Ash Wednesday - A Prayer Exercise

All around the world Christians from every walk of life went on a pilgrimage to their church or cathedral to walk down the aisle at the appointed time, wait in line near the front of the sanctuary and receive the imposition of ashes on their forehead in the shape of a cross.  What a wonderfully odd act of faith.  Perhaps you stood among those who made such a pilgrimage on Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a time when we focus on our sinfulness.  It is a season when we are reminded of our brokenness and frailty.  It is an opportunity for us to remember that we are formed out of dust and it is to dust that we will one day return.

Now before you quickly close this depressing page, consider that it is only in light of God’s incredible faithfulness and grace that we consider our sin and brokenness as well as the fragility of life.  It is God’s ineffable love and unending mercy that provide us with the backdrop before which we can safely come to grips with our own tattered and scarred lives.

This Lenten Season, take some time to consider those things in your life that seem to pull you away from your core identity as a child of God. 

Think about doing this simple exercise.  On an index card or Post-it Note write down one or two of the things you struggle with the most in your life. Fold the paper several times.  Hold it between your clasped hands.  Pray over the things written on the paper.  Ask for God to give you the strength to let go of those things. Open your hands.  Slowly tear the paper into tiny pieces. Dispose of the remnants in your favorite way (HAVE FUN WITH THIS! Use them as confetti, scatter them in different trash cans around campus, dramatically throw them in a lit fireplace, or sprinkle them like pixie dust down the hall as you run to your next class).

This may seem like a ridiculous exercise.  However, it truly can be a tangible way to get a grip on your own sin and brokenness and dwell in the incredible blessing of God’s forgiveness and grace.

Psalm 103:8-14
“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

LET GO!

You are FORGIVEN!

Be at PEACE!

Mardi Gras and Giving Something Up for Lent

In case you haven't been paying attention, Mardi Gras is this Tuesday.  There will be a myriad of celebrations throughout North America and most likely in your own town.  Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, is the traditional day to eat rich and fatty foods before the fast of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.  It has given birth to the magnificent and wild festivals we now associate with this day. 

Quick digression - this year, Second Presbyterian Church is hosting a Shrove Tuesday (another name for Mardi Gras) jazz concert.  If you are in town, you should definitely check it out.  It is guaranteed to be an amazing concert and fantastic way to commemorate the beginning of Lent (see the ad below). 

As I am sure you are more than painfully aware, Mardi Gras also marks the last day to enjoy whatever activity, food or drink you have decided to "give up" for Lent.  Giving something up for Lent has taken the place of what used to be a complete fast in preparation for Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Sunday (when the fast was traditionally broken). 

In recent years, I have decided not to give something up for Lent.  I confess that I am horrible at keeping my "fasts" when I do decide to give something up.  I inevitably eat the chocolate, drink the caffeine, or quickly jump on Facebook "just this once".  Then I place some wacky guilt trip on myself because of my weak will power. 

I know.  It all sounds rather pathetic, but it is true.  Maybe you can relate. 

In light of my inability to follow through on my fasts, I decided instead of giving something up for Lent I would follow the advice of others by adding something to my spiritual disciplines during Lent's 40 days.  I must say that I have found a tremendous amount of joy in this practice.  It has helped me focus on the meaning of the season of Lent and prepare my spirit for Holy Week.  I am not suggesting that everyone give this a try.  I am simply providing an alternative to those who, like me, have a proclivity for breaking fasts before their time.

Beginning Ash Wednesday and continuing throughout the season of Lent, the blogs on this page will be focused on the season and will include something you might consider adding to your own journey toward the cross.  Have an amazing Mardi Gras and hope to see you at the Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, March 9, 7-8 p.m. in the sanctuary (if you aren't around Indy, find a service close to you).

Poured Out

Look up Luke 7:36-50 (Or click here to read it online).  

In this text, Luke has painted quite a scene.  Jesus has been invited to come dine at a Pharisee's home (a Pharisee was a Jewish religious leader in the first century).  While he was dining a woman came to Jesus and acted in a rather peculiar fashion.  This was a woman of bad reputation.  Apparently, everyone knew.  We are not told what her sins were.  That isn’t point.  What is important is that this unnamed woman came to Jesus immediately upon learning that he was in her town.  She had the audacity to enter into the house of a Pharisee.  She had the veracity to come to Jesus just as she was.  She came to him, but did not approach him in conversation.  Instead, when she was in the presence of Jesus, she wept. 

She wept.  Her tears weren’t any ordinary tears.  No, these tears contained the entirety of her mistake-filled life.  Each salty drop was a new tale of bad choices and soul scars.  Each drop from her downcast eyes traced the lines on her checks that had been left there by her hard life.  And then they fell.  Her tears of lament fell not to the floor, but onto the feet of Jesus.  And Jesus heard the story that each tear carried. 

