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Sunday February 28, 2010 "Stand Firm" Philippians 3:17-41 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 3/1/2010 9:37 AM |
Lent can be very confusing.
Especially if you were brought up in the protestant church in America in the mid to late 20th century. And yes, that means that I am saying, Lent can be very confusing to me.
So, let’s take just a few minutes to see if we can’t resolve some of the confusion.
First, when is Lent? Lent is a period of 40 days that runs from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. But of course, if you count the days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday you get 46 days. The 6 extra days are the Sundays in that time period and Sundays are not counted as official parts of Lent. Hopefully, you will understand why that is in a few minutes.
Second, what is Lent? Lent is a time of introspection and preparation. We are called to look hard at who we are and at where we are in our faith walk. We do this in preparation for two things: first, so that we might be a stronger witness for God’s love and grace in the world and second, to be ready when Christ comes again. Since we do not know when that is, Lent serves us well to do our best to get right with God’s will in our lives so that on Easter Sunday, when we celebrate the resurrection, we can also celebrate our stronger connection with God.
But Lent is never mentioned in the Bible. Where did this observance come from? In the first two or three centuries of the church, there was nothing that looks like Lent. We find references to the church’s practice of preparing those to be baptized with a week or two of prayer and instruction, and St. Irenaeus wrote of a 40 hour preparation for Easter, but nowhere do we find anything about a 40 day period until the Council of Nicea in the 4th century after Christ’s death.
Originally, Lent was aimed squarely at those new believers who wished to be baptized on Easter. The 40 day preparation period was seen as a way to focus on their own faith walk, the teachings of Jesus, the witness of the scriptures and their own experiences with the living God. The preparation involved times of solitude and prayer, all aimed at the wonderful feast day that is Easter.
It seems clear that the original Lenten disciplines were somewhat modeled on the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, in preparation for his own baptism and for the beginning of his earthly ministry.
So, without a doubt, those original Lenten disciplines would have included some form of self-denial and fasting. And this is where we get our notion of “giving something up” for Lent. When we give up something we enjoy, we share the pain that Jesus went through in the wilderness. When our appetites push us to reach out for that which we have denied ourselves, it allows us a time to remember just why we are doing this: to let God in to the suffering places in our lives; to share the wilderness experience with our messiah.
So, you will hear of people giving up alcohol, or red meat or chocolate for Lent. And in the desire for those things, we call upon God to help us through our time of self-denial.
But since we don’t observe Lent on those Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter, a question is rightly raised: Why? The reason is because on any Sunday, we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus, which occured on a Sunday. Therefore, Sundays are ALWAYS feast days, never a fast day. So, of course the next logical question is: if I gave up red meat and alcohol and chocolate for Lent, can I have roast beef and beer and dove chocolate this afternoon and still be true to my Lenten discipline? Well, yes. But this “loophole” has led many to embrace a more contemporary idea of Lent that has become popular today.
Instead of simply giving up something we enjoy, maybe we should concentrate on giving up something that harms us? And rather than looking for loopholes on when we can partake of those things, why not use Lent as a way to remove those things from our life completely and for always? And it need not only be food. Attitudes and prejudices and actions that do us harm can be part of Lenten disciplines, too. A second part of this new Lenten practice is to replace those harmful things with something that builds us up, something that is helpful to those around us, something that strengthens the body of Christ. A change in attitude, an embracing of those who we do not know, actions that help rather than hurt are all part of this new Lent.
In short, Lent is a time when we can look inside ourselves, face up to our weaknesses and our sins, and begin the work to overcome those weaknesses and sins by deliberately trying to walk more closely with God. In short, Lent is a time when we prepare ourselves to change the way we live.
And the scripture we heard read this morning is pointed directly at trying to answer the question of how we are to discover the right way to live.
Paul’s epistle to the church at Philippi is a Lenten scripture primarily because it feeds into the basic issue surrounding all of this: whatever we do, however we observe Lent, at the heart of it all is a need to face up to who we are as individuals. Each of us need to take time to sort out where we have fallen short in our journey and where we can get stronger. Then, we need to seek out ways to correct those flaws, leave our sins behind, to become closer to who God would have us be. We need not dwell on our sins – but we do need to face up to them.
I am convinced that one of the reasons we have such a hard time with Lent is that we don’t see the practical use of it. Of course it’s hard. None of us like to admit our failures. But until we accept that we have weaknesses, we cannot move forward. Until we are honest with ourselves, we will never be able to fully commit to the actions that define us as Christians to others. It is hard, essential work. And the hardest question of all may be, how are we to live? What guide can we follow to lead us to that right path on our journey?
The Philippians to whom Paul writes are looking forward to the day when the messiah will come again. They are looking forward to being like Jesus, in his presence. How are they to live in this time of waiting? What about us? Are we looking toward the same things? We certainly don’t share their idea that the return of Jesus imminent, but it could be. That is the difference between waiting a few years for the return and waiting 2000 years for the return. We don’t feel the urgency that they felt. And maybe that’s why we don’t feel the same urgency to get right with God through our Lenten journey. We’ve got time, right? Maybe.
