March 29, 2009

It is amazing how quickly time passes us by sometimes. This weekend, we had our daughter’s third birthday, and for the life of me I don’t know where the last three years have gone. And this Lenten Season seems to be rushing by like the wind. Next week is already Palm Sunday and then we’ll be in Holy Week. Now, I recognize that not all of you may be feeling like time is flying. If you’ve given something up for Lent, if you are in the midst of fasting, you may be wondering if this Lenten Season is EVER going to end. But, the end is in sight! Stay strong! And if you’ve taken on a spiritual discipline in this season, now is a good time to look at how the experience has changed your perspective. As we approach the finish line, it’s a good time to refocus and examine the experience. And, if this is just another Sunday for you and you haven’t changed much about your life this season, well, there’s still time. We worship the God of second chances and late arrivers, so there is always time to start something new. It’s never too late for second chance or for a new beginning.

As we look at rebirth today, we will begin with our Scripture reading: JOHN 3:1-10

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Nicodemus is having quite an evening in today’s Scripture passage. I wonder if he had any clue how his day would end when it started that morning? His interaction with Jesus seems to be one of those mind blowing experiences that open up new worlds of thought and faith. Before this interaction we have read about this morning, I imagine that Nicodemus’ life was pretty much under his control. He had his life and his relationships and his faith pretty well figured out. Do you ever have that feeling in YOUR life? For a period of time, everything just sort of works out in your favor. Everything is working out and coming up roses. For every problem there is a simple and effective solution. Every issue that is raised is quickly dealt with. Work, family, life, faith, all the puzzle pieces are finding their proper place and laying flat. You are in the midst of what is known in theological terms as a “Zippity Do Dah, Zippity Day, my oh my what a wonderful day” period of your life. Mr. Bluebird is indeed on your shoulder.

I’ve had one of those times in my life these last few weeks. Every problem that crops up at church has been met and dealt with through the faithfulness and generosity of this congregation. Things have just been very smooth.

And let me tell you, you have to enjoy those times while they last. Because we work very hard for those moments. For that feeling of safety and security and happiness. But all too often they can be fleeting. If you’re anything like me, you may always be waiting for the other shoe to drop, because it seemingly always does. Because, in life it seems we’re always one moment away from a radical shift: the death of a loved one, an unexpected emergency, a diagnosis, a birth, a marriage, a divorce, a move, mourning, loss, pain, heartache, a big earthshaking, life quaking event!

And suddenly, that feeling of safety and security, that feeling of assurance and that imaginary measure of control we have over our lives goes out the window and life CHANGES.

Nicodemus, in today’s passage, may well have been having one of those days and one of those moments. It started out zippity do dah. He was a man in control. He had a position, he had power, he had authority. He was immersed in his religious tradition, in his heritage as a Jew and one of God’s chosen people. He was a Pharisee among Pharisees. He was the leader of the Sanhedrin. He was a man with ALL the answers. He was intimately familiar with the Law of Moses and how it was to be applied to every person’s life. He was logical, rational, and above all CERTAIN. One birth of the right kind was all that was needed. He was a Jew BORN into the kingdom of God.

But through the mask of certainty, we catch a glimpse of a man with burning questions in his heart. There are events happening in his perfectly ordered world that defy his experience and knowledge. There are things happening that he doesn’t fully understand. There is something, no some ONE, who is disrupting his certainty. There’s a hiccup, a speed bump, that is throwing off his carefully ordered life. So he has to investigate, but he has to do it the right way. He travels in the cover of night to speak with Jesus. He has seen and experienced some things that he and his fellow Pharisees cannot explain or understand. And Nicodemus does not like questions. He likes answers. We really don’t know exactly why Nicodemus went to see Jesus. Did he have an agenda? Was it simple curiosity? Did he secretly believe that Jesus was the messiah? Was he there to disprove him? We just don’t know. And Jesus doesn’t really give him the opportunity to explore ANY of those questions. Instead their interaction turns into a strange conversation. It sounds like an episode of that wonderful show of the 70’s “Kung Fu.” Jesus takes on the roll of the kung fu master, telling Nicodemus, “You have much to learn grasshopper.” Jesus goes into full on confusing fortune cookie mode on poor Nicodemus.

