Setting the Bar

Our readings for Sunday, February 28 speak of God's graciousness towards us: Abraham trusted that God would fulfill God's promise to him, and on the basis of this trust God reckoned Abraham to be righteous. As Jesus journeys to Jerusalem he knows what awaits him, yet still he longs to gather Jerusalem under his wings, offering mercy when he knows Jerusalem will literally be the death of him.

But throughout the Bible there is a tension that is difficult for us to hold together: God both offers us unconditional grace and makes claims upon us. The reading from Romans retells the story of Abraham, reminding us God claims us not because of our own goodness but because it is in God's gracious nature to do so. But most of the other readings reveal to us that God's grace is not to be taken lightly: the readings from Exodus and Numbers tell us that while Abraham's descendants shall indeed inherit the Promised Land, the generation of Israel that saw God's signs and wonders in the Exodus would not live to enter the land because of their lack of trust and their desire to return to Egypt, the land of slavery and bondage. In I Corinthians 10 Paul reminds us to take God's dealing with Israel in the wilderness into account in our relationship with God – Paul refuses to see a disconnect between a vengeful, primitive "Old Testament" God and a kind, loving mature "New Testament" God. The God of Israel is the Lord of the Church. And just prior to Jesus longing to embrace Jerusalem, the city that will kill him, Jesus speaks of the need to enter through the narrow door, of many not being able to enter this door and of the door being barred shut to many.

How do we hold together both God's unconditional grace and God's desire for us to be trusting and obedient towards God? How do these passages shape the way we understand what it is to be in relationship with God? May the readings below give us wisdom and encouragement as we seek God's presence.

Monday, March 1

Exodus 33:1-6
Romans 4:1-12

Tuesday, March 2

Numbers 14:10b-24
I Corinthians 10:1-13

Wednesday, March 3
II Chronicles 20:1-22
Luke 13:22-31

Read Psalm 105:1-15, 42 each of these three days.

Why Pray?

For many of us (myself included) prayer often falls into the same category of eating healthy, exercising, or flossing: something we know is good for us, yet is hard for us to do. Then when we don't pray we may feel guilty, and the guiltier we feel the harder it is for us to enjoy prayer because we are so weighed down by guilt. Because Lent is a time not only to give up what may be harmful, but also a time to embrace what is good, I'll be doing a series of postings on prayer, hoping they will encourage all of us to deepen our prayer lives and find fulfillment in doing so. Most of these posts will be drawn from Worshiping with the Church Fathers by Christopher Hall. Hall looks to the early leaders and teachers of the Church for wisdom in prayer and worship. One question many of us may wonder about but may be afraid or embarrassed to ask is this: If God knows everything, including what we need, why do we need to ask for these things in prayer since God already knows we need them? Quoting the contemporary author Richard Foster, Hall writes,

The answer could be as simple as this: love often likes to be asked something, even when it knows the answer. Such is the nature of love. "We like our children to ask us for things we know they already need because the very asking enhances and deepens the relationship. . . Love loves to be told what it knows already . . . It wants to be asked for what it longs to give."

At its root prayer is not a transaction, a kind of service contract between us and God. At its root prayer is a means of relationship where we open ourselves to God's love for us and presence with us. This is the same God Jesus described as a father who never stopped waiting and longing for the return of his child who ran off and wasted half the family fortune, desiring nothing more than to embrace his child and welcome them home. God is not like a frustrated lunch date, glancing at the clock and wondering why we haven't shown up yet. God longs for our fellowship and is delighted when we turn to God in prayer.

Pilgrimage

Here are the readings for Sunday, February 28 . A word about how the lectionary works: During the seasons of Advent (longing for Jesus' birth), Epiphany (seeing how Jesus is revealed as God's Son, Lord and Savior) Lent (journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem and the cross), Easter (hearing the news of Jesus' raised from the dead) and Pentecost (celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit) the Old Testament and New Testament readings have some kind of link. Sometimes the New Testament reading refers to the Old Testament reading, sometimes there is a shared theme or another kind of connection. Combined, these seasons of the Church year last about six months. For the rest of the year (usually about June – November), called either "Ordinary Time" or "The Season After Pentecost," there is not necessarily a connection between the Old and New Testament readings. This is because, especially in our Reformed Tradition, the Old Testament stands on its own as the Word of God and it is therefore right that the Old Testament is preached on its own terms, with or without reference to the New Testament. But in this season in Lent I encourage you to look for the connections between Old Testament and New Testament readings.

