Giving Up Lent

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in. – from Isaiah 58

Happy Lent.  I hope that your time engaging in whatever spiritual practice you chose was beneficial.  I hope that you are truly enjoying that cup of coffee or piece of chocolate or glass of wine or beer.  I hope that you have also found a new place in your heart that you didn’t know was there.  For that is what this fast is about.  It is about opening ourselves up – ultimately, like Isaiah calls for, to the world outside our skin.  May we all find ways to stop pointing the finger or speaking evil to one another, to care for the afflicted without making sure that they are justifiably afflicted, to feed the hungry without a means test first.  I hope that we have found…in Lent.. a time to repent, to truly “turn around” which is what repentance is all about.  The world needs it.  Our nation needs it.  We need it.

AMEN.

Giving Up Counting

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. – from John 13

According to the numbers this is the last blog post of my Lenten practice.  It is #40 – 40 days of Lent…you do the math.  But there are two issues.  First, I noticed that I double numbered two entries, so technically I’m on #39 now.  And more importantly, this has become a worthwhile practice to me.  So, while I may not blog everyday, I do think I will do so more often than I used to because it is more than just the obligation now, it has become meaningful to me.

Numbers sometimes matter.  How we measure things really matters.  Today people are gathering at the UN to discuss something called “Gross National Happiness”.  Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an indicator developed in Bhutan in the Himalayas, based on the concept elaborated in 1972 by the then King Jigme Singye Wangchuck. Since then, the kingdom of Bhutan, with the support of UNDP (UN Development Program), began to put this concept into practice, and has attracted the attention of the rest of the world with its new formula to measure the progress of a community or nation.

GNH is based on the premise that the calculation of “wealth” should consider other aspects besides economic development: the preservation of the environment and the quality of life of the people. The goal of a society should be the integration of material development with psychological, cultural, and spiritual aspects – all in harmony with the Earth.  Maybe that sounds to “new age-y” for you, but the concept comes from the indication that what we measure is what we produce.  So, when you measure GDP as the sole indicator of how a society is doing, you get lots of economic production but it isn’t necessarily sustainable or healthy growth.  There are other factors, just as taxes alone do not indicate to companies whether or not they want to move into your state.  There are things like stability, the general state of health, community vitality, education, infrastructure, culture, governance and the standard of living.  All of these things add to our happiness.

It is human nature to strive for the goals which are set.  So if we call for GDP as THE indicator, we will feed the things that produce that, some of which are not good for us in the long run.  The goals that we set make what we create for and with one another.  They help to shape our community.

The same is true of our faith lives.  What are we measuring?  Are we measuring how many people are in the pews on Sunday?  Are we measuring how many we have “saved”, by whatever means we have to “save” them?  Are we measuring the amount in the offering plate, the number of hits on our Facebook page or the number of people who say “Nice sermon, Pastor” in the crowd on Sunday morning?  That may very well be what we measure, but what does looking to those indicators alone mean for what kind of spirituality we offer?  How does what we measure, and what priority we give to it, impact the kind of church we are?

Giving Up Ending

But anyone who endures to the end will be saved. – Matthew 24:13

When does this end?  I had someone stop me in church this morning who gave up scotch for Lent.  He’s ready for it to be over.  When I told him that there were several different answers to when it stopped he asked, “Which answer is today?”  I understand.  As much as I have, at times, enjoyed the daily discipline of finding something to write I’m also ready for a break.  But I will tell you one thing.  I have learned that blog posts can be good sermon starters.  I have learned that sometimes simply writing a few sentences about something that captures your attention that day can be enlightening, even cathartic.

I think that this is the intention of a Lenten practice, or a spiritual practice of any kind.  There are days you don’t want to do it but just like practicing a musical instrument or exercising, when you do it you 1) feel better afterwards and 2) get better at it.  Both are good things to accomplish.  But even to practice things for practice’s sake is worthwhile.  For it is in doing that we find some truths that we cannot get otherwise.

