Asbury and Lent 2-19-23

Good morning One River,

Today is actually the last Sunday of Epiphany, and this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement this Wednesday and am not able to hold service. Also in previous years its often difficult for everyone to make a mid-week service so we’re going to attempt a sort of hybrid event today.

I’ve got a set of ashes for everyone so that you can take them home and preform this ritual yourself on Wednesday and I’m hoping today we can sort of lay the groundwork for that. We’ve spent Sundays since the beginning of the year looking at the life of Jesus through the book of Matthew. Now is the time we shift that focus and begin to look at Jesus last days. We take time to remember his works and look at his ultimate sacrifice. In addition, we start to focus on ourselves; our hearts, our copiability in Jesus’ necessary work and how we can prepare for the upcoming Easter event.

I don’t know how many of you follow Christian news in the world or in the country, but as some of you may have heard Asbury Seminary is experiencing a significant Holy Spirit event. Many of the people I know from the church community and have been able to interact with on the FB have had the opportunity to go and experience the event. Many are even going so far as to call it a revival. We’ll obviously need to wait and see if that turns out to be true, but like many of you, I’m hopeful that it is indeed the beginning of something magnificent.

It's being described as a soft, humble move of the spirit. Those in attendance have stated that there is no feeling of hype or spiritual manipulation. Very similar to the way the Vineyard attempts to practice the gifts of the Spirit. There have been a few miracles reported, but the majority of the attenders are saying it’s simply a grand communion with the Spirit. There’s been significant prayer and reflection. The worship is palpable and there’s a huge move of repentance. The whole thing is covered by a deep seeded sense of the love of God.

I find it no coincidence that this move of the Spirit started right before Lent. The season that we’re all supposed to make significant acts of contrition and find the time to commune with God and the Spirit in the act of repentance.

See, Lent is an interesting time, especially in the Western World. Lent begins a period where we intentionally make sacrifices. We go out of our way to make our lives difficult. So that we can better commune with God. So that we can feel His love and reflect on his works.

I’m going to give you a couple of readings today. But first, as is often my way, a little history on Lent. Lent is short for Lenten. It’s Latin and means 40. It also means spring. 40 or Lenten has always been a spiritually significant number. When God flooded the earth, it took 40 days and nights. The Jews spent 40 years in the desert. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. You get the point.

The variation on the timing of lent has shifted over the years. Again, Lent can mean March or springtime, so it’s always been in the Spring. The timing of Easter is scripturally settled around Passover so the logistics of Lent were settled on relatively early in Church history. Originally Easter was celebrated with a 40 hour fast. Some felt that wasn’t pious enough, so they went to a 40 day fast. Which broke periodically over the week. By the third century it was decided that the fast would be 40 days and would break on Sunday. They would fast from meat, dairy, and eggs; generally, any and all animal products. I suspect it resembled a bread and water fast for 6 days and then a small meal on Sundays. That was settled in 325 AD under the Council of Nicaea hosted by Constantine.

Today, we’ve broken it down to the point most Roman’s simply eat fish on Fridays. Occasionally they’ll give up TV or social media or alcohol. But in general, it’s a completely neutered version of the original substance.

We are a movement birthed out of pain, suffering and death in the name of love. I think all too often we mine scriptures for the sections where God promises blessings to those that follow him, and forsake the parts where we actually see how people achieved those blessings.

Everyone of any spiritual significance has their pain and suffering. They all get their 40 days to 40 years in the desert. We can’t have the blessings without the trials and sacrifices. There’s not a single character in all of scripture including Christ that did not suffer. This is part of our calling. This is part of our walk with the LORD; fasting, abstinence, prayer, and giving.

If lent had a tag line, this would be it, fasting, abstinence, prayer, and giving to better achieve love. And in that order, we need the fasting and abstinence to meet God in the prayer. He meets us in the suffering. The tension we must hold is to work through the sufferings and practices in love.

I want to read a few things.

Matthew 6:5–18 (NIV)

Prayer

6:9–13pp—Lk 11:2–4

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

These are the words of Jesus. He’s teaching us to work out our prayer and fasting, our repentance and our giving, in love.

