Saturday

Scripture  Matthew 5:43-48

“Perfection  During Lent, remember that we are made perfect in Christ.  This can only happen through him.”

How often we struggle with the concept of being perfect.  This scripture passage talks about love and especially loving our enemies.  If perfection means that I have to love those who hurt and demean me, how can I do that.  Is that what we are talking about and how does that fit with Lent?  This week has focused on our need to repent, judge not, forgive, humble ourselves, pray, and stop holding grudges.  Maybe that is the focus we should be aiming for in our lives.

I know in my life the difficulty one can have in doing the above.  I need to keep in mind it can only happen if I let Christ in my life, my mind, and my heart.  I believe that is what perfection is about.  Not that I can be perfect without fault or sin, but Christ and the Holy Spirit can enable to be more mature in what I do and how I relate to others.  It means to see people as creations of God and that God is the final judge not me.  Rick Warren in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, starts by reminding us “It is not about you.  It is about God.”  There was only one perfect human that was Jesus.  The more we emulate him, the more we become like him.

Thursday and Friday

Ever have one of those weeks where you plan and then life happens that causes your plans to change unexpectedly.  This week has been one of those weeks.  Two funerals within 5 days of one another and one 10 days ago.  On top of hospital visits and other activities, I did not have time to do my blog.  So today I am catching up.  Please bear with me.

Thursday Scripture Matthew 7:7-12

“Just Ask! Prayer is at the heart of our Lenten journey.  God wants to hear our prayers.”

What is your prayer life like?  Is it daily?  What is it that you pray about?  Anne Lamott wrote a book on prayer titled, Help, Thanks, Wow!.  I know in my life sometimes it is easy to only pray for help when I am in trouble or having a difficult time.  Yet, how many times do we pray prayers of thanksgiving?  Lent may be a time to remember to pray our thanks for a Savior who out of love choose to climb upon the cross for us.  At the same time to express Wow that such love given to us who are the least deserving.  Our God is love.  This Lent take time to remember to thank God and be wowed by His mercy and love.

Friday Scripture Matthew 5:20-26

“Holding Grudges. Open your heart to reconciliation, seeking ways to settle old disagreements.”

I know the difficulty it is to let go of grudges and past hurts.  There have been many times in my life that I have felt hurt by others or taken advantage of or been the subject of hate and lies.  I have guilty that I couldn’t just forgive right away and carried the anger and grudge with me to the point it began to affect my important relationships with those around me that loved me.  I knew I had to do something different or if I kept those grudges I was doing harm to myself spiritually and even physically.

Carrying around that pain did not change anything and never does.  Dealing with the pain and hurt is the only way to reach a point of forgiveness.  In my life I have found forgiveness, really letting go and letting God handle things, was a process.  The adage Forgive and Forget is wrong.  We are called to forgive and need to take the time to understand the hurt and allow God into the process of healing.  But there are some things we need to learn from which means not forgetting but not allowing the past to dictate the present or the future.  What makes the difference is knowing the pain and hurt and coming to terms with it and allowing God to put people into your life that can surround you with love and mercy as He has for you.

Wednesday

Scripture Jonah 3:1-10

“Even the mighty need to humble themselves to do God’s will.”

There is something about the story of Jonah that has always spoke to me.  First Jonah tries to run away from the call of God.  In some respects, it reminds me of my call story.  I was told when I was 15 that God may be calling me.  For the next 35 years, I ran away from that call.  But as we read today God called a second time and I answered maybe not to go to Nineveh home of my enemies but to enter into the ministry willing to go wherever God directed.  It meant letting go of some things and opening up to others.  The following is the scripture from the NLT.

NLT Jonah 3:1 Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:
2 "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you."
3 This time Jonah obeyed the LORD's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.
4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!"
5 The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in sackcloth and sat on a heap of ashes.
7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: "No one, not even the animals, may eat or drink anything at all.
8 Everyone is required to wear sackcloth and pray earnestly to God. Everyone must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence.
9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will have pity on us and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us."
10 When God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, he had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction he had threatened.

