Lent - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2023 | The First Sunday in Lent

The Collect

O Lord, who for our sake did fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being submitted to the Spirit we may ever obey your godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to your honor and glory, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.¹

The Lessons

Psalm: Ps. 91

O. T.: Gen. 3:1-21

Epistle: 2 Cor. 6:1-10

Gospel: Matt. 4:1-11

Meditation

Lent 2023 Series

Collect and Lessons are from the Book of Prayer and Order (2020). [↩]

Lent 2023 | Day 4: The Gospel’s Focus

The Gospel is Simple

As the years have passed by, I have reflected more and more on what the Gospel is and what it is the answer to. The Gospel is a response to a specific issue in the God-human relationship. There are other things that could be discussed about the Christian faith, but those should be brought up after the Gospel has been shared and accepted. To do it earlier would confuse what the Gospel is and why it is needed. (A problem quite common in our day.)

Too often we think that all the content and ideas that we now know as part of the body of knowledge of the Christian faith must be also received and accepted in order to share the Gospel. This is not correct. All of the theology and concepts that make up orthodox belief are learned after faith in Christ. A faith in Christ that is initiated through an acceptance of the Gospel’s call to repentance.

The Question the Gospel Answers

So, what is the focus of the Gospel? It is to pinpoint the issue that is keeping any person from having a relationship with God.

And what is that issue? It is our sin.

The Gospel is God’s answer to the question of what is keeping me separated from God.

That’s it. The Gospel is not answering any questions about theological quandaries, social problems, or any other questions we might have about life in this world.

The Gospel tells us what needs to be addressed and how God has chosen to address that issue.

We Must Know the Gospel

Several weeks ago I spoke on the theme that would be the focus of this year. Our theme, like this series of reflections, is on knowing the Gospel. In order to be effective disciples we must become experts in the message that saves. If we are not, then we will be unable to effectively engage with the world around us.

Any deficiency in our understanding of the Gospel will find its way into how we think about God, ourselves, and others. When we do not have a firm grasp of what the Gospel is about, we can make it about almost anything. This is a danger to all involved.

It may not appear to be so, but the temptation to “help” the Gospel will increase over time. The singular problem with this drift is it reveals a presumption we have. It is the belief that we know how to best communicate to others what God has perfectly designed.

There are two specific effects of sin that the Gospel addresses as it answers the question of sin. We will look at them now.

Our Identity was contaminated

The first effect is that our identity was completely scrambled by sin. When Adam and Eve accepted the serpent’s version of what God had said, they lost their identity. They were made in the image of God. That means they were reflections of God, not copies of God.

Humanity is not, and was never supposed to be, gods. But, by accepting the serpent’s false promise they have up what they were. They were guardians and stewards of God’s creation. Entrusted with its care and authorized to enjoy its fruits. But when they accepted the possibility of being like God they could no longer enjoy the task they had been assigned.

And ever since then, we have been trying to refashion ourselves as if we were God. This is not only an impossible feat, it is a prospect only a fool would entertain.

Fellowship with others became adversarial

The second effect of sin is that our relationships with others became adversarial. We were not in competition with those around us.

We see this when Adam and Eve both blame someone else for their sin. But we also see it in what happened to the first sons born outside of the Garden. The older, out of jealousy, killed his brother. And then pretended not to know that he was in fact responsible to look out for his brother.

Both of these effects are the consequence of sin. And both of these are answered by the entrance of Jesus into the world. Through his life and example, Jesus begins to show us what a world without sin looks like. But he does it amongst sinners. Giving us hope that we too can someday, somehow do it as well.

Conclusion

The Gospel is God’s answer to the issue of sin. This is the focus of the message we have believed.

Everything else is what we learn as we continue to be thankful for God’s grace in Jesus.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 3: The Gospel’s Need

The need of the Gospel is that we must find a way to have that relationship restored. However, we are not in a position to make that happen.

In order to understand why we need the Gospel we have to appreciate what was lost. The need for the Gospel is that we, those with broken fellowship with God, must find a way to have that relationship restored. However, we are not in a position to make that happen. We also do not have the authority to do it.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us needing someone or something that has both the authority and the ability to change the situation.

This is where the Gospel comes in. The Gospel is the remedy we need, but may not always fully appreciate. I can say that without a doubt in my own life.

Growing up Christian is Not Enough

I’ve been a Christian my entire life. There has never been a time when I did not see myself as a member of the Church or as a follower of Christ. But, as I grew in my knowledge of the Gospel, God, and my own sin, I realized that was not enough.