We like to get people who are new to the Mayflower Medical Outreach – our mission project in Nicaragua – on a trip to Jinotega, the mountain town where our clinic and boarding school are located, as soon as possible.  Why?  Well, there’s a lot of work to do down there.  But also because people get committed to that work after going there in a way that we cannot duplicate using any other technique.  Meeting the students, interacting with the teachers and house moms, working in the clinic and seeing the beautiful people of Nicaragua does something to your heart.  You are changed in ways that no book or TV show or You Tube clip could ever accomplish.  It is something viral, but not like the internet’s shallow viruses which impact our souls like a ripe tomato – a dull thud before they break apart leaving only a small stain that is easily wiped away.  This virus sticks with you.  Why?  Because, like spiritual practice, it is something beyond words, something on the far side of rational.  And that’s the stuff that truly shapes our hearts, if we will give ourselves to it.

So, Lent may be over for some people today…others it may be Holy Saturday…still others have another couple of weeks.  Whatever the case, don’t let it really stop.  Maybe change one practice for another, but keep practicing.

Giving Up Exclusivity

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” – from Matthew 25

I was happy this evening to attend the annual banquet for the Oklahoma chapter of CAIR, the Council for American Islamic Relations.  This is a group I have personally dealt with and with whom I have worked on several important issues.  Yet for some here in Oklahoma this organization represents something dangerous, as does Islam.

I hold no fear of my Muslim brothers and sisters, even though there are things on which we disagree.  I am well aware of the connection between Islam and terrorist groups, but I am equally aware of the deep connection between Christianity and the Ku Klux Klan and I do not equate all Christians with KKK members.  I have judged those members of CAIR with whom I have been involved the same way I have judged anyone – by their fruits.

I view my responsibility as a Christian to involve the welcome of the stranger in my midst.    This is why I, and Mayflower Church, have reached out to the Muslim community at a time when many individuals have received death threats and they have had many incidents of vandalism at the mosque.  The dictionary describes a stranger as someone who is “not known in a community”.  I can think of no better description for my Muslim friends, who are maligned with almost every opportunity in most media forms that the majority in Oklahoma choose to pay attention to.  It is no wonder, given the misinformation and slander they are exposed to, that the majority here do not understand Islam or the faith lives of Muslims beyond the stereotype.

But Jesus calls us to something else.  Jesus calls us to welcome those who are outcast and to be known, even to be judged, by how we treat those who are most vulnerable among us.  It doesn’t take long exposure to the kinds of attacks Muslims get here on a daily basis to consider them in positions of vulnerability.

Just like Lent, our faith should push us to challenge our boundaries and open ourselves up to God’s often surprising way of working in the world.  The impending arrival of Easter might remind us that God does indeed work in mysterious ways and that we human beings are not good judges of who or what is holy.

I am proud to belong to a church that was represented at that banquet tonight.  Though the Conference of Churches was there, no individual church save Mayflower had a table.  That makes me happy.  I think that even though pride is one of the seven deadly sins, this feels like good pride.

Giving up Family Values

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ – from Mark 3

This has always been a troubling passage to me, mostly because I love my family and it seems like Jesus is asking us not to care about that.  But I don’t think that’s what is really going on.  We get this term “family values” thrown around a lot and mostly this seems to me to mean a certain kind of family’s values, not the value of families.  Families come in all shapes and sizes and the so-called “nuclear family” is not the typical model out there anymore.  It is the model I have right now – one husband, one wife – still married and with two kids.  Yet I came from a mixed family, divorce and remarriage…step-siblings who I think of as my own sisters and brothers and the added grace of many grandparents for my boys.  And I have friends for whom the biological ties in their families get very complex, but where the ties of love and family are pretty simple.

I think that the idea that Jesus is getting at here is that our idea of family needs to expand.  We have a tendency in this “family values” debate to become insular and draw our circles far too narrowly.  Our ability to experience joy and celebrate with one another, to love with one another, to serve with one another, to mourn with one another – this is what makes for family.  Jesus says that “whoever does the will of God” makes for family.  What does God require, the prophet Micah asks, but to “Do Justice, Love Kindness and Walk Humbly with Your God?”  Funny, that’s what makes for family, too.

So, whether we have children, adopt them (legally or otherwise), merge two families together, graft one onto another, have godparents or “aunts and uncles” or simply think of one another as more than just friends, the term “family” is an expansive one in the kingdom that Jesus imagines.  It begins not with our bloodlines, but with our capacity to share with one another, to open ourselves up to be vulnerable and to meet vulnerability with compassion.  That makes mothers and brothers and sisters and fathers faster than anything else.