And this leaves Nicodemus CONFUSED. All the tools in his bag of tricks aren’t working with Jesus. He tries so hard. He comes in with words of praise for Jesus. He’s really trying to grease the wheels of commerce here. “We know you’re a great teacher and you’re in with God, because you can do all this really cool stuff.” But Jesus just pulls a spiritual Heisman and stiff arms him with his talk of being born again. So Jesus zigs and Nicodemus zags. He tries being logical and rational, so Jesus throws some wind metaphor at him. None of his answers work. His carefully controlled life an faith are just spinning out of control.

And Jesus says it all comes down to this one thing. The basics. The simplest part of our life with God. One word. And that word in the Greek is ‘anothen.’ There’s really no equivalent to this word in English. It’s about a specific time and specific place. It’s the second time and from above. He is telling Nicodemus that he has to be born again from above.

And that, friends, is confusing. It’s hard for Nicodemus to understand, it’s hard for us to articulate in the modern world. Even in a world full of people who claim to be ‘born again,’ there is mystery and wonder in these words that goes beyond our human understanding. But even in the midst of mystery, these are important words for us to hear. Jesus does not use this word anywhere else. It is unique to this encounter, this passage and this gospel. For others, he encourages changes in behavior, turning away from sin, the sale of possessions. He beckons people to come and follow him. But Nicodemus is the ONLY person he says has to be BORN again.

And it’s important to not who it is that Jesus is talking to. He’s not talking to a leper, a beggar, an adulterer, a Samaritan, a Gentile, or a rich person. These are people who we would agree need a new life. A fresh start. A new birth. No, Jesus is talking to people like us. Well, actually he’s talking to a minister, so he’s really talking to me, but I’m going to lump you in with me, since we’re all called to ministers. Plus, I don’t like to be lonely.

Jesus has high expectations of those who claim to be people of faith. These are the people who really need rebirth. These are the people who need a top down change in their lives. We’re the hard cases who need the most work. He is talking to us.
And in the Lenten Season, this is GOOD for us to hear. This is a season of discernment, not only for those new to the faith, but also for those of us who have spent our lives in Christ’s church. Even the most pious, the most holy, the most righteous among us need to be reborn. We all need some top down change in our lives. A Pharisee among Pharisees needs the most radical kind of revision. A second birth of water and the spirit. The kind of life where you see change taking place, the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work. Where there ship of life is still rocking in the wake of what the Spirit has done.

When we stand firmly in the illusion of control, when we start to think we have a handle on life and faith and love and forgiveness, we need to remember Nicodemus. When we live our lives by following all the rules and maintaining doctrine and tradition, we need to remember Nicodemus. When the world seems very black and white, we need to remember Nicodemus.

There is still a lot of space in the world. There is still room for mystery and wonder. All of sudden we can be born again and see the creation with new eyes and a new sense of wonder and awe. We can embrace a God of Mystery, knowing that we will never grasp the fullness of God in this life. But it doesn’t stop our longing. Our great desire to know him. We want to understand him. We want to be understood by him. We want to be forgiven and we want to learn how to forgive. We want to be loved completely so that we might learn to love.

Let the wind of the Spirit blow through our lives and fresh fire by lit in our hearts. Let us be reborn again.

March 22, 2009

This is the fourth Sunday of Lent, and this morning we are contionuing our journey toward the cross. This is the halfway point in this sermon series entitled, “re:lent.” Over these first few weeks, we have been exploring themes and practices that are specific to the Lenten Season. Al these ideas and changes in behavior are meant to help us remove the barriers that we build between ourselves and God. We started out talking about redemption and repentance, and then, last week, we talked about the spiritual practice of fasting, or as we like the call it in the modern world, “Giving something up for Lent.” If you have given something up for Lent, or you are considering fasting sometimes in the future, it’s important to ask yourself what you are going to fill in that void with. If you give something up, what do you fill the gap with? Or, if fasting isn’t something you think you can do, what else can you do? Today, we’re going to flip last week’s sermon and instead of talking about ‘giving up,’ we’re going to talk about ‘taking on’ Lenten Disciplines. These practices help us to renovate our lives.