Over the last few years, everyone around the world, but this church in particular has suffered. We’ve all experienced suffering in COVID. The world has changed. But on a more intimate level, we additionally have lost Rob.

Hopefully, by now we’ve all taken time to grieve in our own ways. But this is where the love part comes in. I personally, think the most difficult part of being a Christian is the constant call to love. “In this life you will have troubles.” The LORD himself tells us that. What separates us from the common people of today, is our love. When we suffer, we’re called to love again.

The rest of that saying is “But take heart, I have overcome the world!” We are called to love, and suffer, and love again. That last part is, in my opinion, the difficult part. We do get burned. We invest in people, and they leave. We can’t let that change our hearts and our callings. And when we do, we must repent.

Over the last several years I have invested in people, and I have been burned. I suspect we can all say the same thing. But we must love again. We’re ordered to love again. I want to read something else.

1 Corinthians 13:1–8 (NIV)

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

This gets read often at weddings, but in reality, it’s not about that. It’s an order to the church. All of our beliefs, all of our theologies and dogma fail if we don’t have love.

This is something that those, right now, at Asbury have stated they’re experiencing. The deep seeded love of God. The calling to love others. But they’re doing it after a period of prayer and repentance. What God is doing right now, is more of the same. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He’s calling us to surrender to fast, to suffer, to enter into a period of repentance, and to join with him in a holy experience and come out the other side in love. No matter how many times we’re burned, we’re always called back to love.

This is lent. This is the experience the Church has been trying to capture for the last 2K years in the name of Christ. Jesus came, he taught us how to love, he prayed and suffered. We betrayed him, and yet, he came back and loved us each in a way we never thought possible.

So, I know some of you have this notion that Lent is a Catholic thing and we don’t do Catholic things, but now is the time. Suffering, fasting, prayer, repentance and love are not Catholic things, they’re Jesus things.

Let’s take some time and remember his great works. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday the day that marks the beginning of Jesus final hours on this earth. I challenge you all to take some time in the morning if possible and anoint each other with these ashes. Remember the voluminous prayer, fasting and suffering of our LORD as he began to walk his path that led to his ultimate and necessary sacrifice.

We are called to remember our place in the cosmic realm. We are humans, we must suffer as Christ suffered. This is not optional, and it’s not a sign that God doesn’t love you. If anything, it proves the opposite. Genesis tells us: Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

We come from dust, and to dust we must return. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

As we pray through this period, I challenge each of you to find little ways to increase your suffering. It is by these ways that we connect on a deeper level with God. Fast more substantially, give more generously, abstain for a longer period. Draw on that connection and use this time to meet with the LORD in repentance. Use this time to see that suffering is not God against us. It’s God with us. Meet Him in love. And know that no matter how burned you feel by others. We collectively did far worse to Jesus.

This is not a time for depression and self-flagellation. It is a time for solemn reflection and earnest seeking. And even though it’s usually not our favorite way to go through life, our connection to him is manifest in the suffering.

We’ve spent too much time focusing on the idea that we should be able to live in earthly comfort. This is a relatively new phenomenon. I often wonder if the entirety of modern comfortable living was a deviation from God’s plan. When we look back at scripture we see rather quickly that we are called to suffer. We’re called to struggle. Since the day we got chucked out of the Garden, God has blessed us through our toil and suffering. He meets us there.

This Wednesday lets take a minute to reflect on the life of Christ. His calling to each of us and acknowledge the gift of his suffering. Anoint each other with ashes and find little ways you can dedicate yourself to the LORD.

The movement of Asbury has begun to spread and I’m hopeful that it will manifest in a location close enough that some of us can join in. But this is not a manifestation like some of you have see at Toronto or read about at Azusa. This has a reflection of contemplation, humility and repentance.

Jesus is not doing a new thing. He’s inviting us to join him in the thing he’s always done. It’s a manifestation of the Lenten season. He’s showing a generation that’s never really seen suffering what it means to be a Christian. I invite you all to join Jesus and all the saints in the love of God manifest through suffering.