Lent

Thursday, First Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Esther C 12, 14-16, 23-25, Psalm 138: 1-3, 7-8, Matthew 7: 7-12

Today’s readings appear to be quite clear about what they are trying to tell us. Rely on God when you are in need, call to God for help and God will answer and turn your mourning into gladness. It is important for us to recognize our need for God. In more ways than we may care to admit we are dependent on God and should seek God’s help especially when we are desperate, feeling alone or overwhelmed. That is an important fact of the spiritual life.

However, the difficulty I think is we’ve all had times in which we needed help or wanted God to help someone who was clearly in need and the problem we faced wasn’t solved or the good we prayed for didn’t happen. So I think the question is, why does Jesus tell us in very plain language that “everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened?” No doubt you have prayed for someone who was dying and they did not recover. You have prayed for people who needed food and assistance yet their needs went unmet. How are we to understand what Jesus and the Psalms say when we read, “I called for help and you answered me.”

I have often heard people try to deal with this situation by saying that God did answer their prayer but God said no. I think there are other ways to think about this that are closer to what our faith is trying to tell us.

Consider Deuteronomy 4:29-30, talking to the Jewish people, God’s chosen people, God says,

“When you have grown old, when you have grown corrupt, doing what Yahweh regards as wrong and so provoking his anger you will vanish from the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will be utterly destroyed. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, only a small number will remain.

If however, from there, you start searching once more for Yahweh your God, if you search for him honestly and sincerely, you will find him. You will suffer everything I have said but in the final days you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.”

 What this passage suggests is that God isn’t promising the Jewish people a rescue from their devastation, but rather an open door to welcome them home when they seek to be close to him.

I think that we have too readily thought of this asking, seeking and knocking in terms of our physical needs and current situation. I think what Jesus is talking about is deeper. His is a view to our outlook and attitude towards life, our trust in God. Will we be overwhelmed and give up or no matter what happens will we make the best of it? Even if “the best” means working through really difficult situations. I don’t think God promises us that life will be easy, or that he will rescue us from physical peril. I do think God offers us the chance for life to be rich, full of wonder, beauty and meaning. God says if we come looking we will find life offers us that outlook, a faith that allows us to see the big picture and be happy with our place in it. Isn’t that what we really want, a life of meaning, to see where good comes from. To know that we counted for something, that we made a difference in this world. I think we can all put up with difficult and even devastating times if we knew the result was worth it.

Let me give you one simple and concrete example. We’ve all seen stories on TV about the family whose house is destroyed but no one is hurt. All they can say is how glad they are that all the kids are OK and they’ll figure out what to do next because they’re so glad everyone is still together. That’s the kind of deeper meaning and values that are addressed by the seeking that Jesus is talking about. When everything has gone wrong with the way we think things should be and we can we still see that life itself is good and worth living then God has opened the door and we have been given what we were looking for.

Monday, First Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Matthew 25: 31-46

Today’s readings are so straight forward we might be tempted to think there is nothing left to say. Leviticus is a list of rules of behavior, the Psalm says God’s laws are perfect and Matthew says at the end of time Christ will separate who goes to heaven from those who doesn’t.

I don’t think these readings are trying to frighten us into good behavior. Too often we focus on the last judgment scene and take it literally as what some future reality will look like. I think it’s more about recognizing that human behavior has consequences. It’s saying God values what people do. Our behavior is important in the grand scheme of things. What we do matters to how life turns out.

Leviticus itemizes a list of behaviors that are all about loving and respecting our fellow human beings. These are concrete practical statements about how to act. This list finishes with the command we all recognize because Jesus famously uses it to answer the Pharisee who asks what is the greatest commandment of the Law. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But this is not just a list of rules. It is an invitation by God for us to be holy. It’s in the second line of this reading, “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” God is saying be like me. Be my friend by doing what I do. Act this way because that’s how I act.