Just because I grew up in church and in a Christian home, that did not make me a Christian. I did not receive faith by osmosis. I had to learn I had a need. A need only God could satisfy.

Over the course of my life, I have thought about why I “forget” that I need the Gospel. Why do I slip into this mindset where I think “I’m good to go. I don’t need anything,” at least spiritually speaking?

Where does this come from?

At least for me, it comes from taking for granted the circumstances that require a Gospel to be proclaimed at all. I fall into this way of thinking when I simply do not consider how the trajectory of human history has been toward selfishness and pride.

Sure there have been moments of altruism and even self-sacrifice. Examples of men and women who have given their lives for others. But, on the whole, the reason those examples stand out is that there seem to be so few of them.

Communion with God was severed

The principal issue that necessitated the Gospel was humanity’s communion with God was severed. It was broken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

There have been debates about what exactly happened. Some are more interesting than others. A few are more entertaining than others. Regardless of the point of view, the reality remains: Adam and Eve’s disobedience disrupted humanity’s communion with God.

As a result, paradise was lost. Innocence was forever tarnished. And the brokenness that entered in by that disobedience has been inherited in each successive generation.

Whether or not we will ever know what happened is not really the point. We can look at the world around us and know something is not right out there. We all seem to have become calloused to the way life is devalued. We want to believe otherwise. But it is hard to escape the influence of this broken fellowship with God.

God’s Holiness was challenged

But why was the punishment for disobedience exile?

That is a good and fair question. The best analogy that has been shared with me can be found in many judicial systems. It is the idea of restitution. That what was stolen or destroyed must be restored. But if the item itself cannot be returned, then some form of compensation is paid to the injured party.

One of the challenges with restitution is that only the one who has been harmed can be repaired. Only the one who has been deprived of what was taken can determine what will satisfy the injury. At a basic human level, we all can understand this. If a window is broken, a new window is installed and/or paid for.

But how does this work with God? How do we, who are finite and now broken by sin, pay restitution to God? What was damaged by our disobedience was the holiness of God. Not in the sense that God was hurt or diminished. God’s holiness was challenged by Adam and Eve’s disobedience and God, because he is perfection itself, cannot abide such behavior in his presence.

The Grace of God was still on Display

And even in his punishment, God showed mercy. He told the first couple that the result of their disobedience would be death. But before he passed that judgment, God sent them away so that they might be restored in some way. So, death became the result of their sin, but it was delayed because of grace.

In the first, chapters of the Bible, we see the gospel in seed form. God in his perfection must act to address the reality of sin, but he does so by giving those who have sinned against him every opportunity to be restored.

The Gospel’s need is seen from the very opening of God’s word. We see how much was lost; how badly humanity was affected by sin. And yet, God does not merely destroy his creation. God acts according to his character. And God acts in such a way as to advance his goal of preparing the way for the Gospel.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 2: The Gospel’s Origin

When our trust in the Word of God is challenged, our faith can be shaken. Once that shaking begins we become every more unstable in our confidence of God has revealed.

As creatures constrained by the limitations of our nature, we are bound by time and space, we often struggle with understanding God’s perspective. It would be better to say we almost never understand God’s mind.

I am always leery of those who claim to be able to do so. Because of my caution in this area, I encourage an ever-growing confidence in God’s word. It is the trusted record of God’s purpose for us.

When our trust in the Word of God is challenged, our faith can be shaken. Once that shaking begins we become ever more unstable in our confidence of God has revealed.

God, speaking through the prophet, says as much. He tells us that

⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹“For asthe heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV

This is more than just a declaration of a difference in degree. It is a proclamation of the difference in kind.

How God thinks is beyond our ability to guess or even approximate. When we really consider the issue, we realize that all our attempts at understanding how God operates will be miserably short.

Why does this matter?

The Gospel message, the message that communicates how God has determined to redeem lost sinners, was not an invention after the fact. The fall of humanity was not a possibility from God’s perspective. It was a certainty. One he anticipated and prepared for.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6 NKJV

When did God decide to put his plan of salvation into place? The apostle Paul tells us “from the foundation of the world.” This is a euphemism that points to eternity past.

The origin of the Gospel’s purpose and promise was considered and enacted before God spoke one word to create the universe in which we live.

