Renewal

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40 days, Corinthians, forgiveness, Joel, Lent, Lenten journey, psalm 51, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It seems strange to say that today is a day that people long for – make themselves ready for even – when the Scriptures are full of commands. Listen:

*Blow a trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Gather the people, notify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children…” (Joel 2)

* A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me… Give me back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit sustain in me…(PS 51)

* Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation! (2 Cor 5)

Taking each of those statements at a time – one after the other – from today’s lectionary readings – should bring us to a place of longing…an interior “heart space” where we can hear God say to us, “Even now, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness…even now.”

It’s as if we’re being given a “Get-out-of-jail-free” card…as if we’ve won the lottery and all is forgotten…as if we a as clean as new-fallen snow and innocent of all our faults and poor choices – sins even of the most grievous kind…because our God is a God like no other, the one who forgives, and forgives, and forgives again.

Today we start over, as if we were just born. What will you do with this gift? How will you spend these 40 days of Lent? Are you up to the challenge of Divine Love?

Fat Tuesday

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40 days, chocolate, Fat Tuesday, generosity, Jesus, Lent, Mardi Gras, Mark, penance, Peter, reward, sacrifice, spiritual growth, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It seems too soon to say that we are on the verge of springtime. Did you know that is the meaning of the word Lent? It sounds funny to some of us living in the Northeast who know the possibility of still more snowstorms before the season really comes. Moreover, I doubt there are many of us who were taught associations with that word that rivaled the beauty of the season of spring. We face into Lent with visions of penance, deprivation and sacrifice. (How many of us have never given up chocolate for Lent?) There’s nothing wrong with any practice we might take on in Lent as long as the goal is spiritual growth without grumbling. I’m one of those whose Lenten practice has taken on a more positive spin in my adulthood. Rather than giving up something that tastes good, I try to do something that takes me out of my way for someone else’s good. And I try to smile while doing it, even if it isn’t my favorite thing to do.

I smiled as I read the first line of today’s gospel because it sounded like Peter was pouting about the cost of following Jesus and wanted Jesus to be aware of what was being asked (as if He didn’t know!). Peter says, “We have given up everything and followed you!” (MK 10:28) I can almost hear Jesus sighing as he explains (probably not for the first time) the concept of the “hundredfold” that is promised to the faithful. Peter did eventually get the message that it’s not about the reward but about the generosity of our becoming in love that is the goal of our striving. That seems a good thing to remember as we approach the journey to Easter, placing our willingness at the feet of the Christ.

So today, on this vigil called Mardi gras (fat Tuesday), eat all the chocolate – or whatever – you want and drink – but not really to excess – and be merry in a way that leads you to a different kind of merriment for the next 40 days of growing in love. And then, in the end, keep on with the good habits you have achieved because that’s what it’s really about anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temptation

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40 days, demands, desert, evil, fully divine, fully human, good, Jesus, Lenten gospels, Luke, sin, struggle, suffering, temptation., The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today in churches all over the world Christians hear about Jesus being tempted mightily by the devil. He is in the desert, a dangerous place to be even if one is just thinking about the weather which can include wild variations in temperature. Add the possibility of dust storms and no access to water if you’re stranded with the sun beating down and it is no wonder that, after forty days, Jesus was severely put to the tests described by Luke’s gospel. The last sentence in that account surprised me though, and had me wondering this morning if I had ever heard it – I mean really heard it – before. Rather than just saying that after Jesus withstood all the temptations “the devil left him,” Luke says, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.” (LK 4:13)

No matter how one perceives the account of the temptations in the desert (different in each of the synoptic gospels) especially regarding the devil as a personification of evil and/or struggle to choose the good, we still have 2,000 years of hindsight to intuit the outcome of such an experience for Jesus, the Christ. However, modern Scripture scholars have brought us back to a more balanced view of Jesus as “fully human, fully divine.” After centuries of theological study focused on the divinity of Jesus, we have been called in recent history to remember that Jesus was “like us in all things but sin” – a very comforting thought for those of us who struggle with small and larger temptations on a regular basis. Perhaps that’s the great majority of us.