When we get to Matthew, we find out why in Leviticus God gave those guidelines, why it’s so important to love and care for our neighbor. The Son of Man explains, twice, once to the saved and again to the damned, that everything we do for or against others we do to the divine presence. God is here with us, a part of life in this world. That means everything we do in this life has ultimate consequences and importance. Each of us lives a life of value to God and therefore is significant to the life of the world. Each of us will make a difference with the life we live. The only question is what kind of difference. Today’s readings say we are invited to do what God does and be holy as God is.

Ash Wednesday

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Joel 2:12-18, Psalm 51: 3-6, 12-14, 17, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Is anyone confused by today’s gospel? Jesus says in three different ways, don’t parade your religious practices around for others to see: don’t trumpet your alms giving, don’t make a show of your praying, and when you fast don’t make it appear like you are fasting. Yet here we are at Ash Wednesday and many of us will receive a great big cross of ashes on our foreheads. That isn’t exactly praying behind closed doors where no one will see. You can be sure everyone is going to see ashes all over your forehead.

So why does this reading question public displays of almsgiving, prayer and fasting when that is exactly what Lent asks us to do? Perhaps this story of Jesus teaching about traditional acts of piety isn’t about being modest or unassuming in our religious practices?

The first thing I noticed when I spent time praying with this reading was the repetition of the word, hypocrites. We have three different religious practices, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. But we have one type of behavior that keeps getting criticized, being a hypocrite. Whatever Jesus may be saying about almsgiving, prayer and fasting we know he finds fault with hypocritical behavior.

Every time the almsgiving, prayer or fasting is secret or hidden, it is rewarded by God.  When it is done for others to see, it is considered hypocritical behavior. I think, Jesus is saying the key to the value of our actions is the attitude we have in doing it. Unlike the hypocrite, our thoughts, our feelings, the hidden secret inner part of us should match what we do in the open.

Jesus isn’t promoting hiding our almsgiving but rather a giving to others that expresses our real concerns. Jesus isn’t against public prayer, he wants our prayer to be about who we are. Jesus isn’t worried people will know we are fasting, he wants us to fast as a way to focus on what we may too often ignore, those inner feelings or attitudes we hide even from ourselves. Jesus wants us to ask ourselves, are we hypocrites? Do we live based on what we believe? Or do we cover our true feelings with phony behavior? Perhaps, it is what we hide deep inside that should concern us most?

So how does Lent and receiving ashes today help? Why the emphasis on almsgiving, prayer and fasting during Lent? The practices of Lent are meant to break into our patterns of behavior. Just as Joel called for trumpets to blow, just as Paul said this was the day of salvation, we need something to get our attention. Coming to get ashes, and other religious practices like not eating meat on Fridays in Lent, giving money or our time to others, adding a time to pray or changing how we pray during Lent gets our attention so we can practice doing what God’s asks of us. We are being asked to make it intentional so it can become part of who we are.

To use a baseball analogy, think of Lent as our annual spring training. Lent is about getting ready for the regular season. In every sport we understand that to play the game involves learning the skills, doing the drill to get it right. We need to practice what we are going to do during the game so it is part of us. Lent is practice for the game of everyday honest living.

We all know everyday life is responsible and rigorous. It is taking care of our children, making decisions at work, building loving relationships, figuring out what is the most important use of our time. The question Jesus poses is: will what we do each day match the faith we say we believe? Will what we do, match our innermost feelings and attitudes? What we do with Lent could make a difference. Make the decision to do something different in Lent, put in the practice it takes to make a difference every day from now on.

Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95, Daniel 3:52-56, John 8:31-42

Today’s readings are about the challenge of living what we believe. Both readings pit the believer against the establishment of the time. For Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the challenge is the pagan god and statue set up by Nebuchadnezzar. In John’s Gospel, Jesus faces a group of Jews, some of whom think as descendants of Abraham they are automatically God’s children.

What stands out for me in Daniel is the comment of Nebuchadnezzar that these men “yielded their bodies” rather than worship a god other than their own. They acted on their faith. The situation they were in was not some theoretical exercise or test to see if they could answer the catechism questions correctly. They lived their faith by the decision they made in that moment. That’s something that is relevant to us. Do we believe enough in the love and mercy of God to make tough decisions when the prevailing authority wants us to do the opposite?