Much like Jonah, I have learned that if we really are ready to repent, humble ourselves, and seek God, God will have pity on us and hold back His judgment toward us.  Let us pray earnestly and to seek to change our ways.  This season of Lent be for us one of prayer, repentance, and seeking the will of God in our lives.

Tuesday

Scripture Matthew 6:7-15

“Today, pray the prayer that Jesus taught us.  Remember to focus on God’s forgiveness.”

Every Sunday we pray the Lord’s Prayer in our churches.  Sometimes it seems like we do it out of habit without thinking, reflecting, and emoting on what we are praying. Today as you say the prayer I would suggest that you say one sentence at a time.  Reflect on what you just said.  Even if you want take it one phrase at a time.  For instance, “Our Father”  what does that mean for you.  What if you substitute Our Creator?  What changes in the way you perceive the prayer?

Notice as you say the prayer it is not an individual prayer but actually a communal prayer.  It is about us.  So when we say “Give us this day our daily bread” it is not just mine but make sure that we are have what we need to exist this day.  I think this is a call for us to at least what we can to help those who are starving, who are naked, who have no shelter, to work toward ways we can feed, clothe, shelter the least of them.

Monday

I took the Sunday off for Sabbath but still read Mark 1:12-15.  The theme was Repent!  Be reconciled to God. Receive the forgiveness in Christ.  Then Forgive others.

Every week we pray the Lord’s Prayer asking God to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Yet, how often we hold onto grudges or the past without forgiveness.  Jesus stated in Matthew if we do not forgive others the Father will not forgive us.  It is not a matter of who goes first.  We need to step up to the plate and be the first.  This Lent who do you need to forgive and then do it!

Today the scripture is Lev. 19:1-2, 11-18

“Refrain from rash judgments.  Our God is just, filled with mercy and compassion.”

15 "Always judge your neighbors fairly, neither favoring the poor nor showing deference to the rich.
16 "Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. "Do not try to get ahead at the cost of your neighbor's life, for I am the LORD.
17 "Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. "Confront your neighbors directly so you will not be held guilty for their crimes.
18 "Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

This and yesterday reflections tie together.  Judging and forgiving are close to each other.  Think what this would do to our lives and the lives of those around us.  To not make rash judgments, to not spread gossip, to not try to outdo our neighbors, to really love our neighbors.  This does not mean becoming a doormat and allow others to abuse you or to use you.  We all make judgments.  What it does mean is not to let our prejudices so influence us we give no one a chance.  We can look at the state of the world and see where grudges have gotten us and unchecked greed has created nightmares for the poor throughout the world.

We have politicians cater to the rich, we have corporations lie so that they can get benefits as they destroy the earth, and we have people judge one another not based on knowing the person but rather on racial, sexual orientation, or ethnic origins.

Make this Lent a time of examining our prejudice so that we can love our neighbor as our self.

Saturday

Luke 5:27-32

“Take up the cross.  This Lent make a renewed commitment to follow Christ’s teachings.”

The term take up the cross has been one that at times has caused me concern.  Just what did Jesus really expect of me and not only me but all who call upon him. Was Jesus asking me to sacrifice everything much like the rich man?  I believe it means that I am willing to leave my comfort zone to be around those that others would despise, disapprove, and/or denigrate.  Jesus in the scripture above approaches those that the Pharisees feel are unworthy.

29 Soon Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests were there.
30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"
31 Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor-- sick people do.
32 I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough."

Maybe picking up the cross means not to follow blindly what others think or say, but to commit myself to the teachings of Christ.  This Lent can be a time for all of us to self examine whether or not we seek righteousness or are we feeling self-righteous.  Let’s join together to leave our comfort zones and dare to do what seems impossible to do except through the power of Christ.