And we’ll start the renovation with God’s Word:

Read LUKE 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Jesus, before beginning his public ministry in Galilee, worked as a carpenter. Like most young Jewish boys, he took on the profession of his father. Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, was a carpenter, so Jesus was a carpenter. Carpentry is hard and careful work, especially with the hand tools that Jesus would have been using 2000 years ago. It is all about the planning, building, and construction of something, be it a house, a child’s toy, or a chair. You want to make something functional, something beautiful.

But on occasion, it seems like Jesus likes to do a little less building and a little MORE demolition. Today’s scripture passage finds Jesus with the sledge hammer in his hands and he is about to start swinging. And he’s taking some carefully aimed swings at our lives. Every renovation project seems to start with a little demo. But before he takes that first swing, before the rubble starts flying, and the little bits and pieces of our lives are scattered all around us, Jesus takes a moment to WARN the people around him. It’s like he says, “Now would be a good time for you to put on our safety glasses and take a few steps back. Brace yourself, this is going to get messy. The stuff is really gonna start flying here.”

This passage really is a warning. Over the last 10 chapters of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has gathered quite a crowd around him. He’s got this following, this ever-growing-crowd that is walking with him, traveling with him. It’s turning into a little circus. And I imagine that this crowd is like any other. I imagine a standing room only crowd, waiting to see a concert from their favorite musician. Up in the very front, right up against the stage, are the kids who waited all day outside the venue. They want to be close to the star, they want to see the sweat and see every move and hear every word of every song. An then back a little ways from the stage is another segment of the crowd. They want to see and they want to hear, but they don’t want to pushed around or be too crowded. Then back in the back, there are the fringe folks. They came to see the show, but they are, where the bathrooms are easily accessible and in a place where they can make an easy exit when the encore’s over.

The levels of commitment in a crowd sound a lot like the modern church. We’re a crowd like any other.

And Jesus turns to this crowd that surrounds him in this passage. The Disciples, the followers, the disciplined AND undisciplined, the up close and personal believers AND the people on the fringe, and says to all of them, “GET READY. I’m about the swing the hammer. The demo is about to start. And once I start swinging, things just aren’t going to be the same. In fact, I’m going to give you a spiritual hammer of your own and I’m going to expect that you start swinging at your own life. Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for the costliness of the life I’m calling you to?

Because it is COSTLY. It costs us our LIVES to be Disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus isn’t really using metaphor when he says, “Pick up your cross and follow me.” He’s telling them where this life with him is leading. This path they are on leads to a betrayal, a sentence, a hill called Golgotha, to a cross and a crucifixion. Taking on this life with Christ means we put to death the life we lived before. Our old lives are dead. That is part of what it means when we say we are born again in Christ. We forget that cost sometimes in the modern church.

But this crowd Jesus is talking to is a little more aware of the cost of following him. They may have already had to pay a price just to be there, whether they are big believers of fringe folks. Because they were following this man, this self proclaimed rabbi. He wasn’t a Temple rabbi. He didn’t have the formal education of the Pharisees. Their families probably think they are nuts to be out wandering with this man. They have joined a cult and this Jesus is just another wannabe false messiah. To follow Christ was to separate yourself from the life of your family and your community.

And Christ is asking them, and asking each of us, “Have you thought about what this is going to cost you? Have you gotten a real estimate of the cost?”

I watch a lot of HGTV and DIY Network. It’s my go to channel when nothing else is one television. I love those home improvement and renovation shows. They can completely renovate a bathroom or a kitchen in half an hour. And almost all of those shows begin with young, happy, hopeful couple sharing the amount that they have budgeted for their project. They’ve saved and saved and THIS number is how much they have to spend. And about 9 times out of 10, by the end of that half hour, they have completely blown their budget. The costs ballooned and things got out of control. Their estimate was just too low. It costs twice as much as they expected. If you’ve ever renovated a room or a home you know how expensive it can be. And that is just a room in your house. Renovating some aspect of our lives can be just as costly if not more. Taking on spiritual disciplines and renovating our prayer life or our Bible Study or recommitting to worship or fellowship can have a dramatic impact on our lives and the lives of those we love. And it can just blow your estimate of the cost.

And according to Jesus in this passage, being a disciplined Christ follower means that God wants to FULL REMODEL. He wants to gut our sinful lives, rip out our wants and desires. He wants to tear us down to the studs and start over from the scratch. He wants to renovate our lives completely. Because that word renovate, it really means to ‘restore to life.’ That is what God is seeking to do in our lives. And it TERRIFIES us. It is TERRIFYING to think of that kind of radical change in our lives.

