Lenten Lessons

The following is a truncated version of this morning's sermon as a general introduction to Lent and this devotional series.

Lent is a season of renewal, it is a season that mirrors the transformation that takes place in nature around us.  Lent is a season of time set aside for our return to the Lord and our pursuit of his Holiness.  Lent is also a time of confession and a recognition of where we have missed the mark and in humility, recognize our need for a savior.

Lent is a time to dwell on the words and teachings of Christ and to allow them to have power in our lives.  The text this morning is quite interesting (Matt 23:1-12).  Jesus is not far from the cross and the intensity of his teaching and the crowds around him give us a indication that things are going to change.  While the events of Jesus last weeks swirl around him, Jesus teaches his disciples three important lessons.  These lessons very appropriately can and should be applied to our thinking and participation in this season of Lent.

Lesson One: Integrity and authenticity   (Jesus makes critical comments with regards to the Pharisee and their application of the law in their own lives)


Jesus desires for his followers to find integrity in the marriage of their teaching and the application of that teaching in their own lives.   This is a strong word for us to hear, because I think we have at times in our lives seen the tension between what we know to be true as followers of Christ and the putting into practice  that which we know to be true in our lives.   On Sunday night of the Retreat to Covenant Point with our senior high students I had one of these moments.  As I listened to the speaker talk about childlike faith and how as adults we grab on to control and we lose our innate sense of need for a parent or in a spiritual sense our heavenly father I realized that these words which were not only directed at my students, but were also directed at me.  Deep down I knew that I needed to allow God to be in control of my life, and so my teaching reflected that....but was I living that way?   If I was honest with myself, I had to admit that I was the one who wanted to grab the reins of my life.  As we gathered together as a group afterwards I confessed that my teaching and my practically living  weren't on the same page and that I was committing myself to the authority of God in my life.   In lent we reflect on our lives we reflect on our relationship with Jesus and we actively seek the Holy Spirit to make us aware of those areas where what we know about Christ and even proclaim about Christ differs from the practical out flowing of that truth in our lives.  We confess our short comings and we draw near during this time to allow Christ to infuse us with the integrity we need to live Christ like lives.  Much of this is done by watching the life of Christ, his actions and the integrity of his walk with his own father.  Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a renewed authenticity.

Lesson Two: Inward and outward piety (Jesus addresses the Pharisees wearing physical reminders (phylacteries and tassels as a symbol of their own holiness)

Clearly Jesus is picking on the Pharisees but I think we all can see that this is a temptation we all fall victim too.  In the pursuit of holiness it is annoying easy to get caught up in spiritual comparisons, to find ourselves wanting to be noticed for the sacrifices we make and the righteousness we think we have secured.  We want people to notice the box of spiritual growth on our forehead and the religious tassels that hang by our side.  Historically lent has been as a season for the pursuit of holiness.  Lent is a time set aside for the follower of Christ to pursue Jesus with a renewed sense of intensity.  This is not a season to strut your spiritual stuff, to wear your spiritual achievements on your sleeve, but to recognize where we have fallen short and to be reminded that the box we were to place on our forehead has been replace by the cross.  Through the cross we encounter God's profound intervention in our lives. There is nothing about the cross that we can lay claim for credit of personal achievement but in humility we receive it as a gift from God.  Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a renewed desire to see God's holiness in our lives.

Lesson Three: Humility (Jesus addresses the acquisition of power through the acquisition of titles)

Clearly humility has a dimension of selflessness and a perspective of power that run contrary to the way we see our world work and operate.   But humility is deeper than that.  When we seek titles of authority like we see here in the text we claim for ourselves a sense of authority and self control.  We attempt to become self sufficient, the creators of our own destiny and as a result we lose the recognition of our need for a savior. A child recognizes his or her need for a parent to make things right after falling and hurting themselves, a child recognizes his or her need for a parent to look out for them and protect them.  But we lose that as we get older and I think it affects the way we come to see Jesus.   This year has been a difficult one in our family.  When Drew was born 18 months ago we saw what we thought to be a healthy, happy baby.  But quickly we realized that the next 12 months of our lives would be both filled with question marks and not a lot of answers.  When Drew came out of his first surgery last may, this kind of humility we see Jesus talking about became very real to us.  We walked down the hall to the recovery room and looked at our son, hooked up to what felt like hundreds of wires and monitors.  We saw our child clearly confused, scared and hurting and in need of his parents.   As parents we too were placed in position where we lost our sense of control, waiting and wondering what would happen during those 2 hours of surgery.   In those tense moments both my son and his parents recognized in humility the need we have for abba father, rabbi, teacher, savior.   At the very heart of Lent, we come to recognize that we need a savior, abba father who can come and meet us in our helplessness, to draw us out of the pain, to meet us where we are at, and to forgive that which put separation between us.  The Prophet Joel said...

  ¹² "Even now," declares the LORD, 

Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a humility and a return to the Lord. This morning as we approach the table, let us approach the table in humility, in the recognition of our need for father, rabbi, teacher, savior.   AMEN.