This courageous woman then opened her jar of expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus' feet.  This jar and the perfume it contained were quite possibly her most prized possession.  This perfume represented who she was in this world, and she chose to empty it on the feet of a man who was called teacher, prophet and miracle worker.

She gave Jesus everything she was and all that she possessed.  She bared her soul and her life to him without even saying a word. 

Now go back to the passage and read it once more.

Notice that there were two responses to the woman’s actions.  The first was the unspoken response of the host.  Under his breath, he condemns the woman and questions Jesus.  “How could he allow this sinful woman to touch him?  How could he allow a woman with that kind of reputation to even get close to him?  Just think of the rumors.  If he only knew.  What kind of prophet could he possibly be?” 

Yet, Jesus knew.  Jesus knew much more than the host of the dinner party could have ever imagined.  Oh, if only the host could have known what was really going on.  Oh, that his heart could have been as open as hers.

The second response is Jesus’.  His focus and his heart-felt, grace-filled response is aimed directly at the beautiful woman kneeling at his feet and collects all of those gathered in its redeeming wake.  Jesus takes this woman of bad reputation and elevates her.  He makes her the example to be followed: her honesty, her sorrow, her brokenness, and her willingness to pour out her life and her soul at the feet of the Master.  Her sins were forgiven because of these things, not just because of her actions.  It was her faith that allowed room for grace and renewal to enter her life.  She had the courage to pour out her life and empty her soul to Jesus, and her sins were forgiven.   

Do we have the courage to follow the example of this unnamed woman?  Can we bring our authentic selves to Jesus?  Can we allow the room to hear and receive Jesus' words, “Your sins are forgiven.  Your faith has saved you, go in peace”?

Hope is the thing with feathers

Where do you find hope?   

Emily Dickinson once wrote,
"Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,


And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.


I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."

Where do you find hope?

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. " (Romans 5:1-5, NRSV) 

Where do you find hope?

It seemed as though winter would never end.  I had grown weary of the frigid temperatures, the biting wind and ever present threat of snow.  I was never more ready for winter to be over, and I would gladly tell anyone who would listen about how irratated I was with my plight. 

One late afternoon, I was walking in the parking lot with my hands in my coat pockets, shoulders hunched close together and my head down cursing the breeze that was attempting to chill me to my core.  How I longed for this dismal winter to finally be over!

Then it happened.  Hope took me by surprise as I neared my car.  The sight of it stopped me in my tracks, and I literally laughed aloud at the sight.  There peaking up through a tiny crack in the pavement was a small flower. There was hope.  Hope disguised as a bloom that had no regard for the impossibility of its surroundings or the harsh realities of its climate.  And there it is.  Isn't that what hope always does?

"and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

Where do you find hope?

In the Face of Uncertainty

Each and every day we face uncertainty.  It seems to be waiting around every corner and hiding in the darkness of every room.  We fight it with all of our might.  With jaw set and fists clinched, we stress and strain hoping that through our own effort we can turn that uncertainty into certitude making clear all that was once unclear.  At the close of another battle with this unseen foe, we realize that this fight is unending.  It seems that uncertainty will always be there.  Life's edges will always appear hazy and unclear.

Yet, our hearts continue to burn for clarity in life.  We long to know exactly what we will face around life's next bend.  We want to know that our actions today will positively impact tomorrow's outcome.  Therefore, we try to project and plan the unclear and uncertain out of our lives.  We pray that their grip on our mind might finally be broken. 

In his book Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning tells of a man who went to spend three months working with the sick and dying in Calcutta with Mother Teresa.  On his second morning there, he met Mother Teresa.  She greeted him and asked, "And what can I do for you?"  (Can you imagine that - Mother Teresa asking what she can do for you?) 

The man replied, "You can pray for me." 

She then asked, "And for what should I pray?" 

The man said, "Pray that I might find clarity."

To his astonishment and dismay, Mother Teresa smiled gently and said that she would not do that. 

When he asked her why, she said, "Clarity is the last thing that you cling to that you must let go of."  When he told her that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed to have, she smiled again and replied, "I have never had clarity, but I have always had trust.  I will pray that you trust God."

Life's unquenchable thirst for certainty and clarity satiated not by effort or through planning but with a relentless trust in a sovereign God.

In what we call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today" (Matthew 6:31-34 - NRSV).

I pray that none of us receive the clarity for which we long.  Rather I pray that all of us learn to trust in the One who will never leave nor forsake - a relentless trust in a sovereign God.