Category: Liturgical Calendar

Lent 2019 | Day 4: The Comfort of Grace

The Church may have its problems, but the Church is not the problem!

I grew up in church. As the son of a minister, I have spent virtually every Sunday of my life attending a church service of some kind. Even when I go on vacation I try to find a local assembly where I can gather with other believers and join in the corporate worship of God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It may sound odd, but I have always felt at home in the church. I have always found peace and comfort in the church. I know that there are some aspects of the church that we would all change. Things that we wish may be done a different way, but in the end, the Church is the plan God established and that Jesus commissioned for the work of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

As I have gotten older, I find myself thinking about a comment my father made several years ago. He said, “The greatest evidence for the existence of God is the existence of the Church. Only God could sustain the Church throughout the centuries when you considered the kind of people that make it up.” He is right. The Church may have its problems, but the Church is not the problem!

The Grace that God gives to the world in a common way, or to his redeemed people in a special way, gives me comfort when the circumstances of life are not unfolding as I would like. God’s grace is a balm for the many hurts we experience at the hands of our neighbors. Even if that neighbor is a family member.

When we wake up each morning and we open our eyes, we have to choose to remember that we have been forgiven. We have to choose to take hold of the promise that God is faithful to his word. God will not fail to complete that which he has started. This is grace. Leaning into the truth of God’s grace brings comfort. Remembering that God’s word will not return void and that it is effective to accomplish what he has purposed is how we hold on while we press on.

Remember to remember that God’s grace is a comfort as we march toward Resurrection Sunday!

Lent 2019 | Day 3: The Challenge of Grace

For the last couple of days, we have looked at a couple facets of God’s grace in our lives. Today, I want to look at grace, not from God’s perspective, but from ours. What I mean is that after we have become aware of the breadth of God’s grace we are confronted with a significant challenge. That challenge is to become ambassadors of God’s grace to the world.

The world is a hard place to live in sometimes, but we have been enabled and empowered to live in it. There are many ways for us to be distracted but God has given us everything we will need to live for him in this crazy world.

I find that the great challenge is to take what we have received to those God will bring into our lives. We don’t have to be afraid to talk to people of what God has done. We are works in progress. We are in the path of sanctification. We are not what we are supposed to be, but if we stay faithful to the truth of the Gospel, the truth of God’s grace we will find the challenge is still present. Just not a burden that causes us to be hindered.

I pray that we will see the call of God to be ambassadors of Christ to be a challenge worth taking and not a challenge needing to be avoided.

Lent 2019 | Day 2: The Mystery of Grace

Whenever I think about God’s grace I tend to alternate between thankfulness and confusion. I am thankful that God’s love has made a way for us to have fellowship with him. I am thankful that when I heard the Gospel I believed and now have the hope of eternal life. I am thankful that God has given grace and mercy when what I deserved were judgment and wrath.

But I am also confused. Why would God do this? Why would God be gracious to me, a sinner? Why would God provide a way of escape to those who most often make selfish choices? I am not qualified to answer these questions. They are mysteries that reside within the person of God. Only God can answer why he has afforded a fallen humanity grace for eternal life.

But the mystery does give me hope. It gives me hope because, in spite of my insecurities and fallen nature, I have come to know that I have been born again. Sure, there I days when I struggle to hold onto that hope. But, most days I remember that it was not by any works of righteousness I have done that salvation was gifted to me. God has given me the gift of salvation by his gracious love and mercy. He knows I am incapable of ascending to him, but he has already proven that he is willing and able to descend to us.

Jesus is proof of God’s love and grace. Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made. When Jesus walked on the earth, he was a living, physical, perfect representation of everything God had said he was going to do in and for sinners. The mystery is difficult to explain, but it is not too difficult that it can’t be experienced.

We may be tempted to ask a plethora of “why” questions and never quite be satisfied with the answer for why God is gracious. But when we ask the “how” question of grace—How have we received God’s grace?—the answer is quite simple. We have received grace because of Jesus.