Jesus faces a similar situation with Jews who think their heritage affords them the privileged position. Today this might look like Christians who know their Bible or Catholics who know all the catechism answers. It’s one thing to know about your faith and another thing to actually trust in God day to day. That’s what Jesus is pointing to when he says, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.”

The way John presents this argument Jesus sees these people as slaves of sin and therefore not only not free but as children of the evil one. If they were children of God they would recognize Jesus as the authentic voice of God. Today we probably wouldn’t suggest the same dichotomy between believers and non-believers. But it is fair to remind ourselves that faith exists only to the extent we live it. Faith is not primarily a mental exercise. It is trust in a God who shares our lives, loves us, forgives us, and supports us in ways we often may not recognize. The choices we make may not be as dramatic as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego facing a fiery furnace but assuredly they are just as important in making us who we are. Sometime we have to, just do it. Because if we believe in Jesus’ loving God then we too must be loving, forgiving and supportive of others even when it may not seem like such a good idea. There is no other way to be a child of God.

Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Exodus 32: 7-14, Psalm 106: 19-23, John 5: 31-47

We are in the midst of Lent. Lent with all its rules about fasting, abstinence, works of mercy and prayer. All those rules and practices however are meant to do one thing, bring us into a closer, deeper relationship with God, with Jesus. I think that is what our readings are about this morning. They are about what it means to have a close relationship with our God, an honest to goodness, every day, husband and wife, brother and sister, known each other for years, drinking buddy relationship with God.

That is exactly what happens in the reading from Exodus when God is angry with Israel and wants to destroy them. God’s friend Moses tells him it’s not a good idea. This is like one good friend talking to another. Visualize this, the two of them are standing next to each other, Moses has his hand on God’s shoulder and he says, “I know you’re really angry and just want to put an end to them all but you went to all that work to get them out of Egypt and now you want to throw it away? And think about it, the Egyptians will say you never wanted to save them in the first place you just brought them out here to kill them. So you are not going to do your reputation any good. Take a deep breath and settle down a little. And remember those promises you made to Abraham and Isaac that you were going to reward them for the work they did. Those two mean a lot to you, don’t they?”

This doesn’t sound like a conversation between a lowly human being and the almighty God. It’s one person confronting another about what she is intending to do. It’s pretty blunt and very bold. Only really close friends can talk to each other that way. That’s what these readings are all about, being close friends with God.

That is also one of the points the Jesus is making in John’s Gospel. He is saying that the people who don’t believe in him don’t have a friendship with God to start with. He’s making it clear that if you are only interested in your own success, if all you care about is what others think of you, then you’re never going to listen carefully enough to hear God speaking in the midst of your own life. You are focused on the superficial stuff.

We need to recognize that even though the Jesus in John’s Gospel is addressing his Jewish contemporaries. The message can also apply to us. We have this huge advantage over the people who lived in Jesus’ time. We know this man lived, that he died and rose from the dead. That’s a pretty big demonstration of why we should believe in him. But we can have the same problem the Jews did if we don’t pay attention to our own relationship with God and to everything that is going on around us. For even though we have stories of Jesus life, death and resurrection let’s not forget that the Jews had stories of Moses, the Exodus, King David and all the prophets. If Jesus can accuse the Jews of not believing in his signs, we have to be sure to pay attention to the signs of love and blessing that are part of our lives.

Recognizing God’s presence can be too easily overwhelmed by news reports, negative attitudes from friends, the struggle to live each day with so much to do or maybe not enough to do. Life can seem overwhelming, in any case. We can overlook the beauty, the blessings, the wonderful people, the great little surprises that happen, the moments of peace and the excitement of a new challenge. These are the signs of our times. Will we choose to see them as God’s gifts? Will we be open to a relationship with Jesus that is based on who we are and what is important to us? That’s how friendships are formed. Two people are honest with each other about who they are and what is important to them. It is what Jesus offers us, a deep personal friendship, today in this life. Do we believe in God enough to accept the invitation? Or will we make the same mistake many Jews of Jesus’ own time did and just think he can’t really mean what he’s saying.