Round The Ball: Lent – 2009

Readings:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1

Luke 9:22-25

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If you don’t do anything else today, just take a moment to click on the link and read through the passages above.  I find them so amazingly compelling.  The offer of death and life: “See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster.” (Deut.30)  And then Jesus echo, stating in Luke 9 that the way of choosing life involves suffering with Jesus by dying to self: “Anyone who looses his life for my sake, will find life.” How amazing is that?  How counter-intuitive . .. that the choice would be offered, but the option of choosing life actually involves a way of suffering and self-sacrifice.

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I recently had a run-in with some local neighborhood hoodlums who were out late, looking for trouble.  They were just out for a laugh and likely didn’t mean any harm, but I did find myself concerned that with the wrong provocation, they were young enough and I as out-numbered enough for things to really go wrong.  I was left shaken but unhurt, realizing yet again the choice we have made in living where we live.  I found myself stating again, to myself and my God, “Yes, I know the risks of living where we live, and yet I chose to believe God’s goodness and faithfulness to sustain us here.  Knowing the risks, I choose life here – even if it involves suffering.”

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In what ways are you choosing life today?  What risks does that require of you as a result?

Readings:

Joel 2:12-18

Psalm 50

2 Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2

Matthew 6:1-6,  16-18

Join with me, if you’d like, as I take a look at some of the traditional readings of the Church during this season leading up to Easter.  With a new baby soon to arrive and some travel coming up in March and April, I can’t guarantee it will be daily — but I’d still like to share my reflections as they come up.  I’ll be using the daily “Mass” scriptures offered at Universalis.com in case you want to follow along whether or not I post each day or not.

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For today, Ash Wednesday, I’m focusing on the twin themes of Lent: fasting and alms-giving.  These appear in today’s readings, actually.  Joel mentions fasting, “Come back to me with all your heart: fasting, weeping, mourning.”  And Jesus exhorts his followers, “When you give to the poor, do not have it trumpeted before you.”

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Historically speaking, the season of Lent has been set aside as a season of preparation for the coming of Easter.  And in that preparation we fast, we humble ourselves, we give of ourselves to others.  It isn’t spiritual discipline for discipline’s sake, but for the sake of readiness.

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The season is all the more significant to me now, in this context, where many of our neighbors fast for religious purposes as well, often during the Muslim month of Ramadan.  In this season, us Jesus-followers enter into a dedicated time of heart-breaking preparation.  As Joel puts it in chapter 2: “Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn.”  In other words: it isn’t the outward actions but the inward response that matters most to God.