Lent 2019 | Day 1: The Wonder of Grace

The concept of grace is the central reality we should all seek to understand if we want to make any sense of humanity’s relationship with God.

In the Christian theological system, the concept of grace is the central reality we should all seek to understand if we want to make any sense of humanity’s relationship with God. The Scriptures reveal that all of mankind has fallen so terribly short of the glory of God. And, because of this fallen condition, we can see how distant we can be from God and from each other.

The world seems to be growing more chaotic, sliding farther into disarray. You just have to spend a few minutes on social media or on a news site to see what I mean. We can deny it if we want to, but we cannot escape the effects of a world filled with sinners.

In spite of this reality and into the midst of this quagmire of foolishness God sent his Son. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God was accomplishing his work of redemption. He was provided as the final answer to the problem that plagues the world. On the cross of Calvary and in the death God’s anointed Messiah, the ultimate reprieve was achieved.

The work of making a way to life eternal had been completed. Do we still have to wait for its consummation in our experience? Yes. But the promise of eternal fellowship with God has been guaranteed for all who will repent of their sin and entrust their lives completely to Jesus. This is the wonder of Grace. That God has not only provided a way of escape, but he is also continually offering this way the lost.

During this season of Lent, I encourage you to take some time and wonder at God’s grace again. Don’t let a day go by thinking that you understand it. It is too big, too good to say that we do.

Lent 2019: Forsaking all for the sake of Christ

It truly is amazing how something as simple as the liturgical calendar can help you to refocus your attention on what God is doing in the world and in your life.

I was reintroduced to the liturgical calendar when I began serving in a United Methodist Church in the winter of 2009. I knew that some traditions of the Church used a calendar to mark the seasons, but I did not grow up with it. Or at least it was not something at the top of my consciousness as a regular churchgoer.

It truly is amazing how something as simple as the liturgical calendar can help you to refocus your attention on what God is doing in the world and in your life. As I have embraced this new awareness and rhythm in my own life, I have found myself more mindful and present to God’s work.

Today is Ash Wednesday. The ashes imposed on the foreheads of believers during the service are the burned remains of the palms of previous years Palm Sunday. (At least that is what I was told they were supposed to be!) There are a few reasons for this, but for me, one symbol this represents is that we all must embrace our own culpability in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus entered the great city of Jerusalem and was welcomed by a throng of people declaring that he was the long-awaited Messiah. And yet, just days later, many of those who welcomed him to the city was denying and decrying him as a criminal.

The cost of following Jesus is enacted when we accept our own part in the drama of Ash Wednesday. Where our lipservice and empty praise is burned up and all that is left is the black ash of sin. We all must remember that we are dust, and to dust, we shall return. The only hope we have is found in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is the telling (and retelling) of the old story that all of humanity can never ascend into God’s throne room. We must be brought in by one who is worthy. And that one is Jesus.

The purpose of the season of Lent is to call us all to intentionally forsake some convenience or habit so that we might dedicate time and energy to God. The practice of forsaking the things of this world for the sake of Christ should not be limited to a few weeks a year. It is the life-long call to obedience we have accepted as disciples of Christ. But, we forget to do it. And, because we do, the Church calendar make it a point to call us back to this important discipline. My prayer in this season of Lent is that I would see my forsaking of the things of this world as a gift and not a chore. As an opportunity and not an obstacle. As a time for renewal and not a season of toil.

Holy Week 2018 | Saturday of Holy Week: Confusion

Confusion is the natural result of suffering a severe emotional injury.

We have no knowledge of what happened between Jesus’s crucifixion and his resurrection. I have always wondered what the Disciples were thinking as they hid from the authorities. We may never know that. But, there is something that I feel very confident in. The Disciples felt confusion.

