On Ash Wednesday, Facebook's Timeline, and Life

Ash Wednesday was not that long ago as I write this. I did something that evening I haven’t done in quite a while: I went to an Ash Wednesday service. (Yes, I took ashes.) To me, this is a time of reflection on my own mortality and sinfulness. 

This also coincides with Facebook’s impending rollout of their timeline. So I’ve been adding stuff to my timeline, and I’ve been struck with a new sense of my mortality, if nothing else. It’s been easy to look at my life in small chunks; with the short-term memory problems I’ve had since long before high-school, that’s easy. But to start adding things like the beginning and ending of schools, my marriage (now twenty years strong), a little employment, some travels, and few events that helped shape who I am today...and one thing occurred to me.

Despite myself, my failings, my feelings, and my sheer stubbornness...I’ve spent my entire adult life either chasing God, or being chased by God. (And in a few cases, both.) Bible school, seminary, church work, my current ministry with Master’s International School of Divinity (coming up on twelve years there). Starting with high school, going back to church. Going on a mission trip. Then a year plus later, leaving church for a time (for reasons I won’t publish). Getting my business straight with Jesus in 1984. Surviving with my faith strengthened after my Navy time. Surviving re-entry to college and the civilian world. Dealing with God’s call on my life. Surviving Bible college, for all that. Surviving my first ministry position (and learning from my mistakes there). 

But to see all that, in a linear form also reminded me of a lot of good things. Life hasn’t all been in survival or crisis mode. Deena and I have traveled a lot together. We’ve been to Ireland, the Grand Canyon, Canada...and all over the US. (I’m not going to put in all our travels-but some highlights will be added.) We’ve seen a lot, learned a lot, laughed a lot. You have to laugh a lot on long car trips with your spouse or you can get cranky in the middle of Kansas. Or Nebraska. Or Iowa, Wyoming, Georgia...you get the idea.

It also reinforced that I don’t always understand today’s culture. I don’t watch a lot of TV; if I’m not singing barbershop somewhere or doing something online, I’m probably reading something. What TV I do watch tends to be oddball stuff: some news; hockey or other sports (like Canadian football); Food Network or Weather Channel (remember the days when you could actually get a weather forecast there?), on occasion the Discovery Channel, PBS and National Geographic. Movies? I think the last movie I saw in a theatre was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The last movie I watched the video for? The live-action Speed Racer. (I can hear you all now: Geek!) Modern music? My poor iPod must feel like it’s stuck in a time warp. A lot of stuff from the 70’s and 80’s, and a lot of that is what we used to call “Contemporary Christian Music.” There’s also a boatload of Southern Gospel and Praise and Worship...much of which is from the late 80’s and the 90’s. (Yes, there’s a lot of barbershop-both quartets and choruses-on it as well, as well as some Celtic and Hawai’ian.) 

But what struck me the most was the pursuit of the Holy. My entire adult life has been spent studying the Bible, learning about how God and Jesus work in our lives, learning theology from several different angles. I remember the kind of person I was prior to 1984, prior to that time when Jesus grabbed me and shook me and said “Follow Me!” I told him I accepted His gift, and would go where He sent me and do what He asked. I’ve never regretted it. (I’ve questioned my sanity and His sense of humor at times, but never once regretted it.) It took three years of His prevenient grace before I got the hint, and some reminders-gentle and otherwise-along the way. 

Earlier on, I mentioned both my mortality and my own sinfulness. He died for me and my sins, and He died for you and yours. That’s what Ash Wednesday’s about, really. I’ll be spending a little less time online, and a little more time thinking about being a better Christian. Spending a little more time in the Bible, and in prayer, and some quiet time where it’s just me and my thoughts. 

The best news of all: He rose again. That’s why we celebrate Easter.

Enough for now.

Thoughts on Communion

The first Sunday of the month, I took communion. No great surprise that; communion is usually served the first Sunday of the month in many churches. 

But for some reason, this communion reached me deeply. It wasn’t the message (though that was good). It wasn’t the music--though that was quite good as well. It wasn’t even the act of taking communion proper; I’ve taken communion for a good many years now in a number of settings ranging from one done in a serviceman’s ministry I belonged to at Great Lakes to a Catholic church in Concord, CA, and a lot of places in between. (Okay, in all fairness I knew at the time that Catholics practice closed communion. I took it anyway.) 

No, what brought me comfort this day was the ritual of communion. In the United Methodist Church, we often start communion with the Great Thanksgiving (also known as Word and Table 1): 

The Lord be with you. And also with you. 
Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. 
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

The liturgy, of course, continues on from there. But for some reason, it was the mechanics--the doing of the liturgy, as many have for years, decades, and centuries before me, and will do long after I’ve been translated to glory, should God tarry--that spoke to me. 

The bread and cup, that representation and reminder of what Christ did on the cross for you, me, and the rest of the world is not like anything else in any other religion. Just a quick look at the Wikipedia page shows only Christian references (in terms of religion, at least). 

“Take, eat, and be comforted; Drink, and remember too
That this is my body and precious blood shed for you, shed for you”

(From the musical “Celebrate Life”)

The thought that others around the church universal were taking communion-- many of whom were using the Great Thanksgiving as well--and of those who had gone before, using the same liturgy spoke volumes to me that day. I can’t really explain why I found it so comforting. 

But take comfort in it I did. 

On further reflection, I contemplated that sometimes it is the actual act of taking communion that speaks. After all, this is the remembrance of the Last Supper. It is the revisiting of the Lord Jesus Christ’s last meal before His crucifixion, and all that means to the Christian. Sometimes it is the bread and cup itself, and partaking of it reminds us of the Wedding Feast to come. 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of

witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that

clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race

that is set before us.” (Heb 12:1, NRSV)

And yes, sometimes it is the mechanics of why we do what we do. That reminder of the great cloud of witnesses, those saints and loved ones that have gone before, looking down and cheering us on to the finish line, as we try to run the race. I can imagine my grandparents, Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, Billy Sunday, my Dad, D.L. Moody, my “maiden aunts”, John Wesley, and everyone else translated to glory looking down on us...all of us. Wesley’s own thoughts on this verse: “A great multitude, tending upward with a holy swiftness, of the power of faith.”

It is, in the final analysis, that power of faith that carries us. The mechanics of the liturgy reminded me of that power of faith that day. 

Enough for now. 

Easter is more than chocolate bunnies…

Easter is almost here. This is one of the primary holidays for those of us who are Christian—the joy of knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead is enough to fill us with great joy and hope.

Or at least, it should.

Too often, we get caught up in chocolate bunnies, pretty eggs, new clothes, and brunches or dinners. We forget that, while this is a celebration of new life and family, it is also a reminder that Jesus died for the sins of all humanity. He left His Family--The Father and the Holy Spirit--then, in the singular event that separates Christianity from every other religion, Jesus rose from the dead.

I can already hear some of you: The audacity of bringing Jesus into Easter!

Hang with me for a bit.

Just for a moment, consider this: None of the other major religious figures have ever claimed to return to life. Only Jesus did. That alone should say something. It may be disturbing, it may be fantastic…but it is very real. If one considers the Bible to be the Word of God, then it must be true, for God cannot lie.

I think C.S. Lewis said it best, in his book Mere Christianity: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool...or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

Think this over, while you enjoy your Easter. It is the most important thing you’ll ever mull over, because it will determine your eternity.

Enough for now.

(posted 3/13/08)