Lent vs. Lint

Lent is the season in which the Church recalls the events of Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem. Lint is that stuff that some of us find in our belly buttons and most of us find in our dryers.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends the day before Easter. It is forty days, not counting Sundays. Unlike, Christmas (Dec. 25), Easter is not on the same date each year. Easter is based on a lunar calendar that reflects the Jewish celebration of the Passover. The church has maintained the connection between Christian celebration of Easter and the Jewish celebration of the Passover because Jesus was in Jerusalem with his disciples celebrating the Passover when he was betrayed, crucified, buried, and rose from the dead. Lent is a season of preparation for the events that lead up to the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter always occurs in the spring.

Spring reminds us of spring-cleaning and spring-cleaning reminds us of finding lint in the dryer and sweeping dust bunnies from underneath furniture. Many households prepare for the spring by putting cold weather clothes away, re-organizing rooms, cleaning, and redecorating the house.

In many ways, Lent is supposed to be a time for some Spring-cleaning for our souls. It is not necessarily about making sacrifices (giving up desserts, television, or some other comfort). Lent is a time for preparation and reflection on our relationship with God and God’s love for us. Lent is a time for organizing and prioritizing our lives. Lent is a time for us to consider what is really important in life and focus our energy on those things. We may decide that we need to work on our relationships with God, family, and friends. We may decide to work on a spiritual discipline, like daily prayer and reading scripture, fasting, service to the community, etc. In the end, we may decide that we will give up watching television so we can read scripture and pray during that time instead. We may decide to give up desserts or have an occasional fast so that we can give the money we would spend on that food to an organization that feeds the hungry. But Lent is not meant to simply be a time of self-denial. Lent is meant to be a time of self-fulfillment.

Lint is something you throw away – it’s like celebrating Lent by simply giving up something you enjoy. Lent is meant to be a time when we reflect on how much God loves us and respond by sharing God’s love with the world.

Let us pray,
Gracious God, during this season of Lent, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to guide and direct us, as we reflect on Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem. Help us learn more about your love and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Deepen our love for you and help us respond to your love by sharing it with the world. If we choose to give something up during this season, we ask that it would be done in order to bring us closer to you. If we choose to begin a new spiritual discipline during this season, we ask that you would give us the strength, endurance, and commitment we need to see it through. Bring us closer to you as we recall Christ’s journey to the cross during this season of Lent. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Love of God

This Saturday we will celebrate the gift of love as we enjoy Valentine’s Day. While this holiday tends to focus on romantic love, I would like to talk about our love for God. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a Benedictine Monk. Bernard came up with the following four stages to describe how people tend to love God.

The first stage is “Love of Self for Self’s Sake.” The psychological term for loving oneself is narcissism. We recognize this behavior in infants and small children that think the world revolves around them. This behavior can return during adolescence. And we all know some folks who never seem to grow out of this stage.

The second stage is “Love of God for Self’s Sake.” This is when we recognize that there are benefits to believing in God. We look forward to heaven and ask that God bless us while we wait down here on earth. While this is certainly better than narcissism, it can be problematic. God is not a magic genie. God’s timing is not our timing.

The third stage is “Love of God for God’s Sake.” This is when we recognize that God has value, not because of what God can do for us, but because of who God is. We love God because God is God.

According to Bernard of Clairvaux, the fourth stage is “Love of Self for God’s Sake.” This is when we begin to see ourselves as God sees us. When we begin to experience life as a gift and strive to live our lives giving glory to God by enjoying God and the life we have been given.

If we are honest with ourselves, we probably move in and out of these stages on a daily basis. Let us strive to love God and ourselves for the sake of God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is love. This is revealed in the very nature of God. St. Augustine recognized that God is love by referring to the members of the trinity as: the lover, the beloved, and the love that binds them together.

Prayer:
Glorious God,
You are love. Help us love ourselves. Help us love others. And help us love you. Help us to know you more deeply. Help us to enjoy life and give glory to you for all that you’ve done, all that you are, and all that you have called us to be.

New Year's Resolutions - Mine is posting more frequently!

While it is a month and a half after the start of the new year, I thought I would begin my new year's resolution of blogging on a more regular basis. And what better way to start than by posting the newsletter article I wrote for the church in January. Enjoy!

The New Year is a time for reflection on the past year and dreams for the new one. As you reflect on the past year, take some time to consider where you have seen God at work in your life and the lives of your loved ones, as well as your church, community, and world. As you look to the future, open yourself up to be guided by the Holy Spirit. The New Year is an excellent time to recommit ourselves to God and open ourselves up to what God would have us do.

This year I have heard some folks knocking New Year’s resolutions. One preacher said that they tend to be based on what society tells us to do, that they come from looking outside of ourselves and perhaps down on ourselves. While I don’t want to throw the resolutions out, this preacher may have a point. Choosing our resolutions based on what others tell us are important may be one of the reasons so many of us fail to follow through with them. However, I think an outside perspective combined with some introspection and a real desire for change can have positive outcomes. Thinking about what others are telling you to do and then reflecting on your desires is worth some time even if you don’t make a resolution for change. Knowing yourself is an immeasurable gift. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” When we take the time to reflect on our lives, I’m sure all of us will find something that we would like to change. The New Year really is a great time to kick a harmful habit or pick up a good one. It is a time for commitment and re-commitment.

The important thing to remember is that God loves us just as we are. But that doesn’t mean that God wants us to stay where we are. God wants us to continue to grow and mature as people and as children of God. As we reflect on our lives this New Year, let’s be sure to reflect on the love of God as well. Where would we be without it?

Some Recommendations:
Did you know that you can find daily bible readings on our church website www.pampapcusa.org by using the Links page? You can also have the daily readings sent directly to your email by going to http://www.pcusa.org/devotions/lectionary/index.htm.

This year we are celebrating the 500th birthday of John Calvin. John Calvin was one of the Reformers who helped shape the faith of the Presbyterian Church. To celebrate, Princeton Theological Seminary is providing daily readings from Calvin’s crowning theological work, “The Institutes.” If you would like to make these readings a part of your New Year’s Resolutions or you just want to check it out, you can find them at http://www2.ptsem.edu/ConEd/Calvin/.