Lent 2 - The Rough Road of Penance

Let us consider one another to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Why is it that the Scripture takes up space to tell us to fellowship with one another? Do we dislike each other so much that we need to be commanded to assemble with one another? I don’t think so. No, I think it simply is that our Savior knows us far too well.

Humanity’s first sin was the sin of pride. We simply wanted to make the rules for ourselves. We did not want to bow to any deity we did not create. The Scriptures warn us, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”[1]

On this Second Sunday in Lent we think about penance. Penance is not about works or rituals that bring about forgiveness. Penance is about expressing our sincere desire to be forgiven. The actions involved in “doing penance” do not bring forgiveness. Rather, they show our desire and punctuate our request that Christ would grant us his infinite mercy.

Through penance we humble ourselves before our Savior and, sometimes, one another. How humble are you willing to become? How hard of a road are you willing to travel? 

Humility gives voice to an inner need. It is that same humbling that encourages us to assemble together, the knowledge that we will not make it on this rough road if we try to journey its length on our own. We are called to be there for one another, to put aside every aspect of pride, coming before the body of our brothers and sisters and saying, as simply as we know how, “I need help.”

We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints. We want to stay off the rough roads of life and our primary objective is to secure a peaceful retreat from the world. To live a distant, withdrawn, and secluded life is diametrically opposed to spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.

Penance calls us from the life of individuality we would wish for and away from the retirement we seek. It encourages us to heed the words of our Savior when he says, "Go and tell My brethren."

Pastor Craig

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[1] Proverbs 16:18

Listening to God Breathe

We have entered the season of lent. It is a season that many Presbyterians observe, but know little about.

Lent has several parts to it. This first Sunday of Lent we think about prayer. Prayer is not just us talking to God about our concerns. It is not us complaining to God about the things that are wrong in our life. It is not beseeching God to do something about the lives of our friends that have gotten off track. It is not even limited to praising God for the wonderful things with which he has blessed us. Prayer is not limited to our requests for friends in need, crisis situations around the world, or the coming of the Kingdom of God amongst us.

Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is constant contact with God.

Reciting our checklist of wants and needs is easy. Counting our blessings is easy. Staying in contact with the Almighty on a 24/7 basis is much more difficult. Prayer is keeping the lines open between you and your Creator. It is not just him always ready to listen to you. It is also you always being ready to listen to him.

You may remember talking to a boyfriend or girlfriend in your much younger days. When you ran out of things to say you simply kept the line open and listened to the other one breathe. That may sound silly now, but many of us did it simply because we didn't want the connection, even if it was only a phone connection, to end.

God wants you to keep the connection open. He does not want to call you and get a busy signal, get interrupted by call-waiting, or be put on hold. God wants, after all your requests and praises have been said, to stay on the line with you. DON'T HANG UP! God wants you to listen to him breathe – to breathe into you all day long that life-giving Spirit that only he can give.

This next week of Lent, keep the lines open between you and your Savior. Listen to God breathe life into you.

 Pastor Craig

The Night Shift

I am writing this in Orlando at the Fellowship of Presbyterians gathering. This is the land of entertainment. Here is the Magic Kingdom, where, so the commercials would have you believe, every child’s dream can come true. This is where Epcot, Universal Studios, Sea World, Ripley’s, and a host of other mega-theme parks are located. This is the land of lots of golf and high dollar resorts. It is the place where you can sit by the pool in January, where it’s sunny all the time. This morning I got up earlier than usual. I looked out the window to see the first elements of light in the eastern horizon. Somewhere out over the Atlantic the sun was already up.

At the bus stop outside our hotel, Ken Lane and I did not stay in one of the golfing resorts, I saw a group of people waiting for the bus. I thought to myself, “This isn’t a residential neighborhood. Why are there so many people standing there so early?” Then it dawned on me. This is the night shift going home. With many of the major theme parks to close, these were the magicians that put the magic back in the Magic Kingdom.

It is amazing what we take for granted. After the last roller coaster goes down the last hill, after Tinkerbell has flown down from Cinderella’s Castle, after Shamu has gone to bed, after. . ., after. . ., after. . . That is when battalions of unseen and under appreciated workers clock in and rebuild the magic for the next day. They clean the hundreds of restrooms, empty thousands of trash cans, pick up millions of dropped napkins and cups, and – basically – put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall so he can fall again the next day for our amusement.

We show up to experience the magic and ride the rides, but we never think about the thousands of workers and effort that goes in to making our “perfect day.”

On a more spiritual note, “Where is God in our comfort?” We alternate between questioning and accusing when disaster strikes. We switch between, “Where was God when . . .?” and “God brought this upon us because . . .!” All the while we fail to ask where God is in our times of comfort.

I think I may have an answer. I won’t be bold enough to claim it is THE answer, but I do like it. Maybe, just maybe, God spends a lot of time working just like the night shift at the Magic Kingdom. Face it, can we ever really know how much work God does on something before we ever show up? How much of the road has he smoothed over or swept up long before we have seen it, all the time preparing the way for. . .yes, YOU!

How amazing is that? The story of Joseph really reaches one of its climaxes in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph says to his brothers who had hated him and sold him into slavery years before, As for you, you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save the lives of many people. Read that verse again – slowly. God had been at work for years, slowly pushing here, sometimes prodding there, all to set up this day and to show forth his grace and mercy in delivering his people. Much of the time behind the scenes. Maybe even on the night shift.

Pastor Craig