One of the main themes of Scripture is that of Pilgrimage. In the words of last week's reading from Deuteronomy 26, our ancestors in the faith were "wandering Arameans." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wandered around the Promised Land, waiting for God to grant the land to their descendants. Moses led Israel on a 40 year journey through the wilderness, and the climax of the Gospels is Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. Of course for Abraham, for Israel in the Wilderness and perhaps for some of us we do not feel like pilgrims with a set destination in mind, but like nomads who wander with no destination in mind or in view. In her book From Nomads to Pilgrims author Diana Butler Bass describes the difference between nomads and pilgrims: nomads are "spiritual tourists" who wander from experience to experience with no connection to other nomads or to any sense of purpose or destination. Pilgrims, on the other hand, connect to one another as they share a common journey towards a transformed life. Bass writes, "Being a tourist means experiencing something new; being a pilgrim means becoming someone new."

Sunday's Gospel reading tells the story of the beginning of Jesus' pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The readings below from Genesis tell the story of Abraham's journey. How do these scenes from his journey help us understand our own? In our readings from Philippians Paul offers some testimony about his spiritual pilgrimage, first as one who is rooted in Abraham's story and then as one who is defined by the story of Jesus Christ. In light of Christ how do we understand our own life differently? How are we nomads/tourists? What does it mean for us to become pilgrims? Please share your thoughts and stories by clicking on "comment" at the end of the post.

Thursday, Feb 25
Genesis 13:1-7, 14-18
Philippians 3:2-12

Friday, Feb 26
Genesis 14:17-24
Philippians 3:17-20

Saturday Feb 27
Psalm 118:26-29
Matthew 23:37-39

Read Psalm 27 each of these three days.

Long Memories

The word "Lent" literally means "to lengthen," coming from an old Anglo Saxon word for spring, the season when days begin to lengthen and grow longer. Lent is also a time to lengthen our memories, to be reminded of God's loving and saving acts on our behalf and on behalf of the world. For the Reformed Tradition gratitude for God's grace towards us is the primary motivator for Christian service. The brief reflection Trust Fund Christians, by Presbyterian pastor Kate Murphy, reminds us of our need for a long memory lest we squander the riches of grace God has given us.

Holding Fast

Here you can find the readings for Sunday, February 21 . A brief word about this website: On the upper right corner of the webpage you will see links to art that touch on the Scripture readings. Some art is centuries old, some art is more contemporary. Reflecting on the Scripture while viewing these images may help you see the readings in a new light. Below the link for art is a link for prayers that draw on the readings, helping us to see how Scripture reading shapes our prayer life.

Because the Gospel reading is the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness by the devil it is easy for us to think of this as a story of temptation. But when read with the other readings perhaps this is less a story of temptation than one of God's deliverance. After all, Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit before being tempted, giving him strength as wisdom during his time of trial. The story of the Exodus, recounted in the "Hebrew Creed" in the Deuteronomy reading, is not primarily about the temptations Israel faced in the wilderness, but about how God delivered God's people. The Romans reading tells us that God's salvation is near to us, and while the devil does quote Psalm 91 for his own purpose it is nevertheless a prayer that reminds us God is our protector.

The readings below are not primarily about temptation or our tendency to succumb to it, but about God's patience with and nearness to us in the midst of our trials. Some of these readings easily fall into the "hard passages of the Bible" so I want to offer a word about them. The reading from I Chronicles may seem especially difficult: Why is God punishing Israelite citizens for what David did wrong? In the Bible's telling of the story of Israel the Bible refuses to believe that God is anything but intimately involved with the affairs and events of Israel. Is there a famine? Israel is receiving the just desserts for its sin. Is there a bumper crop? God is blessing us beyond our deserving! (One wonders what Noah would make of our global climate change theories!) Is there a plague or trouble in the house of David? We knew all along that the census was an affront to God! The census in I Chronicles was seen as infringing on God's leadership of Israel: The Lord is the shepherd, and the number of the sheep is important only for the shepherd and not a matter of concern for the sheep! So the plague that happened at this time must have been God's doing. The punishment David receives from his foes is likely the revolt his son Absalom led, which II Samuel tells us was the result of David's affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah. Interestingly enough, the Chronicler makes no mention of David's affair with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah or Absalom's rebellion, putting the best foot forward on David's life. Whether in joy or sorrow or struggle Israel refused to understand its life apart from the actions of God. How might we tell the story of our lives if we refused to distance God from what we have experienced?

