A Daily Lent

Seeing What Is Real Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent – March 18, 2020 A spiritual practice is a contemplative practice if it helps you see the truth about God, self, others, and the world. Life is as simple – and as painfully difficult – as that. Most persons never question their perception of the truth. They experience life through their own filters (attachments, beliefs, fears) and never take time or energy to consider the filters. And for many persons, over the course of a lifetime, their filters never change. They die in old age clutching the same filters through which they saw God, self, others, and the world when they were 10 years old. The role of spiritual practice is to help us cut through the illusions of life. A good spiritual practice will help you see what is real more clearly. When you see, you may not like what you see, but then, liking what you see is not the point. Do you want to see the truth? Or are you content to continue seeing an illusion? [Before any...

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent Daily Reading : Matthew 18:21 – 35 Focus Passage : Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Matt. 18:21 – 22) Often in the Gospels people asked Jesus a question out of a particular personal motivation, only to find that Jesus didn’t answer their question. Rather, he raised new questions, or redirected their question to that which was relevant to the kingdom of God. Peter asked a question about forgiveness. “How many times should I forgive another? Seven times?” It was a generous question. Most of us don’t get past three. But there was an unspoken part of Peter’s question: “How many times should I forgive someone else before I take matters into my own hands?” Peter’s background in Jewish law restrained him from excessive retaliation, limiting vengeance to “e...

The Second Sunday of Lent Daily Reading : Luke 9:28 – 36 Focus Passage : Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. (Lk. 9:32) Eastern Orthodox Christians value this story of Jesus’ transfiguration, noting its central place in the gospel narratives. You can make the case that Jesus spent the first half of his ministry headed toward this mountain, where he “went up” with Peter, John and James. When he came down the mountain, he began the deliberate move toward Jerusalem, betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. My own spirituality has been shaped by an understanding of the story which comes from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. This interpretation of the transfiguration says that the real miracle in the story is not that Jesus’ appearance changed and that his clothes became bright; rather, the real miracle in this story is that the disciples “became fully awake” and saw Jesus – finally! – as he r...

Friday after Ash Wednesday Daily Reading : Matthew 9:14 – 15 Focus Passage : Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” (Matt. 9:14 – 15) Don’t get lost in over-analysis of the passage. For a moment, simply hear Jesus say, “There is a time to fast and a time not to fast.” Let me explain why I think these words are important. Spiritual practices help us sustain a spiritual life. We do not come into a deep and life-giving connection to God by accident, as if we were a pinball that bounced randomly from place to place, and finally happened to hit the right bell. We set our intention on God. Spiritual practices are part of that intentional life. Fasting is a cornerstone spiritual practice. It involves saying “n...

Thursday after Ash Wednesday Daily Reading : Luke 9:22 – 25 Focus Passage : Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self?” (Lk. 9:23 – 25) “Discipline” and “denial” are dirty words for plenty of people. The words reinforce stereotypes many people hold about what it means to follow Jesus. And many Christians feel intimidated because the words suggest something difficult and unattainable. Yet, Jesus said that those who follow and learn from him (disciples) must “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow.” To be sure, words like “acquisition” and “accumulation” would be friendlier to modern ears. Westerners seem to be wired to “have more” and “do better.” In every facet of life, we live...

Shrove Tuesday March 5, 2019 Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of Lent. Many of us will attend a church service in which ashes are marked upon our foreheads. We will hear the traditional Ash Wednesday litany that reminds us, “Remember, from dust you have come, and to dust you shall return.” I will be with the Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Rogers, wearing a ministerial robe and clerical stole, standing in 36 degree temperatures, waiting in a parking lot in Downtown Rogers, Arkansas, to impose ashes on the foreheads of those who drive by. The car pulls up. “What is your name?” “Maria.” “Maria, remember your creation in God . . . from dust God created you . . . and remember your humanity . . . to dust you shall return.” The car drives away. It seems a bit mundane, imposing ashes as people pull up in their cars, rather than in the formality of an Ash Wednesday service in a beautiful Chapel somewhere. Yet, what better way to remember our human...

Monday, February 16, 2015 – A Pre-Lenten Reading Introduction to “The Wisdom of the Wilderness” by Jerry Webber During Lent, I’ll provide daily meditations based on the stories and sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (3rd – 5th centuries). First, though, I want to provide some background and context: Who were these men and women? How did they get to the desert? What did they do there? In the years after Christ, followers of Jesus faced a number of challenges. For many decades, Christians were persecuted by a hostile Roman Empire, which viewed Christian faith as atheistic (Christians did not worship the gods of the Roman Empire, nor the Emperor as deity). Christians were imprisoned, tortured, or put to death, often for sport in the Roman Empire. Another challenge arose about three centuries after Christ, when Constantine became Emperor of the once-hostile Roman Empire. The new Emperor declared that Christianity would be the official religion of the Empire. Suddenly, the ho...

Isaiah 58:6 - 8 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind." As a spiritual practice, fasting is about saying, "No," to one thing in order to say a larger, "Yes," to something else. For instance, we can say, "No," to food in order to let our hunger remind us of the more basic spiritual hunger that lives at the heart of us. We can say, "No," to speech and noise in order to pay deeper attention to God...

Matthew 9:14 – 15 Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast." A couple of decades ago I read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and got interested in a more intentional spiritual practice. As I look back on that time, I can give thanks for the impetus to move more deliberately into practices that could nourish my soul, but I see how skewed my motives and understandings were. I won’t go into all of those misunderstandings here. There was one step that may not seem like a big deal. It reflected the religious tradition in which I was raised; however, it set me up for huge disappointment, shame and guilt. In short, it was the assumption that I could commit something in my life to God one time and that one time would do forev...

Luke 9:22 - 25 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? In the lexicon of despised words used in spiritual contexts, "deny" ranks up there with "discipline," "surrender," and "detachment." I suspect that people respond to these words out of a difficult history with them, as a part of a religious tradition that was harsh, demanding and full of prohibitions. In truth, a great many people in the Christian tradition gauge their religious expression more by what they oppose or deny th...