A dispatch from the desert

I have had an odd experience these last couple of weeks of lectionary blogging. It has weakened my sense of nourishment from Scripture. This has never happened with my blogging before, but at this time, right now, I am finding that blogging the lectionary readings has turned my study and reading into a means to an end.

And that has left me with a sense of dryness.

At the same time, thoughts and ideas crowd in about other topics to write about. I have even started writing posts that would violate my Lenten discipline, only to delete them before finishing.

It may be that I am just experiencing the trials and temptations of any fast. It may be something deeper is going on here.

At any rate, this is a report from the midst of Lent. May God sustain you in your observance.

Reading Isaiah 55:1-9, part 2

A reading for the third Sunday in Lent: Isaiah 55:1-9

Isaiah 55:6-7 has to be one of the key texts for evangelical preaching.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

John Wesley’s journals and sermons echo with that phrase “Seek the Lord while he may be found.” Justification, he preached and taught, is the pardon of God. This was a go-to text for Wesley.

Here is what I have found in preaching, though. Most of the people who come to hear preaching do not experience themselves as lost. They do not have a sense of God’s distance. They do not feel themselves to be in need of mercy. They frequently have needs and wants to place before God, but are not anxious about God’s pardon.

Is this where reading the gospel reading (Luke 13:1-9) offers a map? There is a post for tomorrow.

Reading Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

A reading for Ash Wednesday: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. The day of the LORD is a day of darkness and doom. He comes leading his army, which in the skipped over verses from the reading is a devouring fire that destroys everything in its path.

Here is why so many Marcionites don’t like the Old Testament. But here he is. Behold your God.

In the later verses, I love this phrase in the NRSV: Rend your hearts and not your clothing. It is such a powerful, poetic phrase reminding us that religion is not about outward show or ritual, but about the human heart. God does not lay a bunch of duties on us that we can grudgingly perform, like the chores our mother’s used to make us do around the house.

He wants our hearts.

Weep and mourn over the way we have rejected God. Gather together and offer prayers to God: Do not forget us, LORD. Do not destroy us. Do let the world point and ask, “Where is the God they said would rescue them?”

A church in my town ran a column in the religion section of the newspaper. It said it was observing Lent by going on a carbon fast. As far as I could discern, this meant it would encourage people to reduce energy use and it would have worship service with no paper bulletins or worship materials.

Somehow, against the thundering voice of the prophet, this just does not seem like a robust response to the summons to “rend your hearts.”

Last Sunday, I used the typical mainline Protestant language with people to stop some activity or forgo some luxury to make room for God during Lent. Today, that seems rather tepid in the face of Joel’s words.

Rend your hearts. These words I will carry around with me today.

Lenten blogging plans

For the last few years, I’ve stop blogging during Lent.

This year, my intention is to keep blogging, but picking up on something Morgan Guyton posted in a comment, I’m going to blog only about readings from the Revised Common Lectionary from Ash Wednesday through Easter.

No United Methodist politics or interesting videos from Calvinists.

I invite other United Methodist bloggers to reflect on their blogging plans and priorities during the upcoming season of Lent.

Lenten Blog Tour: Acts 10:34-43

The Common English Bible has organized a Lenten Blog Tour. I was honored to be invited to take part.

Acts 10:34-43

Peter said, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all! You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism John preached. You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did, both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 4but God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to be seen, not by everyone but by us. We are witnesses whom God chose beforehand, who ate and drank with him after God raised him from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament, so I was pleased when it was assigned as my text for this Lenten Blog Tour. To me, it is one of the best capsule summaries of the good news. Peter brings to these outsiders, these non-Jews, the full story of God’s actions to redeem the world through Jesus the Messiah.

We hear this story during Lent as we move toward its dramatic climax. We are reminded as we hear Peter’s words that it is not just a story for us or our tribe. It is not meant to be a story told to reassure a club of insiders who huddle together for mutual support.

It is the declaration that God is God of all. It is the announcement that Jesus came for all of us. It is the promise that all are invited into the life of God.

In the ministry of Jesus, there were times of when he withdrew. He pulled back from the villages to escape the crowds or went off into the darkness to pray alone. Each time, though, he returned to the throng and the crowd and the press of life. He returned to preach and teach and heal.

This season of Lent is in part about withdrawing. It is a time to reflect and take stock. It is a time for silence and ashes and darkness. Such things are necessary for us. But they are not final.

Like Peter we are called to be bearers of a message. We are called to proclaim to those who have not heard the upending and unexpected news that God does not play favorites. God does not care only about the beautiful and the well-connected and the wealthy. God is not the pet of some private club. God came for all. God bled for us all. God has room for all.

Thanks be to God.

Living Methodist for Lent: Day 1

Day 1 of Living Methodist for 40 Days.

(Don’t expect an update every day. I am not vain enough to think you are that interested. Almost, but not quite.)

In less than an hour, I will attend evening worship for Ash Wednesday. My church used to offer a 7 a.m. service, but it did not this year. I liked the early morning Ash Wednesday service because it started the day and the season off before the hustle of work and routine took hold.

I spent my morning time with Scripture (Hosea 1-4) before getting ready to teach. Our family prayed together before heading out the door. We used a prayer from the United Methodist Hymnal for Ash Wednesday. We prayed again at dinner. My intention is to pray Psalm 51 before bed tonight.

This being a Wednesday, I fasted until 4 p.m., which is my interpretation of a Wesleyan half-fast. I try to keep these half-fasts on Wednesday and Friday, but often do not.

I have done my best today to use my teaching as an opportunity to do good to all I encountered, although I did not seek out an opportunity to find those outside my normal orbit.

I am not conscious of doing any evil this day other than speaking ill of Gov. Mitch Daniels when the topic of daylight savings came up.

All in all, I did better in the passive and personal elements of being a Methodist today than I did in the social aspects. I probably neglected opportunities to speak words of counsel to those around me who were doing harm to their souls. I certainly did not seek out the hungry, homeless, or lonely during the course of this day.

I close with a word of thanks to God for this day and for forgiveness. I ask that I be given strength to walk more closely in his paths tomorrow.

Living Methodist for 40 days

I want you to help me think through this. Yes, I’m coming late to the idea.

What would it take to live like a Methodist for 40 days of Lent?

My thought is that it would mean taking the General Rules of the Methodist Church and making them a rule of life from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week. Here are those three “simple” rules.

Do No Harm, especially:

The taking of the name of God in vain.

The profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work therein or by buying or selling.

Drunkenness: buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity.

Slaveholding; buying or selling slaves.

Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling.

The buying or selling goods that have not paid the duty.

The giving or taking things on usury—i.e., unlawful interest.

Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; particularly speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers.

Doing to others as we would not they should do unto us.

Doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as:

• The putting on of gold and costly apparel.
• The taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus.
• The singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God.

Softness and needless self-indulgence.

Laying up treasure upon earth.

Borrowing without a probability of paying; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them.

Do Good to All People:

To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that “we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it.”

By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another, helping each other in business, and so much the more because the world will love its own and them only.

By all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed.

By running with patience the race which is set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, to be as the filth and offscouring of the world; and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely, for the Lord’s sake.

Attend Upon All the Ordinances of God:

The public worship of God.

The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.

The Supper of the Lord.

Family and private prayer.

Searching the Scriptures.

Fasting or abstinence.

Just reading the list makes it clear to me that I could not do this on my own. This is why we need others to watch over us.

Can you be a Methodist for 40 days?