Lent, Day 2

Readings

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1:1-2

Psalms 3, 4, and 6

Luke 9:22-25

Prayer

“Redeemer of mankind, lend a listening ear and turn a pitying glance, a glance of heavenly day to lighten the darkness of this benighted Heart of mine. God of unbounded mercy, send the Divine Spirit in Jesus’ name through the tender compassion manifested in His five bleeding wounds. Look favorably and mercifully upon this Heart, this forlorn Heart, in its state of worse than midnight darkness; let the light of the uplifted cross shed its halo of reconciliation, and break the grasp of the power of darkness and set my spirit free to act in obedience to the moving Holy Spirit. Break the power of my ghostly enemy, and the force of his combined influences.

    Remove from my Heart Pride, Lewdness, Gluttony and Intemperance, Stupidity and Avarice, Anger, Sloth, and Enmity of every kind, and renew in me grace, through Thy Spirit, in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen.”

~ John B. Smalls, “A Prayer for the Human Heart” (1898). Taken from Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans by James Melvin Washington, Ph.D.

Lent, Day 1: Ash Wednesday

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, a day traditionally set aside for fasting, prayer, and penitence. Ashes are a traditional symbol of mourning and repentance and on this day Christians all over the world will attend services in which ashes are placed on their foreheads as a sign of repentance.

Readings

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Psalm 51: 1-17

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Prayer

“O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being. We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hears, souls, and mind, and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not forget. And so as we look within ourselves we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against thee. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know thy will. Give us the courage to do thy will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and the spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., from  “Thou Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits.

Why Some Days I Wish I Could Be Chris Rock

One of my favorite stand up comedian/actors is Chris Rock. As a Senior Pastor of a church I do a sort of stand up too when I preach. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus!” but stand up nevertheless. I stand up for 30 -45 minutes every week and say thus sayeth the Lord. This can be extremely difficult and easier said than done. I have to say what the Bible says and study hard beforehand to figure out what God’s plans are for His people for these words and lay it on them and their lives and issues in His way.

This is frustrating cause I want to have a word in too. I want to speak my mind too. I have some interesting comic and stand up insight too. In this way I envy Chris Rock and the likes of Richard Pryor; great commentators and wordsmiths on life, done with comedy and edginess and profane passion. I got passion. I got anger. I can find some profane words if necessary. Sometimes I want to be “Bigger and Blacker” too.  I want to let loose and be loved and hated for saying what I am not allowed to say but just want to say. I want to be able to entertain people with my funny and intelligent rhetoric too.

Now, I am not claiming to be as skilled and gifted at making people laugh as these guys, but I  believe I have the crazy mind and just enough narcissistic confidence to get up there and go for the laughs and the oohs and awes.

But I regress and come back to my senses and sense of call as a preacher of God’s word.  And though I admire the art of what they do, I cannot ignore, as I hope you won’t either,  the edgier, more profane and bold nature of having God speak through and to you. Edgy, because the Creator of the Universe is bringing words of eternal life to human beings. Profane, because by far the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most offensive message known to brokenly proud human beings. Bold and vulgar because there is nothing about any of us that the Lord, in His word will not challenge, change, bring out, or call into question.

Maybe wanting to be Chris Rock doing stand up is attractive because hearing from and speaking from God’s word can be brutally, profanely and “blessing you out” honest and true.  With God’s word though, after hearing from it and then being compelled to preach its raw unadulterated truth, I can never strut with a confident smile and declare I’m “Never Scared!!”  Because the truth is, His words can be too honest to laugh at.  Hear Paul’s words for I Corinthians 2:1-6:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  

Heart Focus

Dearest Ones,

We come out of lingering in darkness, uncertainty and unanswered questions in Psalm 88 to the celebration of humanity and of each part of our body knitted together by Love in our mother's womb! Love is who made us & Love is the point of everything. Pastor Brown called Psalm 139 the "Birthday psalm" as it celebrates our birth& being ALIVE & His Presence Today , invited to delight and desire the intimacy of the Trinity! Let the rest of this month be one of Praise and rejoicing for the presence of Each One of our loved ones in our midst. Let's lift each other up with abandonment and no agenda but pure Praise& gratitude & a cry for the seed of DESIRE. for God Alone to bloom in this season.
Julian of Norwich said " All is well , all will be well , and all manner of things will be well"...
She also struggled with highs and lows , illness and great insight into the heart of God. She saw that " whether in Woe or in Wellbeing",  He would be With Us.
In the book " The Pressure is Off" Larry Crabb prays this prayer we can make our own:
"I want a better life, but I want to know you more, I cry! Please! Don't let these tears and this awful moment in my life be wasted.
I present myself to You!
I know You are there!
I abandon myself to Your Spirit with the confidence that He'll release me to live in your presence-and to find gladness of heart and the power to follow Your will."
He faced trouble and continued to BELIEVE!
...."I could see the sunrise of my Transformation. I knew that by the Spirit's Power, Someday in this life I could be:
still loving, though discouraged
still giving, though spent
still patient, though exasperated
still sensitive though offended
still hopeful, though Worn Down by Life!"

14 days of February
Use each day to celebrate each one of us and to pray this prayer for them wholeheartedly and with the abandon of our scandalous belief in being Beloved and sung over with delight.

Week Feb 16-22
Celebrate your family, each one by name and praise God for their being Alive today as a true gift

Week Feb 22-28
Do the same with your Christian Family, your community of broken, imperfect people& of those few true friends who together form your cords of three strands, not easily broken.

Dancing

In his talk entitled "Membership" where he describes the Christian life, C.S.Lewis makes an interesting observation...

"it is like turning from a march to a dance"

While the Christian life is one of discipline and obedience, it's not to be lived in a legalistic, passionless march-like way.

A march is forced. The dance is freeing.
A march is uniform. The dance is diverse.
A march is limiting. The dance is liberating.
A march is somber. The dance is joyful.
A march is tiring. The dance is life-giving.

Following Christ demands commitment but it does not rob us from joy. Just the opposite. Are there not more than enough reasons to dance - knowing we are set free by Christ, being assured our sins are forgiven, feeling loved as never before by a Father, trusting that God will work all things for our good. That is dancing music!

A dance is inviting. People are attracted to it and are drawn to join in. We want our friends to know Jesus - don't march around them, dance. We want our kids to see Jesus - let them see us dance. Our spouses don't want to march with us, they want to dance together.

I have marched too long. It is time to dance.