The Good News for all of us who are scared of that kind of renovation, is that while I believe that God really does want the FULL REMODEL, he celebrates with us when we find the strength the redecorate. When we take on ONE room of our lives. When we look at the study and say, “That room is so out of date. I haven’t been in their since Sunday School in the 8th grade.” Or we take a look at the kitchen and say, “You know, I could serve more guests if I moved things around a bit.” God loves it when we spruce up the joint. And we can do that through spiritual disciplines.

Part of Lent has traditionally been fasting and abstaining, giving something up. But in the process of taking on spiritual disciplines, we seek to fill the gap left by those things that we have given up. We seek to renovate the out of date and the old. The habits and practices that we have clung too for too long. And we take them on with the new, be it through prayer, silence, generosity, daily devotion, service to God, service to neighbor, tiny benevolences, worsip, fellowship, invitation, hospitality, and study of God’s Word. These are the disciplines, the tools, we use to build up our spiritual muscles. They help us to swing the hammer. To break up our lives so God can build up something new.

You know my favorite part of all those Do It Yourself renovation shows? They make it look just easy enough to try it. They give you just enough confidence to try something STUPID. They have been invaluable in my ministry. Because I have had to adapt and learn some skills in the last five years in ministry, living in church parsonages. In these last few years, I have learned to do some basic electrical work, I’ve fixed toilets and dryers, I have tiled floors and backsplashes, I have torn out old countertops and helped put in new ones, I have repaired leaks and even done a little home rodent removal that still gives me nightmares.

And through it all, there have been times when I have gotten in over my head. I’ve needed to call in some help. But more often than not, I have been surprised by what I am capable of doing.

Our God is a God of renovation. He longs to see us restored to life in Him. Our God, the Body of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, they can give the confidence to try something CRAZY. And you may find yourself in over your head, but the Body of Christ is there to support you. You’re not alone. And you just might surprise yourself with what you are capable of with God’s help.

Take one a spiritual discipline. Swing the hammer. Let the rubble fly and let the renovation begin.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

March 15, 2009

This is the third week of Lent, and as we continue on this journey together as a church, we are talking about ways that we relent to God. Ways that we can seek to stop fighting God and removed those self-imposed barriers that we place between ourselves and God and each other. Over the last two weeks, we have talked about REDEMPTION and REPENTANCE. These are two central themes of the Lenten Season. Redemption is the action that God took in sacrificing his Son for us that changes our belief. And that change in belief is what spurs in us a desire to change our sinful lives and draw closer to God, which is the heart of repentance.

Today we’re going to talk about letting go of even more as we talk about FASTING. To get a sense of the kind of sacrifice Christ is calling us to, we’ll read from Luke 18:18-30.

A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He replied, ‘I have kept all these since my youth.’ When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’
Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ He replied, ‘What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.’

Then Peter said, ‘Look, we have left our homes and followed you.’ And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’

This is a passage of Scripture that has been debated and talked about for centuries. Christians have pondered the meaning of this. What does Christ mean when he tells the rich young ruler to go sell all his possessions. Are we supposed to actually do that? It’s hard to wrap our minds around it when we live in the modern world, in the middle of a consumer culture. By definition, if our system is to work, we have to be consumers of goods and services. And in our culture, it moves beyond the meeting of basic needs for food, water, shelter, and relationships. We live in a culture that sells extravagance and luxury and comfort. And we have grown accustomed to the ‘stuff’ of life. We like our things. We love our material possessions.

And it is in thinking about this love for the material, that I come to some understanding of why we struggle with some spiritual disciplines. No spiritual discipline is easy. They wouldn’t be called disciplines if they were. But there are two that we struggle with more than all the others: TITHING and today’s focus, FASTING. Why are these two disciplines harder than prayer or worship or service or fellowship? Well, because unlike all those others, tithing and fasting require us to give up something PHYSICAL. Service, Prayer, Worship? They require time and energy, but tithing and fasting actually require us to relinquish something that we perceive is OURS. It’s my money, my comfort, my vices, and MY FOOD.

