“Dorothy wanted to see more of the princess, so she ran after her; but the [made of] china girl cried out, ‘Don’t chase me.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because,’ answered the princess, also stopping a safe distance away, ‘if I run I may fall down and break myself.’ ‘But could you not be mended?’ asked the girl (more…)
Our worldview is reflected in our customs. Our customs are reflected in our calendar. Therefore our worldview, in part, at least, is reflected in our calendar.
But our calendar is increasingly secular while retaining some remnants of Christianity. We still, for the most part, celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. That said, there are aggressive attempts to remove all traces of the memory of Christianity from our culture. Thanksgiving is becoming “turkey day.” Christmas is merely a season or holiday. Easter is about a bunny and new clothes.
Whereas this is happening in our general culture, it ought not to happen in our minds and hearts, individually or collectively.
In ancient Israel, the calendar was all about the story of God’s redemption. The church through the ages maintained a calendar as well. It is centered around the life of Christ: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, winter ordinary time, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, summer ordinary time and then back to Advent.
If our life is Christ, it follows that our life together is also Christ and it is thereby profitable to synchronize our life together around the life of Christ.
This is the period called Lent, approximately a 40 day period preparing for the celebration of Resurrection Sunday. Whereas Advent emphasizes the first and second coming of our Lord and our eager longing for His return, the emphasis in Lent is on repentance and renewal as we follow the life of our Lord on His journey to the Cross.
• It begins with Ash Wednesday reminding us from dust we came and dust we shall return, the curse of Adam is still with us.
• It is a time to consider what Christ has done for us in delivering us from the power of sin.
• It is a time for reflection and self-examination as to whether we have been believing the Gospel, out of which flows the grace that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, or whether we have been giving in to the pull of the flesh, the enticements of the world, and the deceptions of the devil. That is why this time is celebrated as a time of self-denial as preparation to be able to receive the glorious blessings that come with the story of the Resurrection.
Lent is a period of approximately 40 days. The number 40 in Scripture is the number of testing. In Noah and the flood it rained for 40 days. He waited 40 days after the ark came to rest. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days receiving the Law. Elijah hid from Jezebel for 40 days. The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days.
This doesn’t mean that it is only this period when we engage in self-denial or self-examination. It means that we discipline ourselves to think about the various aspects of our life together in Christ that is to be lived out every day of the year. At different times of the year there are different emphases about the life of Christ and our life together in Him so that we don’t forget.
Disclaimer
There is, admittedly, a certain ambivalence when it comes to Lent.
Here is the superstitious aspect of it from my observation:
• The smearing of ashes on the forehead to indicate that one has entered a period of self-denial and fasting, belies Jesus’ injunction to “anoint your head and wash your face.”
• The dangerous association of meritorious good works, as defined by Roman Catholicism (e.g. The Treasury of Merit, Indulgences, etc.), with Lent belies what we read in the Savoy Declaration, “Good works are only such as God has commanded in His holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention.”
• We must be careful that only the Scriptures bind the consciences of our people such that some might be unwilling to participate for whatever reason. Indeed we’ve already given people the freedom not to celebrate Christmas or have a Christmas tree in their house (Colossians 2:16).
That said, we already celebrate other aspects of the liturgical year (Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, etc.) and there is still a value in celebrating a period of time that would highlight events in the life of Christ and culminate in the celebration of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. The Old Testament holidays and feasts were the story and the reminder of God’s redemption. They even added one not prescribed in the Old Testament, that of Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication, John 12) and apparently Jesus was willing to participate in it.
The question is how do we celebrate Lent (which is an Old English word for spring) in a meaningful and edifying way so as not to engender superstition or legalism? Certainly various disciplines that amplify an awareness of the need to die to ourselves in the spirit of our Lord’s mind that “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,” would be helpful. Let each person decide what that might look like in his or her life. Whatever we do in this regard must be Word oriented to the end that it would be Word planted and lived out in our lives.
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8, ESV)
Certainly these words of our Lord Jesus capture the highest and purest object of prayer — that the Father may be glorified. It is to bring glory to the Living God that we yearn to bear fruit, both in character and spiritual reproduction. IN the daily discipline of praying for specific requests, we can sometimes forge these are but small steps toward achieving the greater purpose: the exaltation of our God and Savior. The key to effective prayer seems to be that unity with God’s purpose and therefore joyful expectation of the answer. “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Originally written February, 1985
‘Happy Holidays’ is slowly replacing ‘Merry Christmas’ in our post-Christian culture. Fewer and fewer stores have greetings or displays which have anything to do with the birth of Jesus. It is not surprising. The human heart does not find the true Jesus attractive; in fact, He is (rightly) perceived as a threat to self-rule and self-exaltation. As in first century Jerusalem, He must be marginalized or, failing that, destroyed.