It is with this starting point that we can better understand how precious the Gospel really is.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 1: Ash Wednesday and The Gospel’s Premise

One of the essential images of the Ash Wednesday commemoration is the imposition of ashes on the forehead or hands of believers. It is a tradition that goes back centuries. One that many have never experienced.

If an Ash Wednesday is not a part of your tradition of faith, I would encourage you to attend one. This is more an encouragement for my friends who are in non-liturgical churches. But even if your tradition does celebrate Ash Wednesday, visiting with believers in other traditions and experiencing how they celebrate the day may be well worth the time and effort.

But, it is a helpful question to ask: why impose ashes? Why do this at all?

The ashes represent our mortality. That we have a finite time here on this earth. And that we should not take for granted what we have.

Life is a gift. One we can never repay. Nor should we even try. The best we can do is enjoy what we have been given. In the best way, we can.

Life is not always easy or smooth. There are many who have suffered a great deal in life. And for those in circumstances like these, it can be difficult to enjoy the gift of life.

I can appreciate that. What I offer is a reminder. Not that all of life will be perfect. Without trouble or conflict. I just want to call our attention to the fact all of life is a gift. Even when it is not turning out like we wanted it to. Even when it is hard.

When we receive the ashes, we are acknowledging and accept that we are not in control of our own destiny. What does that mean? It means we feel deeply the reality we are not in control of whether or not we wake up each morning or even controlling something as mundane as our next breath.

In all of this, we are the beneficiaries of God’s grace.

We want to believe that we are the authors of our own stories. That we are not beholden to anyone or anything. But this misses an essential aspect of the human experience—that we are restrained by time and space.

Our finitude is not a curse. But it is a restriction we have to embrace.

The ashes are made by burning the dried palm branches of the previous year’s Palm Sunday Celebration. The link between Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem a week before his crucifixion is significant.

We are called to remember our mortality as Jesus was called to surrender his on the cross.

Remember that you are dust, to dust you shall return. This is the central motif of Lent.

May we embrace this message with fervor. We have no reason to fear.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Introduction: The Season of Lent

The Day before Ash Wednesday

The day before Ash Wednesday has a variety of names. It has been known as Fat Tuesday. But more commonly it is known as Mardi Gras. Most people would think of the party that takes place in New Orleans, but there is an important liturgical reality to the day preceding Ash Wednesday.

The reason for this is two-fold. The Season of Lent is a time of fasting and reflection. It is the liturgical season that precedes Easter. Through the centuries, the Church has used this time to remember how much we need Jesus. His life, death, and resurrection together serve as the climax of God’s redemptive work through him.

The day prior to Ash Wednesday was used as a way of enjoying those things that would be forsaken during the season of Lent. However, as with most things, this meaning was, in great measure has been lost, and we only remember the party. And not what the celebration was preparing us for.

The Season of Lent

As we enter into Lent, we are all called to make an evaluation of how we have been living out our faith. We are challenged over the course of six weeks to deny ourselves of some temporal good so we can increase our focus on some spiritual reality. It really isn’t about what we give up or what we add to our daily spiritual disciplines. The focus should be on intentionally drawing closer to God, even if we only participate in this level of focus for a season once a year.

As we live our lives, we can’t all adopt the lifestyles of monks and nuns. There are bills to pay, children to raise, work to do, and so many more responsibilities we have tend to. And all of these are important. They serve as the outlets through which we can show the world what God has been doing in us.

One Life to Live

When we see the activity of a spiritual life as being of a different kind than what we do in our “everyday” life, we are making a critical mistake. There should not be some distinction between our “faith life” and our “normal life”.

We only have one life.

And the better able we are to understand this, the more likely we will be to avoid artificial barriers in our lives.

This is what this series of reflections is about this year.

Let’s Focus on the Gospel

The Gospel is the most important message ever proclaimed. In it and by it, we are invited to return to what God desired for his creation—that we would live in fellowship with him. But, since the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, we were and have been separated from God. Therefore, God enacted a plan to redeem what was lost.

The Gospel is the hub from which we can understand all that God is doing in the world and in us.

As we look at the Gospel, each reflection will highlight one characteristic of the Gospel message. This is not intended to be an exhaustive study of the Gospel. It’s meant to be descriptive. To help us better understand that what the Gospel does is far more and far more wonderful than we may have ever fully realized.

I pray you will find these reflections edifying. If you do, I invite you to do two things.

Comment below each reflection letting me know how the thoughts challenged you or reminded you of something you already knew.
Sign up for our newsletter. You will get each new post in your email so you don’t miss a single one.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2022 | Day 40: Death

The Saturday before Easter is an interesting day in the liturgical calendar of the Christian churches.

