Lenten Meditation XV

inspired by Matthew 20:17-28

Today's message: self-sacrifice, not self-preservation. If you're worried about what will become of you if you focus on the problems of others at the expense of your own, you're not getting it. The old saw, "God helps those that help themselves," is not the Christian ideal. God helps those who help others. That's where our minds and hearts need to be.

Lenten Meditation XII

inspired by Genesis 2:15-17

Today's first reading is the famous story of Abraham taking his only son up on a mountain to offer him up as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Lord stays Abraham's hand, and instead offers up His own Son for the salvation of Abraham and all his descendants. There is a beautiful symmetry here, and the lesson is that if we withhold nothing from God, then He will withhold nothing from us.

This mirrors yesterday's exhortation from Matthew 5:48 to 'be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.' It would seem that God doesn't require anything of us that he hasn't also required of Himself. There is a kind of validation in that that is not available anywhere else in our human existence. Something to think about during Lent.

Lenten Meditation VI

inspired by Matthew 25:31-46

These are easy concepts to grasp, rooted as they are in familiar Scripture often preached . . . much more difficult to put into practice. This is at the heart of my little Become the Answer campaign. Christ is the Answer, and to the extent that we are to 'put on Christ', to 'become Christ', we need to become the Answer. Christ in heaven is king and judge, but Christ on Earth - the Christ we must become - is mercy, compassion, and sacrifice. 

Lenten Meditation III

question inspired by Isaiah 58:1-9

The text from Isaiah reminds me of a similar passage from Matthew 7:21-23


Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The gist is that not everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ actually understands what Jesus is all about. I'm thinking specifically of those conservative, self-righteous wags who use their faith and the Bible to justify withholding rights, dignity and even sustenance from the needy, the sick, the alien, and the oppressed in the misguided belief that those pitiful souls somehow brought their plight upon themselves. Lent seems like a good time to reassess, don't you think?