Just that small prepositional phrase – “for a time” – set me on a path of reflecting this morning on a way to reframe the difficulties Jesus experienced on his journey to Jerusalem. How did he deal with the demands of the increasingly large crowds that he encountered? We have examples of his need to escape for some quiet, but do we ever think of him saying to himself something like: “I’ve got to get out of here! They’re driving me crazy!” before he “went up the mountain alone?” What was the depth of his disappointment with the people he chose for his disciples when they failed to understand what he was trying to say? Did the loneliness of that reality ever threaten his determination to continue the mission he so clearly understood? Was he similarly distressed by the way people treated each other sometimes? Was he ever tempted to give in to despair?

Thus, although I have been aware of the difficulties that Jesus encountered in his public life and how he must have suffered as he moved toward his final destiny, I’m not sure I have ever given serious consideration to the part “temptation” played in that suffering. I think I considered that his battle with that was taken care of and once he exited the desert his struggles never caused him to question or falter. Now I wonder. And I will continue, as I read the Lenten gospels, to think in new ways about the path of Jesus and perhaps find new comfort for my own encounters with temptation.

Our Lenten Journey

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40 days, Ash Wednesday, Christ's journey, consciousness, Corinthians, devotion, disciplines, God's voice, grace, harden not your hearts, humility, Joel, Lent, practices, psalm 51, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

For many Christians around the world, today is like another New Year’s Day. We are full of enthusiasm for making resolutions at the beginning of Lent, this season of pilgrimage dedicated to reflection on Christ’s journey toward Jerusalem that culminates in his passion, death and resurrection. Readings for this Ash Wednesday are full of instruction on how to act during these 40 days. The prophet Joel starts us off with a clarion call from God saying: Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…Rend your heart, not your garments and return to the Lord, your God. Psalm 51 chimes in with this: A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me…a willing spirit sustain in me. St. Paul is his usual ardent self as he urges the Corinthians: Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, “In an acceptable time I have heard you and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time…” The verse before the gospel is as familiar as it is instructive: If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.

Finally, all of these hints of how to act culminate in a message of Jesus that is full of true devotion, humility and mature practice for our actions and our prayer. Take care, Jesus says, not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them. (This is a good place to stop and think as it holds a great temptation sometimes. We all want to be well thought of, after all.) But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret…When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites…But…anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden…(No drama, just sincerity.)

You can see by all the ellipses that I have chosen just the snippets that serve my purpose which is to look at a deeper way to consider not just the practices that we choose as Lenten disciplines but rather at the underlying purpose of them. It is all about the heart, you see. All about our movement toward the heart of our striving, which is entrance into the heart of God. So if it is chocolate that you give up for these 40 days, do it to remind yourself each time you reach out for a piece that God is the sweetness that you truly desire. If you take a daily trek to Church, make that your inner room where you and God can be alone, in communion. Above all that we can take along on this pilgrimage, let one of our companions be a consciousness of how Jesus walked his journey in his full humanity, carrying out his mission of love and surrender to the God in whose heart he lived every moment of every day. And let us do the same, together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Achilles’ Heels

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40 days, desert, Jesus, Matthew, resist, strength, temptation., The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s reading from Matthew’s gospel (4:1-11) is the familiar story that takes place as Jesus concludes his forty-day retreat in the desert in preparation for his public ministry. Having spent such a long period of time alone with no supports Jesus was, as the gospel says, rather understatedly, hungry. I would imagine he was also tired, dirty and lonely in a “fully human” way. Often it is when we are at our weakest, most vulnerable – which sometimes may come even during an extended retreat alone with God – that we are tempted with the illusions that will take us off our spiritual path. This is what happened to Jesus when the devil appeared offering Jesus power, pleasure and riches. We tend to think the outcome of this scenario was a “no-brainer”; Jesus was the Messiah, after all. I think it behooves us to take another look at what is portrayed as a short encounter but perhaps took place over an extended period of cajoling and threatening. (Keep in mind our belief that Jesus “was like us in all things but sin” which doesn’t mean resisting temptation was easy but rather that he succeeded in doing so in the end.) My gratitude this morning is that – at whatever cost – Jesus was able to resist changing some of those stones into bread (the simplest of the devil’s taunting suggestions). I can use that example of strength when I encounter similar temptations – or any others – along the way.

Today then I hope to inventory what I know are temptations to be less than I can be and look to the strength of Jesus for ways to be aware of slippage in my thoughts and actions, remembering always that the one I serve is God.