Several of these readings mention Satan, who is not so much the embodiment of evil as much as a prosecuting attorney (of course, for many there is no clear distinction between pure evil and lawyers!). As a prosecutor Satan is simply bringing forward evidence or seeking evidence to build a case, as Satan does with Job. But while we are facing Satan, the toughest prosecutor/persecutor out there, we have a helluva (pun intended!) advocate: Jesus Christ, as the reading from Zechariah points to and John testifies to. How do we see God's presence with us in our trials? How do we see God's deliverance from these trials? How does being clothed with the righteousness of Christ help us to make Psalm 17 our prayer? For and interesting perspective on God's presence during our times of trials, see this short video by Rob Bell.

Monday, Feb 22
I Chronicles 21:1-17
I John 2:1-6

Tuesday, Feb 23
Zechariah 3:1-10
II Peter 2:4-21

Wednesday, Feb 24
Job 1:1-22
Luke 21:34-22:6

Read Psalm 17, a prayer for protection, each of these three days.

Fire in the Belly

Lent is a time for us to focus on following Christ to the cross, often by either ceasing habits that do not nurture our souls or by beginning new habits that do. We often associate spiritual growth with learning or ideas: learning more about what the Bible says, learning more about prayer, often assuming that having the right information at our disposal will lead to more faithful living. But is this the case? Are having the right ideas or beliefs the best or only way to grow in discipleship? In his book Desiring the Kingdom James K.A Smith calls this way of spiritual formation into question. He writes,

And so distinctively Christian education is understood to be about Christian ideas . . . [T]he goal of Christian education is the development of a Christian perspective, or more commonly now, a Christian worldview, which is taken to be a system of Christian beliefs, ideas, and doctrines.

But what if this line of thinking gets off on the wrong foot? What if education, including higher education, is not primarily about the absorption of ideas and information, but about the formation of hearts and desires? What if we began by appreciating how education not only gets into our head but also (and more fundamentally) grabs us by the gut – what the New Testament refers to as kardia, "the heart"? What if education was primarily concerned with shaping our hopes and passions – our visions of "the good life" – and not merely about the dissemination of data and information as inputs to our thinking? What if the primary work of education was the transforming of our imagination rather than the saturation of our intellect? And what if this had as much to do with our bodies as with our minds?

What if education wasn't first and foremost about what we know, but about what we love?

Especially in the almost five centuries since the Reformation, Christian formation has focused on the ideas and beliefs that set us apart from the Roman Church and the variety of Protestant denominations. Our beliefs - about the Lord's Supper, human free will, predestination and election, the atonement, how "our" understanding of justification by faith differs from "theirs" – became the focus of Christian education. But the book of James says, "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder" (James 2:19). The demons have good theology-they know exactly who God is (in Mark's Gospel only the demons and the Romans proclaim Jesus as the Son of God; the disciples do not yet understand Jesus as God's son), but they do not desire what God desires.

During Lent how can we seek not only to gain clarity in our beliefs, but also in our desires? Most of us believe/agree with the idea that we should (at least sometimes) put the needs of others above our own. But how often do we have the drive, desire and passion to do so? We believe prayer is a good thing, but do we desire to pray more than we desire to do other things? We all know that eating healthier is the best way to lose weight and stay healthy, but somehow our desire for chocolate is far more powerful than our desire to slim down!

I think Smith is on to something: training our mind is indeed important, but the best theology is for nothing if we do not have the desire to live by what the Scriptures teach. What are some things we can do to train our desires so that we truly do hunger for righteousness and desire God's kingdom above all else?

Entirely in Thy Service

From ancient times Christians, drawing on Jewish practices, have had set hours for prayer, including morning and evening prayer. Here is a morning prayer offered by John Calvin:

My God, my Father and my Savior, since it has pleased you to preserve me by your grace through the night just ended and until the present day, grant that I may use it entirely in your service and that I may think, say, and do nothing but to please you and to obey your holy will, so that all my actions may redound to the glory of your name and the edification of my neighbors. And just as in this earthly life you cause the sun to shine on the world to give physical light, let your Holy Spirit illumine my mind to guide me in the way of righteousness. Thus in everything I do, let my goal and intention always be to walk reverently and to honor and serve you, relying on your blessings for my well being, and undertaking only what is pleasing to you.