And it’s a foreign concept in America today. Abstaining? Slowing Down? Giving up? Pastor John, you’re bordering on being un-American. Because we are told again and again that in America we strive, we compete, we conquer, we win! Be strong, be better, be richer, be younger, NEVER stop, NEVER give up. And when you hear that message enough, you start to believe that all you have, all you’ve earned is really yours. And more than that, that you’re ENTITLED to more. The world OWES you something. A comedian I was watching recently, was talking about airplane travel, and he was saying that the newest thing on planes was high speed internet access. You can now watch youtube clips and check your email at 30,000 feet. They had unveiled this wonderful new technology on a flight he was on, and after about ten minutes, the internet stopped working. The man next to him said, “C’mon! This is RIDICULOUS.” How quickly the world owes us something we knew existed on 10 minutes ago.

This is the way our world works. This is sadly the way we think and the way we live.
And yet, we worship this God, this savior, who is constantly challenging us to let go of our material possessions, to hold on less tightly to our relationships and cling ever more rightly to him. He calls us again and again, as he did to that rich young ruler and his Disciples, to give up, to relinquish, to hand over, to slow down, to stop. And it is challenging to worship this kind of savior in our modern world, especially as we walk through the season of Lent. Because that is what this season is all about. There is no other time in our culture where we consciously ‘give something up.’ And all of us who are ‘giving something up for Lent’ are really practicing that ancient spiritual discipline of FASTING.

And that word carries a lot of weight with it. We don’t use that word. You don’t tell your coworker “I’m fasting.” You say, “I gave up chocolate for Lent.” And if you’ve never been a church that observes the Lenten Season it may seem strange and foreign to you. It’s an alien concept. You may know it as something that Muslims do during Ramadan or Jews do at certain times during the year, maybe even Catholics on Fridays. Those are people that fast. Jesus, yes, he fasted. But me? Not so much.
We’ve lost the spiritual element of fasting. We’ve lost track of what it means to sacrifice for anything other than our families. Because in the modern world, we feel entitled to be happy. And we tie food and material comforts to our emotions. So if you ask me to give up chocolate, or televisio or facebook, you’re really asking me to be unhappy. In fact, if you ask me to go without food for 24 hours, you may actually be trying to kill me. Fasting is unhealthy Pastor John.

WRONG. It’s good for you. It’s a helpful spiritual practice. We have simply LEARNED that to experience a good and happy life we need to consume more and more. The indulgence of our every want and desire, whether it be for material wealth, entertainment, food, sex, drugs, or alcohol, we are told that THAT is what will make us happy. And we BELIEVE it.

So we miss lunch and we say we’re STARVING.

We can’t afford the house we dream of and we say we’re POOR.

We catch a cold and we say we’re DYING.

Our priorities are all WRONG. Our system and evaluation of our own needs are radically SKEWED in the wrong direction.

And FASTING is a way for us re-align our priorities. To bring a little light to dark places of our want and desire. It’s one way to help fix that which is broken within us. But in order to do it right, we have to change our view of fasting. Because most of the world does it wrong. You yourself may be doing it wrong as we speak. Because fasting, by itself, really doesn’t do anything. It has to be paired with something else. Now, I know that many of you pair your fasting with something, because I’ve heard all about it over the last three weeks. You pair your fasting with whining, complaining, and griping. You pair your fasting with diet and exercise. And do you know what these pairings seem to inevitably lead toward? Us looking for ways to get out of our fast. You can actually hear the mental gears turning as people struggle to find a way around what they have committed to. “Well, Lent is actually forty-SIX days long, so I get 6 free passes to do whatever I want. Well, yes, I gave up TV, but youtube doesn’t count and my computer is not actually a TELEVISION. Except for the screen and the fact that I can watch TV shows on it.” And then there is the story of the little boy that gave up fighting with his brothers and sisters for Lent, and his father asked him, “Well, how is it going?” The little boy looked at his father and said, “Fine, but I sure can’t wait for EASTER.”

We get it wrong more than we get it right. It’s a broken practice that we pair with all the wrong intentions and emotions. It’s difficult, but we think too much about what we give up and far too little about WHY we do it. It’s not supposed to be tied to our complaints, it is a practice that is deeply tied to our PRAYERS. Fasting and Prayer are the Peanut Butter and Jelly of Spiritual Disciplines. They are wonderful on their own, but together than are even better. They reinforce one another and each makes the other more meaningful. And that is the model that has been set for us in Scripture. Fasting and Prayer. Fasting and Prayer. David, Nehemiah, Samuel, Daniel, Barnabus and Saul, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. I’ve looked and looked, but no where in the Bible does it say that anyone FASTED and COMPLAINED. No, they FASTED and they PRAYED.