The Saturday before Easter is an interesting day in the liturgical calendar of the Christian churches. It has been referred to by a variety of names depending on the liturgical tradition of the church one is considering. In some, it is known as Great and Holy Saturday, Great Sabbath, Saturday of the Gloria, and Black Saturday. [Source]

A couple of the customs practiced in some form throughout the various liturgical traditions is the use of black linens to cover whatever might adorn the table or altar at the front of the church. There is also the practice of stripping the sanctuary of any and all items that might usually be present during a regular service.

In those churches where these practices are not performed, the significance may be lost. But on that first Saturday after Jesus’s crucifixion, it had to have been a day of deep morning for the disciples. It was essentially a funeral day. One that could not be properly finished because it occurred on the Jewish Sabbath.

So the act of removing all signs and symbols of the faith from the sanctuary of the church or covering it with black linen is to represent both the despair and the questioning that must’ve happened to the disciples. We have the benefit of knowing what happened on Sunday morning. But for them, there was no guarantee of resurrection.

For the entire history of the human journey upon the earth, death has marked the transition from life into the unknown. Our inability to know what exists on the other side of death’s door can cause many to fear. And rightfully so. There is no greater uncertainty than what happens next after this life is over.

This is why Jesus’s promise is so revolutionary. It gives us hope that if he was able to travel through that door and return then we too will be able to do the same if we go with him.

As we commemorate the waiting the disciples did on that first Saturday before Easter, I would invite you to consider the void they must’ve felt at the thought and reality of the death of Jesus. Like all who have lost people they love, the disciples must’ve felt quite lost and filled with despair as they mourned. But while they waited with not much certainty of what would happen just a few hours later, we can rejoice in the fact that Sunday morning is just around the corner.

But today, on this Holy Saturday, we wait.

We wait and we remember how death threatened to destroy the hope of the disciples. And we consider how death could destroy our hope if it had not been defeated by the resurrection of Jesus.

Lent 2022 | Day 39: Friend

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants.

We are now days away from celebrating the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. This single event defines the fullness of our faith. Without the resurrection, we are left with no hope for what lies beyond the grave. But in the resurrection, we find a reason to endure the trials of this life and look forward to the promise to be fulfilled.

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants. After all of their time together he had shared with them and talked with them about all that the Father had given to him. Now, as a result, they were ready to transition from those who were receiving to those who could give to others.

How do we know this is true? Jesus tells them he no longer called them servants but that he now considered them to be friends.

There is a big difference between a servant and a friend. The biggest of the differences is a servant does not have the same kind of access that a friend does. Servants cannot call upon their master and seek the same kind of comfort that a friend offers to a friend.

The reality this is describing is that at the end of our journey with Jesus we should be able to consider him our friend. In this case, what I mean by the journey is the journey of discipleship. That time where there is intentional and specific training, instruction, and encouragement to live out what is being learned. But there comes a moment we stop being students and we must begin to live for ourselves. Not ignoring what we have learned but according to what we have learned.

It has become my practice whenever I enter into a discipleship relationship to tell them from the beginning, “At the end of this discipleship process, however long the Lord gives us, if we are not better friends I will have failed to have discipled you properly.”

This mindset comes from what Jesus told his disciples. At the beginning, there was a great deal of transfer of information and correction from Jesus to the disciples. But as they matured they became more than just receptors of information and truth. Whether or not the disciples truly understood this does not change the fact that Jesus said this was his desire and his intention.

Whether or not we have ever felt like this about those who have discipled us in the past does not matter for how we should move forward. When we realize what Jesus was trying to do in and through us we become accountable for that.

And so as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s great promise of salvation we should give thanks to Jesus Christ who is that friend that sticks closer to us than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Jesus is the greatest friend we will ever have. Let us learn from him and be good friends with those whom we journey within this life. Even if it is only for a short time.

Lent 2022 | Day 38: Betrayal

During the night of the Last Supper, at the conclusion of the meal, Jesus tells the disciples that one among them would betray him.

As we approach the end of the season of Lent this year, we enter into the events that occurred prior to Jesus’s execution on the cross of Calvary. There are many things that occurred during that final week. Some of them encouraging and serving as reminders of God’s grace toward us as followers of Jesus. But some other events can remind us of how dark life can get when we lose our way.

