Lent Week 1

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-10

Old Testament: Genesis 9:8-17
Gospel: Mark 1:9-15
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22

We seem to have an interesting collection of Scripture set before us this week.  In Genesis, we have the story of God’s covenant with Noah-- that God will no longer flood the earth and sets the sign of the rainbow in the sky.  And in Mark, the story is the baptism and temptation of Jesus.  The passage from 1 Peter bridges the gap between the flood story, Jesus baptism, and our own baptism.

First a word about Lent.  I have already discussed Lent and Ash Wednesday and their importance in the life of the church and the believer.  I hope that we are all taking this time to draw closer to God. We have all heard the story of Jesus’ baptism and temptation so there isn’t much need to take time discussing it. I will just point out that Mark is careful to say that the Spirit “impelled” Jesus to go into the wilderness to be tempted.  Even Jesus, the Messiah, needed this time of forty days to prepare for his ministry.  So the forty day fast as a time of preparation grew up around Easter, in some ways, just emulating the life of Jesus.

Lent and Ash Wednesday

I want to offer a defense of Lent in response to some of the blogs I have seen from Nazarenes and other evangelicals who think this is too “Catholic” (by that they mean unchristian and pagan).  The accusation is that Lent arose hundreds of years after Christ and was an adoption of pagan practices.

In order to understand Lent, we have to understand Easter.  In the early Church, Easter was much more important than Christmas and was the first festival Christians celebrated.  Easter was originally the day for new Christians to be baptized and in order for baptism to occur a time of preparation was required.  Some in the Church advocated a time of 3 years for preparation. This time of preparation/fasting, whether 3 years or something much less, developed into the time of Lent.  A time of preparation before Easter is mentioned in the earliest documents of the church. Irenaeus, sometime in the 2^nd century, wrote a letter discussing the fast before Easter.  The 40 day fast was settled by the 4^th century with the whole Church participating alongside those who were preparing for baptism.  It was a time of community-building and solidarity with those who were fasting and preparing for baptism.

Transfiguration Sunday

Psalm: Psalm 50:1-6
Old Testament: 2 Kings 2:1-12
Gospel: Mark 9:2-9
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

In the Christian Calendar, the last Sunday before Lent is called Transfiguration Sunday.  Our Gospel reading from Mark this week is therefore from the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on a mountain. 

The story is rooted, like so much in the New Testament, in the Old Testament.  In 2 Kings 2 we have the story of Elijah being taken up to heaven by a chariot of fire in a whirlwind.  If you recall the story, Elisha, his pupil, was following him everywhere he went because Elisha knew that if they separated then Elijah would be taken to heaven. After traveling around, they decided to leave the Promise Land and follow in the steps of their ancestors by parting the Jordan River and crossing on dry land.

ephiphany week 6

Psalm: Psalm 30
Old Testament: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Gospel: Mark 1:40-45
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

We are already in the middle of February if you can believe that. Life has a way of rushing in on us. on Saturday a friend’s dad passed away from an accident in Haiti while on a missions trip. Something like this not only puts life in perspective it makes me question God?  I spent Saturday night reading “A Grief Observed” by C.S. Lewis.  The book is basically a collection of his journal entries after the passing of his wife. Towards the end the book he writes:

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask—half our great theological and metaphysical problems—are like that.

Scripture and the Authority of God, by N.T. Wright

For those of you who have never read N.T. Wright before, you need to. Although I haven't read it yet I might recommend "after you believe," you might also try "surprised by hope." This little excerpt is from "Scripture and the Authority of God." It provides a voice of reason in the debate over the role of Scripture and how it is to be read. One of the helpful insights he makes is to divide the bible into a play with five acts: Creation, the Fall, Israel, Jesus' life, and the Church. It is important to know which act of the play we are in when we read.  He also points out that a "literal" reading in the church fathers didn't mean literal in the sense we mean it, but rather is the original meaning of the author. This point alone can help us to move above the fray of the literalist reading of the Bible.

Epiphane week 5

Psalm: Psalm 147:1-11
Old Testament : Isaiah 40:21-31
Gospel : Mark 1:29-39
Epistle : 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Welcome to the first week of February and the fifth week of Epiphany. Our theme this week reflects the sovereignty of God.  Psalm 147, like so many others, declares the power and majesty of the Lord. The Lord counts and names the stars, cares for the creatures, and builds up Israel, the afflicted and the hurting. Again in Isaiah, the writer proclaims it is God alone who sits on the throne above the earth.  God judges the rulers of the earth and it is he who has the power to plant them or blow them away in a storm. As we saw last week in Mark, and again this week, Jesus has power over the demons and is able to heal the sick.