or answer.  If we look at the words of Jesus on the matter of our devotion to God, he says that we ought not to let people know what our devotion entails. That everything we do should be done in secret.  If we get “credit” for being pious from our friends and neighbors then we have received our reward.  But if we are devoted in secret, if we are praying, giving and fasting outside the attention of everyone but God then our rewards will come from God. 

That would be a good measure of your own faith.  Do you need the attention and approval that your service brings or are you pleased to give it to God and let the blessings fall where they may?

Yes we have been justified! We have been redeemed! We have been saved! And we cannot add a single thing to that.  But we ought not to mistake the justification of our souls for the justification of our actions.  God loves us where we are; and God expects us to grow in Him.

So how is it with you the beginning of this Lenten season?  What are the things that you need to let go of so that God can get a better hold of you?  

The Ash we use to mark ourselves as a reminder of our mortality and our
need for repentance. 

Endurance

The Nativity Scenes in our homes are more than holiday decorations.
They are reminders of the zeal of God for humanity.
We, in turn, respond with love for God and neighbor. 

Luke 21:25-37

We are called to endure. We are not called to suffer, though there is plenty of suffering in this world and is near impossible to avoid.

We are called to endure. Endurance, for a runner, its the ability to finish the race with strength. Endurance for the Christian is to finish this earthly life with spiritual strength, both take intentional training.

What gives you spiritual strength and endurance?

What do you do in your home to develop your spirit?

What do you do the rest of the time?

This is the first Sunday in Advent. This is the season we prepare our hearts, minds and spirits for the Christmas celebration on December 25^th. This is a time rich in tradition. We can largely expect things to go much the same as they always have because, as I have heard some of you say, “what did we do last year?” Or “How did we do this last year?” We begin this season of preparation walking the line between a historical remembrance of actual events and entering into the mystery of God where those events point to something for us know and experience.

As Christians we are not called to go with the flow. As Christians we are not called affirm the world as it is. We are not called to retreat from this world, we are not called to reject this world. Jesus came and He called us to proclaim the kingdom of God. We believe that God will redeem the brokenness of this world. We believe that God will use those who are faithful in the work of redemption. The redemption of the earth and of creation has been happening from the very beginning of time but it began in a special way in Bethlehem 2000 and some years ago. This is a historic event as well but more importantly this was spiritual event and a spiritual reality.

We remember and prepare for the event of the birth of Jesus, but we also prepare for the birth of Christ in our lives in a new or renewed way. But that's not all! As disciples of Jesus we read the words he said as recorded in the scriptures and one of the things that he made clear was that the he, the son of Man, was going to come back. There would be a second coming and we are to live in such a way that it will be a blessing and a benefit to us. This is a spiritual reality that Christians believe. But is it one that will be an eventual historic reality. You see this is a challenge for a lot of believing Christians. It's been 2000 years after all! Jesus followers of his day believed that the Jesus' second coming would be coming any day. Then as I have said before, there have been over the course of time many calculations and predictions of dates that have come and gone when these event were to take place. And still we remain!

It can cause one to doubt or to question whether these things will happen. But Jesus is clear. You will see signs.

There will be sings in the sun and moon and stars, (I'm not sure what that will be) and on earth nations will be in distress, anxious over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves (any nations in distress? Any anxiety over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves? Yes of course, but what's new?) “People will be fainting from fear and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory.” Shaken heavens and seeing the Son of man coming in the indescribable Glory of God? That's new.

You see, we wont miss it. It will happen for everybody on the face of the earth. The question is, will we be aware or will we be distracted?

Will we lift our heads or will we hang them low?

Will that day come like a trap or will it be the welcome culmination of the faithfully lived life?

Jesus say when these thing begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near! The day of your rescue from the life of illusion and confusion you have created for yourself will arrive! That day will be obvious. What about preparing for that day?

When we come to the day of our redemption things will be different. The things that are of no value to God will go away. The things we do and say that do not glorify God...will go away. Our possessions that distract us will go away. The work we do that does not lead to the Kingdom of God will come to an end.

What if, on that day, you have grown accustomed, attached even fond of all your unprofitable attachments? Then suddenly they are taken away.

How many times in your life have you gone through the Advent and Christmas season and on December 26^th or so you say something like, “It just doesn't fell like we had Christmas,” Or “I cant believe its over already”? That's because sometimes we expect the season to just happen to us. We enter into all the distractions of the Holiday and ride them like a merry-go-'round and we end up going no where.

This is a dangerous and difficult world. The distractions that we choose to become addicted to, seemingly make this wold easier to tolerate. But in reality, they sap our strength. They disconnect us from the true source of peace and power. Our distractions move us further and further away from our devotion to Almighty God.

Jesus says “Be alert praying that you may ave the strength to escape all these things that will take place.”

Distractions of this world,drunkenness worries of this life are things that Jesus warns against not because they make God so angry but because they will distract us from the blessings and the promise of his presence and his coming.

The point of preparing for Christmas is preparing our hearts, minds and souls for an indwelling Jesus Christ in our lives. If we are truly prepared for Christ to enter our lives, we will live as though the kingdom has already come. We need to look inside and remove those things that we are attached to that are not glorifying to God.

If you have built a life full of distractions and suddenly those distractions are taken away it may well seem like your life has been taken away. It can be very uncomfortable and even painful. Just look at the pain and difficulty of the process of overcoming addiction to alcohol or other substances. But if we commit our lives, now, to loving God, when that day comes it will be a beautiful culmination of a faith fulled life.

Jesus is coming in a way that you cannot possibly expect. Be prepared. Be watchful.

So how is it with you today? We all have distractions that are not profitable to our spirits. As we enter into a time of communion with our God lets us begin with a time of confession, lifting to God those things we know that we need to let go. Lift to God, silently in your heart and mind, those things and ask God for forgiveness, and ask God for the freedom to love him more freely.