The one event that comes to mind in this final week of Jesus’s life was the decision made by Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus into the hands of the high priest and his followers. During the night of the Last Supper, at the conclusion of the meal, Jesus tells the disciples that one among them would betray him. All of them looked around unsure as to who it could be. And while we are given no indication that anyone suspected Judas of being the betrayer, the biblical record indicates that Judas knew Jesus was talking about him.

It is so hard to describe or adequately articulate the feelings associated with an act of betrayal. The feelings and thoughts that emerge when that breach of trust is finally exposed can leave very deep emotional and spiritual wounds.

We can only imagine how Jesus felt knowing who would be the catalyst for the events that would lead to his death. And then for the other disciples to learn who among them had cast aside all they had seen in and through Jesus for 30 pieces of silver must’ve been a great shock.

While we would like to think we are not capable of such an act, the truth is not only are we capable in the right circumstances but we let ourselves off the hook for the small betrayals we commit against our own consciences and integrity. I do not mean to malign anyone or to falsely accuse anyone without cause. My intention is to reveal how easy it can be to judge the motives of another while giving a lenient interpretation of our own motives.

This entire topic is so difficult because it requires an omniscient mind in order to understand the multitude of contours that go into the decision. It can be overly simplistic to think that people commit a betrayal in a moment. The truth is the final act of betrayal is the culmination of a journey away from what one believed to be true at some point in the past.

I find it hard to believe that when Judas was called by Jesus he intended to betray him three years later. But at some point in his time walking and talking with Jesus he became discouraged with how Jesus was doing his ministry in the world. And that seed of doubt continued to grow until it bore the fruit of betrayal against Jesus.

We must all be careful what we allowed to grow in the soil of our heart. Because we do not know when that seed of doubt will bring forth its fruit in our lives. Again, my intention is not to scare anyone but to encourage an intentional awareness of those things that could take root in our minds and hearts.

While the season of Lent is coming to an end and we turn our attention to rejoicing in God’s faithful salvation through Jesus, it is a stark reminder of how fragile we all can be. Judas’s act of betrayal must serve as an example of what can happen when we allow ourselves to stand in judgment over how God chooses to act in the world.

Lent 2022 | Day 37: Search

The season of Lent is an opportunity for searching once again. It is a reminder to set aside those things that would keep us from deepening our commitment and relationship to God.

The prophet Jeremiah records a letter he sent to the exiles while they were in Babylon. The purpose of the letter was to remind them that God had not forgotten them nor abandon them there. It can be difficult to imagine how the Israelite people must’ve felt to receive that letter. They had been in captivity for many years, struggling to make sense of how God would deliver them out of the hand of their captors.

In one section of the letter Jeremiah offers to them these words:

¹²“then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations in all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will ring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV

Throughout the Scriptures, there are instances where God encourages his people to seek him. The idea of searching is an encouragement to be actively engaged in the process of understanding what God is calling his people to. When we remain passive in our understanding of the faith we miss out on an important element of what it means to be followers of God. That element, stated simply, is the idea of journeying with God. We have been called to leave familiar places and to search for God where he has called us to go.

One of the beautiful aspects of what Jeremiah tells the people of God is seen in verse 13. He says to the people, “you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

There are two important points made here that we must be diligent in recognizing. The first point has to do with the manner in which we seek God. This is seen in the second half of the verse. We must seek God with our whole heart. What that is describing is a complete commitment to the task of searching. It is not enough to pay lip service to this.

If we are not truly and honestly seeking after God then we will never really find them. Not because God is trying to stay hidden. We will not find God because we never really sought him. This is an important precondition to our journey of faith. It is not designed to restrict us. It is quite the opposite. By making it known that only a genuine search for God will lead us to where God is, God has made clear how we can assess whether or not we will ever find God.

The second point, found in the first half of the verse, is the promise built into the act of searching. The promise that God offers to his people is that if we seek him according to the manner he described then he will be found. This is a promise of certainty. This is a promise God has obligated himself to fulfill. Not because he owes us, but because he has stated the conditions and the results he will relate to us with.

The season of Lent is an opportunity for searching once again. It is a reminder to set aside those things that would keep us from deepening our commitment and relationship to God. It is a time where we can challenge and even oppose the forces at work against our faith through dedicated focus. But most importantly it is a persistent reminder every year that God has called us to seek him.

As we celebrate Easter this year may we remember that God is still calling us to seek him. I pray that I might recommit myself to seek him with my whole heart. I pray that you will do the same.