Friday February 20

Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-9

“Lent is a time for us to share our bounty with the poor, to pray, and to fast.”

Today as we approach the first Sunday of Lent, we are reminded that we are to find ourselves to be transformed and not conformed to the world.  I find that for me it means that I am called to share with those who are the least, the lost, and the lonely.  To find ways of sharing not just my treasure, but also my talents and time.  Rather than just sacrificing, I need to do more in my life.  Fasting means not just refraining from meals but also how I choose to spend my time.

Fasting according to Isaiah is

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Indeed that is what I believe about fasting.  Jesus in Matthew 25 spoke of the same concerns that when we do it for the least of them we do it for him.  Lent is about remembering the grace and mercy God has shown us and to reach out to others.

Thursday February 19

Scripture:  Psalm 1:1-4, 6

“Surround yourself with those who delight in the law of the Lord.”

When I was growing up, my parents would often tell me that others would judge me by the company I keep.  I believe they did so to protect me from associating with the “wrong people.”  I was never sure who were the wrong people,  I have always had a strong moral ethic about how I wanted to treat people and how I wanted to be treated.  Not saying that there were times I acted in ways that were not what I wanted.  As Paul says, “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do.”  My experience in my life and in counseling and ministry it seems that many of us can identify with these statements.  One of the reasons of being with those who hold to loving God and neighbor helps us in being able to do the things we want to do.

What strikes me this Lent about the Psalm, is not just surrounding myself with those who are like me, but the importance to be open to others who may not be exactly like me.  I also need to be careful with who I listen to.  If I am listening to those who preach divisiveness and hate, who will say anything regardless of spending time dealing with facts, who would rather get their name in the paper or TV with no concern about others, I can be influenced to not think and to not spend time looking at what Jesus taught.  Too many news channels spend more time condemning others who may think differently than them and often would rather argue than provide alternatives to what they are concerned about.  This includes politicians.

Lent is a time to reflect and to think about God and Jesus.  I respect diverse opinions and would hope that those who may think differently than myself would respect me.  It is those who respect and love all of God’s creation, who try to let go of judgment of others, who engage one another in thoughtful dialog that I want to surround myself with.

Who do you surround yourself with?  Are you open to the ways God may be entering your life today?  For me the basic law of God is love.  Where can you show love even to those you disagree with?

Pastor Eldon

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday February 18th 2015.  We are beginning the season of Lent.  It is traditionally a time of reflection, repentance, and prayer as we remember what Jesus did for us.  We journey 40 days in our spiritual lives and discover ways of living out what we learn about ourselves to share the love that we have received.  It is in this journey that we take time to pray, develop spiritual disciplines, worship, fast, and to follow Jesus.  The author of Luke stated that Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)”  This Lent I want to share scripture and reflections in my blog.  The scriptures come from Paul Pennick for Creative Communications for the Parish.  Following the brief reflection, I will add my own thoughts and insights.

For Wednesday the 18th of February, the scripture comes from the gospel of Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.  This is a traditional scripture for Ash Wednesday.  The brief reflection is “Do not show off.  Keep your prayer between you and our Lord God in heaven.

As you read the scripture, take time to reflect on how we live.  Do we want to have people notice how righteous we are?  When we pray to we drone on and on, trying to impress others?  When we fast or sacrifice for Lent, do we let everyone know what we are doing?

I sometimes find myself spending time boasting about how I do things or the tasks that I have done.  Even at times wanting others to approve of me or be impressed in my sermons or prayers.  Jesus speaks directly to this especially in the Sermon on the Mount.  Rather than trying to please others or to impress others, one should focus on our relationship with God.  In doing so, we can begin to stay away from a sense of self-righteousness.  An excess of words will not impress God but to speak directly from our heart will.

Maybe in this Lenten journey, we should be less concerned about how others perceive us and more concerned about our relationship with God.  Focus first on loving God and working on that relationship and then move to loving one another.