Confusion is the natural result of suffering a severe emotional injury. Every single member of the Disciples had given up a lot to follow Jesus. They had left behind family and friends, professions and opportunities. The life they may have wanted was left behind to follow Jesus.

Then, after the crucifixion they found themselves hidden away trying to figure out if the three years spent following Jesus was a waste. I am sure we could all imagine what we would be thinking if we found ourselves in this situation.

Today, two-thousand years removed from the events we know that in just a days time the course of human history would change. But, not on that Saturday. On that Saturday all there was was fear and confusion.

It is a wonderful gift from God that confusion can give way to faith if we can hold onto hope, no matter how small. In spite of the confusion, until Sunday passed there was still a hope that what Jesus said would come true.

Resurrection Sunday is a day of great rejoicing for all who believe in Jesus. It is a reminder that regardless of what may happen in life, everything Jesus said to his original twelve disciples is true for us as well. We can hope in a better tomorrow because Jesus rose from the grace to victory and power.

Holy Week 2018 | Good Friday: It’s Friday

The only reason we can call it “good” is because something good happened for us.

Good Friday. The only reason we can call it “Good” Friday is because something good happened for us. It was not a good Friday for Jesus.

But, Jesus accepted the darkness that was to fall upon him so that we might have a chance to experience the radiant light of God’s glory. I am thankful for Jesus’s obedience.

I hope that you consider that Jesus had to pass through this dark night for us.

As we contemplate the coming of Sunday remember… remember that the path to resurrection went right through the doorway of a tomb.

Holy Week 2018 | Maundy Thursday: The Lord’s Supper

Over the years I have grown to love and cherish coming to the Lord’s Table. It is a wonderful time because it allows all who have believed in Jesus to remember and be reminded of the Gospel.

On the Christian calendar, also called the liturgical calendar, the Thursday before Easter is called Maundy Thursday. It is the day where we remember the final meal that Jesus had with his disciples. Just before Jesus was arrested and sentenced to crucifixion, he had one last supper with the men he had called. And during this meal, he imparted some final thoughts about what his life, ministry, and ultimate sacrifice would mean for them. The disciples did not fully understand it all, but they remembered, which Jesus asked them to do.

Over the years I have grown to love and cherish coming to the Lord’s Table. It is a wonderful time because it allows all who have believed in Jesus to remember and be reminded of the Gospel. The simple ritual we participate in does not have to be robbed of meaning just because it is done regularly. This revelation has impacted my perspective of Communion.

Experience has taught me that the reason certain events or activities lose the impact they once had is because we forget the reason it is important. I think the Lord’s Supper has suffered such a fate in many churches. We treat it as something that we MUST do rather than something we are ALLOW to do. Not all get to eat at the table. There are some who have rejected the grace God reveals through the re-enactment of what Jesus did.

This is the secret we must bring back into the open in our churches. When we gather at the Lord’s Table we are there by invitation and not by right. We do not deserve a seat. We have been given one. We are not owed the grace the elements of bread and wine convey, they are precious gifts that we must receive.

I remember the first time I participated in a Communion service where the method of intinction was used. This is the practice where there is one loaf of bread and one cup of wine/juice. Each person comes up and is given a peace from the common loaf and then the bread is dipped into the cup. If you have never done communion this way it can be odd at first. But, after having participated in hundreds of services with this method I prefer it now. The imagery of one body being shared by the church has become both powerful and unifying.

What really sold this practice to me was the realization that came after one of my pastor’s shared how to properly receive the bread. He said something like this:

“In the same way that we receive God’s grace through faith, we receive the bread from the one who serves it to us. And we received with our hands together in front of us. We do not reach out to snatch it out of their hands. It is given.”

That idea, of enacting the process of Grace being given rocked my understanding of what God was doing in my life. It’s like I finally understood what it meant to receive and accept God’s grace.

I am not asking you to agree with me. I am merely sharing with you what I have learned about this beautiful rite we have been given by Jesus. One that I believe we should do as often as we are able.

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