Lenten Thoughts, continued

MATTHEW 7:7-12:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

This New Testament Gospel reading for today reminds us that part of prayer concerns asking and seeking and knocking. But, we must be careful here for it’s far too easy to plug into this TEXT our desire for a new car or the biggest house or the richest neighborhood.

Of course, this is not what is in view.

And, without too much thought, we can easily see through this kind of thought as the American dream dressed in religion’s garb. It’s a message that plays well in the West, but take it to, say, Haiti or the Kibera slum, and all of a sudden you see it for what it is.

But, then, what are we to seek?

Before I get there I would remind us that it certainly is the right time to seek. Lent is the time for seeking the LORD, but we would do well to recall that seeking the LORD comes with a warning -- Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near (Is 55:6)...

So, what are we to seek?

I think, in context, we are to ask and seek and knock in order to find God himself (see also Hebrews 11:6b). We must seek the Giver of good gifts (and not the gifts), our Heavenly Father, in whom there is no shadow of turning. We must seek for the Father who gives to us the gift most precious -- His Holy presence found in the Holy Spirit. And it is this seeking and asking and knocking for God (see also Philippians 3:10) that offers us the Lent that ultimately leads to a clean heart.

CCBlogs Lenten Posts

I am part of the CCBlogs Network and if you follow the link you can find our Lenten Posts. Some good stuff:

http://www.ccblogs.org/node/190

Lenten Thoughts

This New Testament TEXT (below) reminds us that our time on this earth is very brief indeed. This became clear to me when I saw a recent picture of myself from the back and wondered, "Who is that old guy?!"

All time is fleeting
Swiftly it flies,
Leaving in wake
Hollow shells and death knells.

Lent is just the time for such considerations; it is just the time for us to think about the moment of our lives and the depth of our relationship to the God who is there and who is not silent. I say, not silent, because the message in the Old Testament reading (below) is the message of God speaking to His own people -- repent! repent!

Likewise, then, Lent is the time to think of such things as repentance and restarting our life with God. To repent means we turn back to God and to His ways, and dedicate, or rededicate ourselves to apply those ways in the practice of our day-to-day lives.

Said another way, as we walk through our lonely life in the world it is very easy to become scarred and marred by the secular-soup through we we trod, where more than an occasional spiritual washing is required. But it is easy to forgo this bathing -- it takes time and effort, neither of which are plenteous to us.

So more often than not we walk the road wearing the red dirt of unfaith caked to us as a crusty layer that prevents the spiritual from breaking into our hearts. This is why Lent can be so helpful, for it is a gift in the church calendar that reminds us that the dirt that weighs us down is not really attire for us, for we who name that carpenter’s name are of a different stripe and are of a different way -- the Jesus way.

But there is hope because this means we already know how to repent -- it’s how we started on this journey in the first place. For when we we first believed we also repented and turned our hearts to the LORD -- who is blessed forever. May we take the opportunity that the Lenten Season offers to repeat this and to return to the LORD with our whole heart.

1 PETER 1:3-5; 23-25
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for: "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever." This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.


JOEL 2:12-18
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.

Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room, and the bride her chamber.

Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, And say, "Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people.