First and foremost, Paul seems to be telling the Philippians that after their time of introspection, they must turn their attention outward, away from their own self-aggrandizement and self-interests. Paul warns the church at Philippi about the “enemies of the cross.” Just who are those people?
The enemies of the cross are those that make their own lives the focus of their attention. Those people whose minds are set firmly on earthly things, those whose appetites control them rather than the other way around.
This is an especially difficult thing for us 21st century Americans to grasp. We live in a society that seems to value the individual above almost anything else – paying almost exclusive attention to the needs of the individual, putting the needs of the larger group on the back burner.
Paul is clear about what happens to those who cannot take their attention away from their own desires: their end, he writes, is destruction. In the end, their self-centeredness leads them into lifelessness.
This is an important point. We don’t always realize that we have entered into this self-centered territory. We can certainly enjoy the good things in life without allowing ourselves to be driven by their pursuit, can’t we? But is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?
In his “Catehcism”, Martin Luther wrote: “It is the trust and faith of the heart alone that makes both God and an idol…anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.” The theologian Dirk Lange, dealing with this same passage writes: “If we want to know who our God is, we need only ask ourselves: on what do I depend? The answer may disturbing.”
But the question lingers: what can guide us on our journey to find the right road?
We live in a time when denominational doctrine has become muddied and confused. Growing up, I had a much better idea of what Catholics believed and what Methodists believed and what Presbyterians believed and what Lutherans believed. I’m not sure why, but over the years, maybe even over the centuries, those lines have become blurred. Some lament this turn of events and wish for a day when doctrine was clearly and unequivocally preached and accepted. Some long for a day when there was unity of thought and all one had to do was follow the clear doctrine of your faith tradition.
I am not one of those people.
The blurring of doctrinal lines, the loss of clearly defined denominational directives strikes me as a wonderful opportunity to reorient ourselves, not by doctrinal pronouncements, but through imitation.
Paul makes this abundantly clear to the church at Philippi. “Imitate me,” he says. “Live by the example that I set.”
This sounds pretty self-centered, doesn’t it? But Paul is simply stating a time honored method of traveling a faith journey: follow your teacher. By inviting the church to follow him, Paul is not necessarily saying he has it all figured out. What he is saying is, my teacher is Christ. Follow me and I will teach you what it means to follow Christ.
The ancient church did not have the one benefit that we have today: the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection. They had an apostle of Christ among them in the form of Paul, and so their imitation of his witness would pull them closer to Christ and the proper way to live. But we can go directly to the accounts of how Jesus lived his life and imitate his example. In short, we do not need Paul for imitation: we have the life of the messiah for imitation; we have the life of Jesus as our guide.
One example of that guidance comes in the gospel according to Mark: “If any want to be my followers,” Jesus pronounces, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” This is not simply a call to self-denial, but a call to live in imitation of Christ – every day, in every way. And we are called to imitate that life.
By going to the scriptures, by studying the gospels and reading the witnesses of those who learned from Jesus, we have the perfect guidebook to how we are supposed to live.
It is available to each and every one of us and if we are serious about being the people God would have us be, we should begin by simply opening up the Bible and seeing what it says. It unfortunately, is something that we don’t do enough. And we have no excuse: there are translations of the Bible available for all sorts of purposes. If you have a question about what would be a useful study bible for you, give me a call, come and see me, look through the different kinds of bibles at a religious bookstore.
If we want guidance, all we need do is open our hearts to the example of Christ and work toward that which is the most sincere form of flattery: imitation.
Lent is hard.
It starts with us looking deep inside and admitting that we have not always done a good job of following Christ’s example. We have not always followed his precepts. We have not always put our own desires aside to help meet the needs of others. But when we reach that point of self-realization, we are not called to dwell there, beating ourselves up, wallowing in our own self pity.
No, we are called to repent of those sins of omission and commission and ask for forgiveness and strength. We need the strength to be able to put aside, to deny, those parts of us that keep us focused on our own selves, and prevent us from focusing on God’s will. We need the strength to recognize that we have all the tools available to us to truly become better people – the example of living that Jesus gives us; the scriptures that guide us; a relationship with God that comforts us; a community of faith that strengthens us.
Lent can be hard.
Lent can be disturbing.
Lent can be confusing.
Lent can be terrifying.
Lent can be life changing.
May it be so for you and for me.
Let us pray: Lord, help us to look deep within ourselves so that we might understand what we need to do to be imitators of Christ. Help us to stand firm and hold on to what we know is your will. Give us the strength needed to traverse this thing we call Lent. Give us the grace to forgive ourselves as you have forgiven us. Grant us your peace to leave our old selfish ways behind so that we might honor you with our service, our worship and our very lives. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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