Lamenting Lent

Lent is the season beginning Ash Wednesday and lasting until Easter when many of us Christians give up something in order to illuminate Christ’s suffering and crucifixion.  I have to be honest and say that I do not recall a single season of Lent that I successfully abstained from my sacrificial token.

I decided this year was going to be different!  My first thought was to give up sarcasm, yea right.  I work with middle school students day in and day out; I wouldn’t last long with out tool.  What’s next on the list, tipple?  Did I mention I work with middle school aged kiddos……so it  is on to the next sacrificial offering.  Decadent desserts, that’s it!  No, my lovely wife has us both basking on the dreary dietary South Beach.  Drats!  I’ve got it now, I can abstain from Facebook.  Who am I kidding, how would I keep up with all my close friends; you know the ones I haven’t seen in 30+ years.  Community is biblical, right?

So here I am in the first leg of Lent with no offering.  Maybe I should take something up for Lent rather than giving it up.  Any ideas?

I guess I will just rely on grace, RT.

Righteous Indignation…Really?

Have you ever heard or used the term “righteous indignation” to rationalize seemingly harsh and/or bizarre behaviors?  From the Crusades and  Jihads to social ethics and ethnic cleansings….the righteous and their indignation have been there.  Only problem is righteousness is often interchanged with self-righteousness and that can be lethal.

Righteousness rings of something being pure and morally correct, but by whose morals and standards?  Indignation brings to mind an emotion invoked by a perceived injustice, a feeling.  Feelings are subject to change and influenced by perspective.  Which brings me back to that question of what is the moral standard that is the basis of our righteous feelings? 

Romans 3:10 states:  ”As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one”.   Doesn’t leave much wiggle room does it?  How can one have righteous indignation, if we are incapable of being righteous?  Romans 3:22 goes on to say:  “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”   Now I believe and have faith in Christ, albeit not enough…my self-righteousness gets in the way.

Feeling my way, RT

Blessing Blunder

There is something I don’t quite understand…..be kind now….I know what you are thinking; there is a lot he doesn’t seem to understand.  However, this one has been bothering me for awhile now.  I have been hearing prayers by numerous people including some pastors in which they begin by saying, “Lord we bless you”.  Now my theology is not that deep, but is that even possible?

As I understand the word blessing in biblical terms it is a ‘favor or gift bestowed by God.’   I know for a fact that I have been blessed by God on countless occasions.  I further believe God has blessed me through the actions of others and hopefully He has been able to use me to bring His blessing to others from time to time.  But to say that we have the capacity to bless God….really?

Maybe our actions can be pleasing to God on occasion, but a blessing…I don’t think that  is possible.  Blessing are divine and we are not.  I might be arguing semantics, but shouldn’t we be singing praises to Him for the blessing He has bestowed upon us?

And if we want to bless someone, why don’t we put ourselves out there in a position where God can use us as a blessing to someone else?  You know what I mean?

May God bless you and praise be unto Him, RT.

A dog-like faith…

This print of Andrew Wyeth’s “Master Bedroom”  has traveled with me for over two decades and has hung in five homes, in three different towns.   It always seems to call me back to being a better person. 

If I could only display the same loyalty towards Christ and His teachings that my dog displays towards me.  The same joy at hearing my master’s voice.  The same excitement to spend time in my master’s presence.  The same compassion for and interest in my master’s actions.  The same sense of  peace knowing my master’s identity. 

House-broken, but still in training, RT.

Struggling with the whole forgiveness thing.

Where do I start?  The obvious answer would be at the beginning, but that is not where I am at.  It isn’t so much about the perceived wrong as it is about doing the perceived right thing to do; forgive.  And that is where my struggle begins.

I pray that most dangerous of dangerous prayers almost every Sunday.  You know the one: the Lord’s prayer.  I call it dangerous because if I am going to be forgiven as I forgive others, woe be unto me.  I think I am past something and then it raises it’s ugly head again.  Those same old feelings of hurt, fear, and anger come flooding in.  I was wronged and I have the right to hold a grudge and withhold forgiveness, right?  Well, I guess I have the right, but at what cost? 

Will I be forgiven in accordance to my ability to forgive?  O’God I hope not.  So that brings me to this: is human forgiveness for the sinner or for the one sinned against?  Didn’t Christ pay the ultimate price for my, your, our sins?  So that would mean that the one/ones who I perceive have sinned against me have already been forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice.  They don’t need my forgiveness, but I do.

Wrestling with it all, RT.

