Entering Into Lent

Editor's Note: While Monday was the 'ash day' for those of us in the Syriac tradition, today is Ash Wednesday for most Christians in the west. In that spirit, I am sharing some reflections on the meaning of Lent, regardless of the day on which you begin/began your Lent.


As we enter into the season of Lent, we gather together to mark ourselves with Ashes as a sign of our repentance. This sign, an ancient one to be sure, has a special significance and importance in the context of Judeo-Christian history… but the sign’s value is empty if it remains only a sign.


To be marked with ashes today means that we recognize and admit to all people we encounter that we are sinners… that we have fallen short of the high mark of our calling, and that we need the grace of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to reach toward the hope of our calling.


During the season of Lent, we are called to discipline our bodies, to reign in our desires and our wants. We are called to simplify our lives and focus more intently on Christ. Lent isn’t about getting ashes on your head today and kissing a crucifix on Good Friday. Lent isn’t about fish on Friday and Stations of the Cross. Lent is about the transformation of one’s life, seeking to emulate more and more the example of the Savior in our daily walk.


If this isn’t our goal, then there is no point in following Lenten discipline, nor is there a point in receiving the mark of ashes upon our foreheads. In fact, to do so would be a lie… a sign of “I want the world to think I want to be better, but I am more than happy to be just what I am now.”


This viewpoint is often borne out of a static, unchanging view of salvation. “I was baptized, thus I am saved.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Salvation is a constant, evolving journey. The Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches, and even those Protestant Churches that flowed from the Wesleyan tradition have a saying: “I was saved, I am being saved, I will be saved.” This expression lays it out… we are in the midst of our journey, and each day is an experience of the salvation of our God. Lent is a time when we are called to enter more consciously into this experience, to reach out more intently and to receive more fully the lavish gifts of the Spirit that God has poured out upon us through Christ.


This is what Lent is all about.


May your Lent this year be a time of transformation and renewal, to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To our holy, triune God be all praise and honor, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

The Legacy of Sputnik

Fifty years after a beach-ball sized hunk of metal 'beep-beep'ed its way around the globe, instilling fear and terror in some, and wondrous hope in others, what is the legacy of Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik?

As a man of faith, I have often been asked what God thinks of spaceflight, and it is my belief that God has given us a magnificent sense of wonder and inquisitiveness. We must use it to the fullest advantage that we can, and that extends to exploring space.

Spaceflight today is entering its painful adolescent state. Still in some ways childish (spy satellites, anti-satellite weapons, etc...), while at the same time trying to be mature (observation telescopes, geological study satellites, missions to the planets and beyond). We are still growing into our identy as a spacefaring people.

People of faith must be involved in this great endeavor, however. To go to the stars without acknowledging God's creative hand and his awesome granduer in the fabric of space does only a disservice to people of faith who might seek to foreswear spaceflight as some evil, demonic attempt to build a modern Tower of Babel.

Space is the future of humanity (at least until the Lord returns), and we need to -as people of faith- be ready to move into the future with the rest of our species.

At the same time, the deep call of both God and space should renew our goals to set aside our petty, pathetic differences here on earth. The killing needs to stop, borders need to be torn down, warfare needs to cease, and the poor, orphaned, downtrodden of our civilization need -desperately!- to be cared for. Some say that the money for space should be spent on the poor. I agree, to an extent... but I'd prefer to see the money we use to build guns and bombs to kill (largely) the poor turned to helping them stand and exist in a modern world where everyone has an acceptable standard of living.


In a way, I think Saint Francis would be proud to share his feast day on the western calendar with the launch of Sputnik... for as Sputnik causes us to think of that newly-expanding frontier of Space, a part of the creation that Francis loved so much, so it forces us to think about the rest of his message - one where we live in harmony with nature and with our fellows.

Just some thoughts on this day, October 4th... the fiftieth anniversary of the 'beep' that changed the world.

Does God Really Forgive Sinners?

Today the question was posed on a list I frequent:
Should mistakes in someone's past automatically preclude them from the opportunity to accomplish any good in the future?

According to a clergyman... any future good works are forever overshadowed by the mistakes of the past. Indeed, even false accusations, it appears, should cause an individual to be shunned forever.

I thought I would share an expanded version of my response...

The immediate response I think of is found in 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 which reads,
"Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (NLT)

Paul's basic message? Well, you were sinners once, but you have been washed clean.

Jesus (and Paul!), of course, requires us to change our ways... we have been called from darkness and self-preoccupation to the light of existence in the community of faith. God truly meets us where we are and walks with us through our struggles as we strive to become better than when we first encountered him.

When Jesus encountered the woman who was about to be stoned for committing adultery, he challenged the crowd (particularly the popular religion-mongers who had caught the woman) by seeking a sinless person to cast the first stone at her. Everyone dropped their stones and went home. They were all sinners. He then turned to the woman and said, "Go and sin no more." (John 8: 11b)

He sent the woman away forgiven, with a call for her to never do it again.

There will be difficult times on that walk. The apostles can tell you about difficult times. Peter calls Jesus the Messiah, and then -after a brief interlude- is called Satan by the very man he glorified by his declaration. In fact, Peter went on to deny Jesus... and yet Jesus reversed the denial and turned it into a threefold affirmation of Peter's call to serve - and it turned Peter inside out.

So, the next time someone tells you (any of you!) that God holds the sins we have repented of against us, challenge them to show you some New Testament proof. Next time someone tells you that God does not have abundant mercy, kindly request some evidence of the claim.

(Finally, just point to the Montanists if the individual in question needs some proof of a condemed heretical sect that practiced shunning to the degree this individual is advocating.)