Lent: Moving Further into the Reality of God

It may seem an odd thing, but every year I enjoy Lent just a bit more. At first glance it seems to be a season all about sin, confession, penitence, repentance, and penance. It can feel like we're all about finding out how bad we are and how sorry we ought to be. They're is room for that, but that dreary vision of Lent has very little Gospel, very little Good News, at all. Let's go a bit deeper.

Jesus said in John 3:17 that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." The message of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't "You're terrible!" The message is, "It doesn't have to be this way. YOU don't have to be stuck anymore." Or as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 10:7).

Sometimes we Christians miss the eternal perspective. We think, for instance, that the Salvation of Christ is something that happens after we die and once we reach Heaven. Or we think that the Salvation of Christ is about reforming our society in the here and now. When Christ saws, "The Kingdom of God is at hand" it means all of these! Salvation is about my own life here and now and the hope of Heaven after I die. Salvation is about a just, peaceful, and loving society here and now, and about Christ's coming again to straighten out all humankind. It is me and everyone. It is now and in the future.


In Advent we make room in our lives and communities for person of Jesus Christ. In Lent we make room in our lives and communities for what Christ is doing, namely altering our reality by overshadowing it with God's reality. In Advent Christ moves into our neighborhood (John 1:14, The Message). In Lent, God begins to move us into God's neighborhood. And then in Easter, we celebrate (in the present) the eternity of living in that neighborhood!

I think we can easily miss the Good News of this. We might be underestimating the power of God's reality now. Instead we buy into the world's reality. Our consumer society judges life based on what you produce (your career and income level) and what you consume (lifestyle). God's reality is based on who you are (intrinsic value) and how God is working in your for the benefit of you and others (mission and ministry). In a materialistic society, what we own or can buy is prized. In God's reality the gifts of God has given us and gives through us are most prized. In an imperfect world we become perfectionists or pessimists. In God's reality, we become a people of redemption and hope - all things can and will be fixed!


The good things of the Kingdom of God are unatainable in this life, because at Baptism, "this life" begins our eternal life. When Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is among you," in Luke 17:20 (emphasis mine), Christ is saying stop looking elsewhere! It's right here, now, with you, and with those gathered around Christ.

This Lent I hope and pray both you and I find the joy of moving a bit further into God's neighborhood, of buying into God's reality, and giving up that old life that is so unbecoming of the Children of Heaven.

"The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the Gospel."  (Mark 1:14-15)

A Reflection for Thursday, Lent 1, Year C

A depiction of 'Christian' fromm John Bunyan's Pligrim's Progress

"Strengthen us, O Lord, 

by your grace, 

that in your might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, 

and with pure hearts serve you; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, 

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 

one God, 

for ever and ever. 

Amen." 

The collect above is proscribed for the Thursday of Lent 1 by the Episcopal Church's book, Holy Women, Holy Men (p. 39). 

For reflection: In the ancient martial classic, The Art of War, Sun Tzu said "Know your enemy" (Ch. 3, last sentence). What spiritual enemies are opposing your life in Christ? How about the spiritual enemies your Christian community or Church faces? Name them. How may we face those enemies with God's grace and might, yet maintain a 'pure heart' in service to God? 

Read, reflect on, and pray Psalm 35. 

Being Right and But Getting it Wrong

I've come across a number of posts and a few conversations recently regarding theology or liturgy or Biblical interpretation that really boil down to, "You've got it wrong" and summarily anathematizes the accused. Perhaps you've seen it on the web: Which Bible translation, liturgy book, worship style, or type of song is *really* okay to use. Who is *really* a priest or pastor. Which sacraments offered by whom are *really* valid. Who is *really* a Christian. Or who is *really* Catholic or Orthodox or Apostolic or Saved or Spirit Filled.

(Examples: here, here, and here for instance.)

I recognize the need for discerning what is good and right, for lifting up what is Holy, and for searching out He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. These are positive things. They build up others in love and truth. Many of the discussions I mention have nothing to offer as contributions, but rather only serve to tear one another apart. Remember, the Spirit, through St. Paul says to the Galatians (5:14-21, NRSV) and to us:

"For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 

If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."    (emphasis is mine)

Have we lost faith in God's grace? Tell me, what errors or sins is God unable to cover? And which one of us is perfect? And if we believe we are perfect, is it not Christ in us that has made us so, and this by grace and not of our own doing so that we cannot boast? Have we attained all that God has wanted for us in an instant, or has God been patient with each of us, calling repeatedly, and forgiving incessantly as we were changed, over time, more and more into the likeness of Christ?

From looking at some of our arguments with each other, it seems we believe God to be the underdog! We act as though we, not God, had better sort things out, because God can't or won't or doesn't know what he is really doing around here. Do we *really* think that the Almighty needs us to defend him? Christ could have chosen to say "you are the gladiators and centurions of Truth," but he didn't. He used the image a city on a hill and lamp on a lamp stand (Matt. 5:14-15). 

Instead, let us be the likeness of Christ to one another. Let us not condemn since Christ came not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17). Let us live in love, as Christ loved us (Eph. 5:2). Let God's grace be the truth and the righteousness we proclaim to one another and not bind each other in a new Law.