Reflections on Advent

Now, I realize Advent season has come and gone, but now is a good time to reflect on the Christmas of recent past….Secularly, advent is defined as the coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important, such as the advent of the computer.  In Christian circles, advent is supposed to be a time of preparation for the Second Coming while commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas.  Looking back I  just have to wonder exactly what we were looking forward to?    Was it the annual return of  jolly Ole’ Saint Nick with his naughty and nice list or was it the risen Christ with His naughty and nice list?  Observation would tell me that we as a nation were waiting for the return of the one in the red suit with boots, not the One in the tattered robe and dusty sandals. 

And why not?  The guy in the red suit is a lot easier to like.  He gives immediate, tangible gifts to everyone, no matter whether naughty or nice from what I can see.   It is sort of like Wall Street and the government bailout or Obama and his promise of “incentives”, it doesn’t really matter if you behave ethically or not; you still get a gift.  Christ has a gift to offer as well, however His may not seem so immediate or tangible.  His gift was Himself and our salvation.  Tragically, many are lured away by the promise of the emperor’s coin. 

I wonder what the exchange rate is at Heaven’s gate? 

Looking and praying for Advent, RT.

Blue-Eyed Christ and the gospel of “Meh”

I received an email today claiming to be the results of an NBC morning poll on whether or not to keep the words “in God we trust” on our money and “one nation under God” in the pledge of allegiance.  The email went on to claim that NBC had a higher number of responses on this poll than any other poll and that the results were 86% in favor of keeping the verbage with a mere 14% against.  The email ended with the question of why is the world catering to this 14%?   Oh, did I mention that this email also contained a picture of a blue-eyed Christ?

I find it fitting to have received this email the same week it was announced that the word “meh” will be added to the Collins English Dictionary.  Meh has many meanings depending upon the intonation, however it started out signifying mediocrity or indifference and has evolved/devolved to infer boring, apathetic or unimpressive.  Now, I know I am rambling a bit, so I will try to make my point……

If 86% percent of NBC viewers truly believe what is printed on their money and stated in their pledge, then why is our nation in the shape it is?  I’ll tell you why, because these same people believe in a blue-eyed Christ.  They have accepted a gospel of Meh.  A gospel of mediocrity and indifference to the truth.  They see the  gospel message through the same narrow world view they see their version of Christ.  The view that sees prosperity in terms of temporal riches rather than a flourishing kingdom of God.  Through this same narrow world view the followers of this meh gospel truly believe only 14% of the “world” wants to banish God from our vocabulary, so why listen to them?  However, the US Center for World Missions reports that only 33% of the world’s population claim to to be Christians.  That would make make that 14% who want to strike God from our national liturgy closer to 67%.  So shouldn’t the question really be; why should the world listen to the 33% Christian minority? 

Maybe if this gospel of meh was exchanged for a lot more passion, commitment and action on the Christian minority’s part, we could do away with this blue-eyed Jesus.  Then we could study, follow and honor the true Christ through the blood stained words of the bible. 

Meh…RT

I couldn’t do this, could you?

Several friends have sent this video to me over the past couple of days.  I just want to share it with you.  Each time I watch it, I think as a father I could never do this….Thank God our Father did!

God bless you, RT.

Is it just me?

As I walked down the school hallway and heard Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA playing on the morning announcements as an intro to the pledge, I wondered if the irony was lost on everyone but me.  The demographics of this district’s website report that there are over 40 different languages spoken in the homes of its students.  This would imply that not all of the students were “born in the USA”.  The district’s ethnicity summary reports that Hispanic is the largest and fastest growing “minority”.  It goes on to report that all “minorities” combined equal 49% of its student population.  Now what message are we sending to these students and others?  Many were not born in the USA, yet we expect that they stand and show respect for the flag during the pledge?  This, after pointing out the difference between us and them through the words of Bruce’s anthem…  I don’t get it.

Now don’t get me wrong, people who know me wouldn’t exactly call me touchy-feely, but I do think we need to realize the impact of our uttered words.  Those words can be in written, spoken, or song form.  We need to be a lot less egocentric and a little more altruistic in our thoughts, words, and actions.  Wait a minute, that is beginning to sound like a Jewish rabbi I have read about.  And you know what happened when people started following Him.

Enough said, RT out.

America, here’s your sign!

This past Sunday I was greeted by this proclamation as I pulled into the church parking lot: America, Bless God!  Was this the work of a dyslexic church worker, an electrical glich or was it an act of divine genius?

I prefer to believe the later.  America, and by America I mean the USA, has long volleyed the call of God bless America in song and war cries.  But I often wonder are we deserving of that blessing?  What are we doing as a nation for God to want to bestow His blessing on us?  When I think of Christ words in the Beatitudes, the answer is not much.

I believe that as a nation and as a people if we truly want God’s blessings we have some dramatic changes to make.  We know what we need to do, the question is are we willing?

As always, RT