And the point of fasting is not to punish our bodies or our spirits, but to root out that which controls our lives. Clearly, in today’s passage, the rich young ruler was controlled by his possessions. For us, it may be food, activities, habits, or addictions. And in religious fasting, it is not always giving up something BAD. At times it is about the tension between the GOOD and the GOOD. Because in the practice we find revelations of how important and time consuming some innocuous and trivial things are in our lives. How often we think about them and live around them. It helps us to re-prioritize just how much of our lives are consumed by our WANTS, NEEDS, and DESIRES.

And in a world that constantly tells us to win and achieve, it allows us a moment with God where we can simply LET GO. Because we often find ourselves like toddlers with our hands stuck in a cookie jar. We have our tight little fist wrapped around that cookie and if only we would just let go of it we could slide our hand out. Sometimes we need to release the prize in order to gain our freedom.

Fasting is about making space for God. In that release, in the FAST, we clear away just a piece of that which consumes us on a daily basis. And in it’s place we put our fervent prayers, our great desires for a closer relationship with God.

And it’s not too late by the way. You can start today. You can fast for a day. You can fast every week. You can FAST for Lent, for the summer. For a season. Don’t get wrapped up in what you’ve already missed, but what instead look for where God is calling you to go.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

March 8, 2009

This is the second Sunday of Lent, and we are continuing on with our sermon series entitled relent. In the course of these forty days, we are looking at removing those sins, those barriers, and those actions that separate us from God and one another. We began last week by looking at REDEMPTION. Redemption, at it’s core, is about God’s sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, to buy us back from sin and death. In Christ’s crucifixion, we find God matching our infinite capacity for sin and malice with infinite forgiveness and love. This is God’s great gift to Creation and to us his children, that we might know forgiveness and be saved from our sin.

And that priceless gift was given to us for a reason. That we might know and understand God’s love for us. And that that great love might move us and transform us and convict us and convert us. And change the ways in which we relate to God and each other. And in understanding the redemptive love of Christ, we might move toward repentance. And REPENTANCE is what we are talking about today, and it is a gift. Now it may not seem like such a great gift. Nobody wants to unwrap a big box of repentance under the Christmas tree. But I think this is because we have an unhealthy view of what repentance really is. We seem to get this Spanish Inquisition image in our heads. There’s a lot of self-flagellation and good lashings involved with repentance. There is pain and groveling mixed with some begging and some pleading.
But that’s not really what we’re talking about when we talk about repentance. Repentance isn’t about punishment, but instead is supposed to be about an inward change within us. It’s another of these practices that we take on that spring from our reaction to God’s grace and love. It’s another outpouring of devotion like worship, prayer, giving or serving. It is another important part of our spiritual growth toward God.

So where does the practice of repentance come from? Well, it seems to be the natural response of those who have sinned against God. We see it again and again throughout the Bible. The people of Nineveh repented after Jonah brought God’s prophecy to them. Job repented in his dust and ashes. John the Baptist preached repentance and Baptism. Among the first words that Christ uttered as he began his ministry in Galilee were, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near.”
The roots of the word repentance are found in the Old and the New Testament. The Hebrew word “shuv” means ‘to return.’ The “nicham” means ‘to feel sorrow, to sigh, or to moan.’ So to repent in the language of the Old Testament was to look back with sorrow. The Greek word used in the New Testament was “metanoia” which literally translated means to ‘think differently after.’ But more than just literal words and translations, we find repentance to be turning away from sin. It is the work we do as believers to change our sinful lives. We turn away from sin and return to God with a fervent desire not to further separate ourselves from God and neighbor. It is the work of all the prodigal children of God.

