Park United Methodist Church

Reflection: Lent and Dusting out our lives

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Welcome dear siblings in Christ to Lent!  And no, Lent is not a Catholic thing.  It is a universal church thing.  It is 40 days of preparing our hearts, minds, and souls for Easter, examining ourselves and our lives to see what tests our identity as children of God.  What makes us doubt our belovedness?  What holds us back from serving God wholeheartedly?  What stops us from visiting our neighbors?  What separates us from God?  Then taking steps to remove that every day for 40 days, with celebrations on Sundays for where God works.

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Why 40 days - well because KC Hanson reminds us that 40 is an ancient symbol of transition and preparation in the Bible.  “It is leaving something behind and preparing to move on to the next part of our lives; it is the ‘in-between’ time.”  He goes on to remind us of some of those in-between times 

• 40 days of rain in the great flood (Gen 7:12)

• Moses 40 days on the mountain (Ex. 24:18, 34:28, Deut 9:9)

• Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness (Ex 16:35)

• 40 years of rest for Isreal (Judges 3:11, 5:31, 8:28)

• 40 years of Jerusalem’s desolation (Ezekiel 29:11-13)

• 40 days of warning before Nineveh’s destruction (Jonah 3:4)

• 40 days of Jesus’ appearances prior to God’s Spirit being gifted (Acts 1:3)

 

Personally, I would rather take the 40 days of self-reflection than the 40 years!  Why do we do it though?  Well, our faith is not meant to be something that is static - unchanging.  It is meant to be something that transforms us and draws us into closer relationships with God and one another.  God desires a relationship with us and the world.  Christ came so that we may see and know God more clearly.  That we may be transformed to be more like how we were designed to be and so that sin should never have the last word.  

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Just as a recap - sin is when we miss the mark of what we are meant to be as a child of Christ.  We all do it.  Sometimes it is accidental.  We don’t even realize we are doing it.  Sometimes we choose to push the boundaries.  We think a little thing won’t matter yet it affects all those around us.  We let things slide or think a little lie is okay and then a bigger one becomes okay until we really don’t know who we are.  We begin isolating ourselves because it is easier than repairing relationships.  We hid in our phones, or our rooms because it is simpler than talking out a situation or finding a way forward.  We don’t take time with God in prayer or devotions and convince ourselves we will do it later and later never comes, but that means that we never take time to hear God.  How can we be transformed if we don’t take the time?  Transformation usually happens when God helps to change our thinking, and how we see the world or something in the world, and if we never take the time we don’t allow ourselves to be transformed.  

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Lent is about taking those 40 days and allowing yourself to see what tests your identity as a child of God.  Jesus was tempted by bread - not just to feed himself, but to feed others - his ministry would be about feeding people over and over, and here is the opposer tempting him with bread to make his life easier.  Yet Jesus’s identity is not the bread or feeding.  It is a child of God so he says no.

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Then he is tempted with the kingdoms of the world. To have power over the Romans and the Pharisees and just make everyone do what needed to be done would be so much easier for him, yet it would not change people’s hearts.  Using power and authority did not change how people felt and thought.  It did not cause the life transformation that God was looking for, the one that produces growth and joy.  Using power to force compliance transforms people with anger, vengeance, and hatred - that is not of the Kingdom of God.  That is not what God wants for us.  Jesus turns him down - seeing it as a cheap facade.  You can make people act like you want them, but if you don’t have heart transformations there is not true transformation, there is no joy, there is no new life.

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Then he brought him to the pinnacle and tempted him with his own identity.  If you are who you say you are, you can’t be killed by throwing yourself down.  Yet knowing who he is and whose he is, he knows that is not his job.  Testing God, manipulating God, does not lead to new life.  Giving God ultimatums and negotiating for what you want.  That is not real.  That is the devil trying to get you to doubt that you are loved and beloved, that you don’t matter and to use your identity against you.  Have you ever made some poor choices that you blame God for?  You decided something and God didn’t stop you?  How was God going to stop you?  Would you have listened?  Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to test God that we stop listening to how God is talking to us.  We stop listening to where God is in the situation.

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Lent is the time of year when we take time to see what is testing our identity as a child of God?  Is there something I need to give up because it pulls my attention away from God? Is there something I need to make time for? Do I need to volunteer to do some visits for the elderly?  Do I need to volunteer at the Friendship thrift store, or the food pantry?  Maybe I need to make time to listen to a devotional on the way to work instead of the radio station.  How are you going to tune yourself into Christ this Lenten season?