The Christian season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (February 17) and ends on the Saturday before Easter (April 3). It is a 40-day period (Sundays don't count in the 40) of reflection and action based on our relationships with God, each other and ourselves. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week where the drama and conflict in Jesus' life reach an ultimate point. Holy Week is often the time when theological controversies about Jesus' life, death and resurrection surface as well.
Barbara Brown Taylor, author, preacher and former Episcopal priest, reflects on the effects of conflict in the congregation she served: Once I had begun crying on a regular basis, I realized just how little interest I had in defending Christian beliefs. The parts of the Christian story that had drawn me into the Church were not the believing parts but the beholding parts.
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy..."
"Behold the Lamb of God..."
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock..."
Christian faith seemed to depend on beholding things that were clearly beyond belief, including Jesus' own teaching that acts of mercy toward perfect strangers were acts of mercy toward him. While I understood both why and how the early church had decided to wrap those mysteries in protective layers of orthodox belief, the beliefs never seized my heart the way the mysteries did (Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church, 109-110).
In conflict we may retreat to beliefs or standards outside us so that we are less vulnerable to others. That is not the approach of Jesus. Holy Week begins with Palm/Passion Sunday. It is a day that recognizes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey; and his betrayal, arrest, trial, conviction, abuse and death on the cross.
During Holy Week we see that Jesus does not hide behind anything to protect himself in the conflict because of his deep, abiding sense of God's presence, and commitment to love. The story leads us to another beholding part while Jesus is on the cross, a day we call Good Friday,
"Now when the centurion who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was God's Son!'" (Mark 15:39)
Holy Week is full of divine-human drama. We experience a profoundly moving story that invites us to personally enter Jesus' final earthly days, and behold love's redeeming work in his death and resurrection. Logical explorations and explanations only go so far to describe God's love for us in Jesus Christ. We are then left to wonder at the amazing grace and mercy of God.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Throwing Snow Into Spring
Robert Falcon Scott, a British explorer, made two expeditions to the South Pole in 1901-04 and 1911-1912. On one occasion the weather conditions were such that a white haze blended with the unbroken whiteness of the snow and no horizon was visible. Wherever they looked there was simply one unbroken whiteness. There was no point on which they could direct their course as they drove their sledges forward. Before long they were coming upon their own tracks. Thinking that they were going forward, they were in fact only going around in a great circle. To solve the problem they began throwing snowballs ahead of them in the direction of true south so that they had something to fix their eyes on.
Without some vision of the future, how is it possible to direct one's course in a rational way? In practice we do what Scott did; we have projects, literally things we throw forward, long-or short-term projects, and we measure our progress by the degree of success we have in reaching our self-set targets. But where do these projects lead in the end? Scott had a compass to tell him in which direction to throw the snowballs. Without a compass, how do we know whether our success in reaching our targets is in fact progress or regress? (Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).
In the northern hemisphere Easter is celebrated in the Spring, and in Michigan it is a time of unmistakable change from the snow of winter. The winter view is broken by sunshine, melting snow, puddles, mud, returning birds, new buds and a greening of the landscape. We are refreshed by the change of weather.
The struggle of Scott's expedition was against an unchanging landscape, and loss of depth perception and direction. Thankfully God blesses us and the world with a sense of the future. Prophets are the ones called on to announce such a vision: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope (Jeremiah 29:11). As Christians we are entering the final stage of Lent, a time of reflection on the direction of our lives and God's call to return (repent) to God's way of life in Jesus Christ.
I find Scott's tactic of throwing snowballs and following them ingenious for the harsh circumstances they faced. While the external circumstances in our lives may appear to be an unbroken haze with no horizon, we may together follow "God's gift from highest heaven", Jesus Christ, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). May we be blessed this spring with a new or renewed sense of the future, and the gift of Jesus Christ going before us.
Without some vision of the future, how is it possible to direct one's course in a rational way? In practice we do what Scott did; we have projects, literally things we throw forward, long-or short-term projects, and we measure our progress by the degree of success we have in reaching our self-set targets. But where do these projects lead in the end? Scott had a compass to tell him in which direction to throw the snowballs. Without a compass, how do we know whether our success in reaching our targets is in fact progress or regress? (Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).
In the northern hemisphere Easter is celebrated in the Spring, and in Michigan it is a time of unmistakable change from the snow of winter. The winter view is broken by sunshine, melting snow, puddles, mud, returning birds, new buds and a greening of the landscape. We are refreshed by the change of weather.
The struggle of Scott's expedition was against an unchanging landscape, and loss of depth perception and direction. Thankfully God blesses us and the world with a sense of the future. Prophets are the ones called on to announce such a vision: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope (Jeremiah 29:11). As Christians we are entering the final stage of Lent, a time of reflection on the direction of our lives and God's call to return (repent) to God's way of life in Jesus Christ.
I find Scott's tactic of throwing snowballs and following them ingenious for the harsh circumstances they faced. While the external circumstances in our lives may appear to be an unbroken haze with no horizon, we may together follow "God's gift from highest heaven", Jesus Christ, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). May we be blessed this spring with a new or renewed sense of the future, and the gift of Jesus Christ going before us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)