But if we’re already forgiven, why is this important? If we’ve been bought back, if Christ paid the price for our sin, then why do we repent?
READ LUKE 16:19-31

This parable that Christ shares is disturbing to us on many levels. This description of Hell is troubling to our ears and frightening. I think it’s made all the more frightening because when I look at the world, I find myself looking the most like Rich Man in today’s passage. The man who finds himself in hell looks an awful lot like you and me. He lives in relative safety and security. He’s comfortable . He wears the right clothes and never lacks or goes hungry. He lives safely behind his gate in a nice neighborhood. But right outside his door, so close he could touch him is Lazarus. But he can ignore him. He doesn’t have to look at him if he doesn’t want to. His life doesn’t have to come contact with Lazarus’. He lives an insulated life, free of pain and hunger and need.

For the vast majority of us, this is the life we know. We may not call it luxury, but it is. We hide behind subdivisions and gated communities, and good school systems and high priced homes. We live lives that allow us to avoid the pain of this world. We aren’t touched by hunger or violence or poverty, outside of a few stories on the evening news and we can turn that off if it gets to be too much. If it gets too depressing.

Because we don’t want to look at Lazarus. He’s poor and homeless. He’s starving outside our front door, and he dreams of the food we throw away on a daily basis. He is not well. Covered in sores, living in untreated illness. He has no relationships. He needs a doctor, he needs a hand, he needs a meal, but the only attention he gets is the gruesome attention of a pack of dogs.

The rich man has sinned, both knowingly and unknowingly. He has built a chasm between himself and that which he does not want to see or acknowledge. “Poverty, hunger, illness, isolation? No thank you. Keep all that away from me.” This chasm that he has built is wide, but unlike the one waiting for him in the afterlife, THIS one can be crossed. There are daily opportunities for him close this gap. And this is what repentance is all about. Turning around. Recognizing where we have gone terribly wrong and doing something to change it. This is not paying for our sins. This is not earning our way into heaven, but instead the heartfelt change that occurs when we acknowledge what it is that God ahs done in Jesus Christ. But it’s hard for us. It’s easier to continue to walk down that path toward destruction than it is for us to turn around. It’s easier to take the path of comfort and ease than to seek the path that God is calling us to.

The rich man in today’s passage continues down the path of his own choosing. He doesn’t realize that he needed to change until it’s too late. It’s only when he standing in the midst of agony, thirst, and isolation that he sees. There he is separated from the safety, security, and comfort that he had always known. He didn’t realize that a change was required of him. And it’s here that he cries out to Lazarus and Abraham across this chasm, and begs that they go and tell his brothers to repent. Tell them to turn around. Tell them to change.

And it’s at this point in the story that I realize I’m not really supposed to identify with the rich man. We’re actually supposed to see that we are the brothers. Abraham tells the rich man, “They have the law, they have the words of the prophets, one man rising form the dead to tell them to repent isn’t going to change anything.” We are the brothers. We have the law, we have the prophets, we have the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and still so often we remain UNMOVED. We have everything we need to understand that we must change, but we stay stuck in our self made comfort and security.

But we are called to repentance. Redemption moves us to new belief. But you cannot have a change in belief without a change in behavior. As we profess this faith, we have to see that Sanctification, Spiritual Growth, accompany that new faith. Repentance is the gift of our tears. It moves us to change that which separates us from God, and challenges us to grow in our faithfulness and righteousness. It is a desire to be a more holy people. And it’s more than mere regret or guilt. It is more than mourning the sins of our past, but is instead a celebration of God’s restorative power and promise. It is a promise for a better future. Because we have seen what happens when we stay the course of safety, selfishness, and sin. It leads only to death and destruction. But the way that leads to life eternal, our savior Jesus Christ, well, it’s a challenging path. It’s an uphill slope and narrow path that challenges us to cast off the weight and burden of our past sins. Because these are the things that drag us down. They hold us back. They keep us from where God is calling us to be.

And we serve and love a God that only wants us to run to him. Free of the shackles of sin and death. Free of that which holds us down. And we take one step closer to him every time we repent and turn away from that which separates us from God.
Every act of repentance is a handful of dirt tossed into the chasm that separate us from God and each other. Sometimes it’s just pebble, sometimes we a handful of dirt and on occasion we move mountains of dirt into that chasm. But we serve a relentless God, who never stops calling us to relent to him. Because he wants to see us walk across that chasm. He wants to see us run.

*I believe a sermon is meant to be heard in worship, and therefore warn you that what is written here and what was preached on Sunday morning, may be very different. Inflection, correction, and a whole different direction are possible in the moment of preaching and cannot be expressed in the written sermon.


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