Less obvious, perhaps, is the gradual but monumental shift of emphasis in many of our churches. Rather than redemption, the “good news” seems to be the promise of psychological integration. Instead of a call to holiness, there are suggested paths to “wholeness”. In place of sacrifice and serving, there are benefits and blessings. Yet, the glorious truth cannot be suppressed: Jesus Christ came to save sinners!
Originally written Christmas, 2003
“When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself.” John 12:32
The truth and comfort of this promise has been impressed upon us lately. Neither victories (with their joys) nor defeats (with their sorrows) are to be our focus, but simply to faithfully exalt our Risen Lord by our lives and words. As bondslaves, we are to do our Master’s bidding–regardless of its apparent effectiveness. So the admonition to “not grow weary in well-doing.” Perhaps, at times, we are too concerned about “results” and “success” in trying to “bring people to Christ” and not concerned enough about lifting Him up and then trusting Him to draw people to Himself as He promised.
originally written November, 1989
We are on the last leg of the building project! The “punch list”—the finishing touches which our contractor has committed to seeing through—we hope will be completed by the end of November. A few inspections remain in order to acquire our long-awaited Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, but the architect and contractor believe we are in good standing to meet NYC Building and Fire Dept. standards.
The most recent progress includes the leveling of the surrounding plot and a wall on the back of the property—both thanks to the generous and skillful labor of BHOF covenant member Wilbert Belezaire.
The church which embraces “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) has always had to contend for it against those whose eyes are still blinded by the god of this world. Today two of the flash points in the battle are abortion and same-sex ‘marriage.’ These are deemed ‘social issues’ which are mostly matters of ‘politics’ to the dominant voices in our American culture, thus relegating them to matters of mere opinion. However, the unavoidable message of God’s perspective is that these are matters of fundamental importance: both of them are at the core of who He is and what He has done in creating man (more…)
From early through mid-twentieth century, Evangelical Christians were derided as intellectual lightweights at best and ignorant fools at worst. They, the Evangelical Christians, insisted on hanging on to impossible-to-believe dogmas such as the Virgin Birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Anybody who delved into the supernatural would be laughed off the stage.
Nobody believes that stuff anymore in this “enlightened” age of science. Modern science will, don’t you know, follow where the “facts” lead. Eventually they will take everyone else with them like a mother dragging along her recalcitrant child.
Fast forward to the present day. Consider the actions of New York real estate firms having difficulty moving high end apartments. They routinely hire an “exorcist” to go in to these difficult to move apartments. This person will assess the “vibes,” burn incense and perform whatever necessary incantations to remove the “obstructions” to the apartment being rented.
Isn’t progress wonderful!
“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27, ESV).
It is amazing to me how difficult it is for people to understand why Jesus had to die. When I pose the question a typical answer is, “to show how much he loves us.” I then ask, “What kind of love is it for a father to subject his son to such a cruel death? What kind of love is that?” I’m talking about people who claim to know Christ as Savior. It is not unusual for my questions to be met with silence.
I also ask, could God have accomplished our salvation some other way? After all, he is all powerful and he can do anything. The answer: technically, yes, in actual fact, no. Our resurrected Lord expected the two on the road to Emmaus, who knew the Scriptures, to understand why the Christ should suffer these things.
The actual but elusive answer is, to satisfy divine justice. When God said to Adam about the forbidden tree, “In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die,” the course was set. Adam sinned. He was guilty. “The soul that sins, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” We, who have inherited Adam’s sin nature, are guilty by nature and by choice.
Jesus had to die because justice had to be satisfied. Sin is not excused, the penalty must be paid because God said it and he doesn’t change his mind.
When I encounter Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or Muslims, I ask, “What can wash away my sin?” You can be sure, in the many and varied responses, there is nothing about the satisfaction of divine justice.
Well, what can wash away my sin? Only the blood of Jesus! Praise God, he was raised for our justification.
For our table devotional reading, we dusted off, Jim Elliot’s, Shadow of the Almighty, a book that I read nearly 50 years ago! I’m amazed at how articulate this twentieth-century martyr was in his early twenties. I share this excerpt. Bob Hall
“Must we always comment on life? Can it not simply be lived in the reality of Christ’s terms of contact with the Father, with joy and peace, fear and love full to the fingertips in their turn, without incessant drawing of lessons and making of rules? I do not know. Only I know that my own life is full. It is time to die, for I have had all that a young man can have, at least all this young man can have. If there were no further issue from my training, it would be well. The training has been good, and to the glory of God. I am ready to meet Jesus. Failure means nothing now, only that it has taught me life. Success is meaningless, only that it gave me farther experience in the great gift of God, Life. And Life, I love thee. Not because thou art long, or because thou hast done great things for me, but simply because I have thee from God.”