Grant also, O Lord, that as I labor for my physical needs and for this present life, I may lift up my soul to that heavenly and blessed life which you have promised to your children. And since to begin well means little unless one perseveres, I ask you to be my guide not only today but for all my life, daily continuing and increasing your grace in me until you have brought me into full union with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the true Sun of our souls, shining day and night forever. Amen

Our Sleep and God's Glory

How to pray and what to pray for have always been questions. Luke tells us that Jesus gave the Lord's Prayer after a disciple asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Here is an prayer offered at the close of day by John Calvin, who did so much to articulate the unique theology of the Reformed Tradition:

Lord God, since you have made the night for man to rest as you have created the day for his work, I ask you to give my body a restful night and to grant that my soul may be lifted up to you and my heart always filled with your love.

Teach me, O God, to entrust all my cares to you and constantly to remember your mercy, so that my soul may also enjoy spiritual rest. Let not my sleep be excessive, but let it serve to renew my strength so I may be ore ready to serve you. May it please you also to keep me pure in body and in spirit, preserving me from all temptations and all danger, so that my very sleep may contribute to the glory of your name.

And since this day has not passed without my having offended you in several ways, I who am a poor sinner make this request. Grant, O God, that just as thou hast now hid all things in the shadows of night, you will also bury all my sins in your mercy, through Jesus Christ my Savior. Amen

Raw Desire

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Two interesting notes about Lent: "Lent" comes from the Old English word for spring, since Lent is usually observed in late winter and early spring. For those of you who pay careful attention to the calendar you may notice that while Lent has 40 days, there are actually 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. This is because the six Sundays of Lent don't count as part of the season, since each and every Sunday is a "mini-Easter" when we celebrate Jesus' victory over sin and death in the resurrection. Does this mean that on Sundays one can indulge in chocolate or caffeine that has been given up for the 40 days of Lent? I'll let you decide.

Here are the readings for Sunday, February 21. The reading from Deuteronomy 26 is something like a Hebrew version of the Apostle's Creed, and brief statement that tells the core story of Israel: the story of how God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them to the Promised Land. Just as the Patriarchs of Israel – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – wandered in the wilderness while waiting for God to establish their descendants in the Promised Land, so Israel spent forty years in the wilderness after God freed them from slavery waiting for God to lead them to the land of milk and honey. During these long years in the wilderness God sought to reshape Israel's desires: no longer were they to long for the "fleshpots of Egypt," for a brutal but familiar way of life that at least guaranteed food and shelter. Instead Israel was to long for the God who delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh and bore them on eagle's wings, who promised them life and goodness and freedom.

The Gospel reading for Lent is always an account of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness. As Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness while God prepared them to live well in the Promised Land, so Jesus spent 40 days being tempted as he prepared for his public ministry. If Israel was tempted to hunger more for Egypt than for God, what was Jesus tempted to desire more than God? How do we understand these temptations? In what ways are we still tempted by them? What do we desire more than God? The reading from Romans reminds us that God's salvation is near to us, that it is Jesus, and not Pharaoh or Caesar, who is Lord. How does this news encourage us? Our Psalm reminds us the devil can quote Scripture for his own purpose. What do you make of Jesus' response? How does this shape the way we read Scripture?

Lent has often been a time of fasting of some sort – giving up sweets, caffeine, eating simpler meals, refraining from eating, and, in our technological age, fasting from facebook, ipods or tv. Often we see fasting as a way to "mortify" or reign in the desires of the flesh. But what if the purpose of fasting is not to extinguish our desires, but to train ourselves to desire and hunger for the things of God? How can we use these 40 (well, 46) days not to extinguish our hunger, but to point it in the right direction? Below are readings that help shape our hunger and desire:

Thursday, Feb. 18

Exodus 5:10-23
Acts 7:30-34

Friday, Feb. 19
Exodus 6:1-13
Acts 7:35-42

Saturday, Feb. 20
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
John 12:27-36

Read this portion of Psalm 91 each of these three days.