Lent is that forty-day period
before Easter that many churches have set aside as a time of reflection upon Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross and our response to that sacrifice. Lent, basically, is a season of spiritual inventory.
In Genesis 2:4b-7, we read how
God created us out of dust. In Genesis
3:1-19, we read how we will return to that dust. Physically speaking, our origin and our
destination are one and the same – dust!
Do you know that household dust
is made up mostly of the discarded skin cells of the occupants of that
house? Sometime, when you’re brave and
you can handle a sobering dose of biblical reality, lift up the bedspread from
where it touches the floor, get on your hands and knees and stare your mortality
square in the face!
Doing so is part of what Lent is
all about. That’s why some people have
cross-shaped smears of ashes put on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Those smears are a reminder that we are all
returning to dust, which is a rather euphemistic way of saying that we all die.
Why would we want to remind
ourselves that we are going to die - actually, more to the point, that we are,
even now, in the process of dying?
Back when I was in school, I
would receive two basic kinds of assignments.
There were the assignments the teachers would just spring on us, with
very little time to work on them, and there were the assignments that were
given to us way in advance of their due dates.
Contrary to what you might
think, the assignments given to me in advance were the problems. Why?
Because I thought I had a lot of time.
With the surprise assignments, I knew I had to get started right away or
else I wouldn’t finish by the due date.
But with the assignments that had due dates out in the distant future, I
wouldn’t get started right away. I’d
think, “I’ve got plenty of time. I can
get serious about this later.” I did
have plenty of time - at the beginning.
The trouble started when I kept thinking that I had plenty of time. Without reminders, plenty of time shrank to
almost no time left before I knew what was happening. Then I was left scrambling to make up for
lost time!
Christians have been given an
assignment for the living of their days on earth. We are to be the ones who bear witness to the
reality of forgiveness of sins and new life through faith in Jesus. The temptation, I believe, is to treat that
assignment like I treated those school assignments that were given way in
advance, thinking that we have plenty of time to get serious about our
discipleship, plenty of time to do what God is calling us to do and plenty of
time to honor and glorify God. During
Lent, we remind ourselves that the due date for this assignment known as
Christianity grows closer all the time.
You may be thinking, “But what
about resurrection? Resurrection to an
eternity spent in God’s presence does not mean that death is not a reality for
us. Notice in that in 1 Corinthians
15:12-26 death is still a factor. We
believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead, not that Jesus never died at
all or that he came back to earth in the same exact way as before his
crucifixion. Jesus died - that is as
much a part of the Christian proclamation as is “He is risen.” The kind of lives we now know in this world
will come to an end. We only have a
limited amount of time on planet earth as we know it. There is a due date for this thing called
discipleship.
During the season of Lent, may
you and I have a renewed sense of urgency for our discipleship!
Blessings,
Pastor Blaik
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