Lent

God Does His Greatest Work in the Dark…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

Let’s see…

The Israel/Hamas War, the Russia/Ukraine War, the Taiwan threat from China, North Korean nuclear proliferation, Houthis attacking Red Sea shipping channels, inflation, racial tensions, a border crisis, a fentanyl crisis, drug cartels, human trafficking, increasing crime rates, gender confusion, a very divisive Presidential campaign, declining church attendance, decaying cultural values.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably so, but you get my point. Read the headlines (or more appropriately, listen to the news) and we get the sense that we are living in dark times.

There are plenty of reasons for concern about the world in general, and western culture in particular, but I’m want to remind us that our’s is not the first generation to face dark times, and if the Lord tarries, it likely won’t be the last.

What I do want to remind us is that though we live in dark times, God does His greatest work in the dark! Easter reminds us of that fact.

Stumbling in the Dark

So many of us stumble around in the dark, and we’re often afraid because we can’t see. When we’re in the dark, we grasp for something, anything to hold on to that will give us some stability, some comfort, some assurance that we can make it until we can turn on a light.

We’re unsteady, unsure, and we lack a certain amount of confidence, and all that makes us just a little leery. Not necessarily because we’re afraid of the dark, but because we’re afraid of what we can’t see in the dark. Sometimes, though, we have to move forward. We have to get to the place that we can turn the light on. We have to get up. We have to keep moving. In those times, we have to see with the eyes of faith. Easter is that which gives us our eyes of faith. 

For the disciple of Jesus Christ, the resurrection is THE central event of history. We may say that time is measured from the birth of Jesus Christ, but hope is measured from the resurrection. We come this morning to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and with it the victory of life over death, of good over evil, of grace over the grave.

This is our holiest of holy days, and it still reminds us that there is light even in the darkest of worlds, and that no matter what else may be happening in our lives, there is always hope. That is the power of the resurrection.

20 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

John 20: 1 (NLT)

John’s Resurrection Account

The resurrection account is recorded in all four of Gospels, but not all four report it the same way. The Gospel of John shares it differently. John alone tells us that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, “while it was still dark.” Just because John has Mary Magdalene going alone does not necessarily contradict the other three Gospels. Maybe John’s just telling that Mary went down before all the others got there.

John has been called a philosopher of sorts. John’s Gospel is full of symbolic language, and the words on the page don’t always mean what they say. With the phrase “while it was still dark,” we note that John is carrying on a theme that he started very early in his gospel—the contrast of light and darkness.

John introduces the theme in the opening paragraph of the gospel: 

“Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it”

John 1: 4-5 (NLT

In John 3, a Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to see Jesus “after dark one evening,” and in John 6, he tells us of the time after “darkness fell,” that Jesus came walking on the water to his disciples.

Then, in John 8, the Pharisees bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus in an attempt to trap him. He refuses to condemn the woman (some have even indicated that the woman was Mary Magdalene), and then he says to the people:

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

John 8: 12 (NLT)

It is little wonder that John would return to that theme and tell us Mary came “while it was still dark.” Whether he meant it literally or figuratively, we’ll never know for sure, and for his purpose (and for ours), I’m not sure it matters.

For Mary, it was dark, both literally and figuratively. Mary Magdalene was standing at the foot of the cross as Jesus died. She was there at the cross with Jesus’ mother, Jesus’ aunt, and John. When the rest of the disciples had abandoned Jesus, she was there, and she was there when they took his body down from the cross. It was a dark day. The sun may have been shining, but to Mary it was a dark day.

Mary loved Jesus. Luke 8 tells us that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her, and since that time she had been his follower. There is even some evidence that Mary Magdalene was the prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointed them with perfume. Is it any wonder Jesus would say, “The one forgiven little loves little, but the one who has been forgiven greatly loves greatly.” Mary is not on the fringe of Jesus’ followers, which means that for Mary, as much as for any of Jesus’ other disciples, she was living in the dark days of grief.

Mary is probably wondering how things can get worse, and just about the time she does, guess what? Things get worse. Isn’t that the way life always is? Just about the time we think things can’t get any darker, they do! Mary gets to the tomb and she finds the body of Jesus gone. John has painted us a picture of the dark getting darker, but he also paints a picture of one who lives out faithfulness and hope, even in the midst of the darkness, and we discover what happens as a result.

Catch this! Mary went to the tomb. Despite her fear and despite her grief, Mary did something. She went to the last place she knew Jesus was. Even though she thought Jesus was dead, she went. She went because in the darkness she longed for light…some light…any light. She went looking for light. She had hope, even in the darkness.

You know what’s interesting? Think about when the actual resurrection took place. It took place in the dark! There was no one there to see it. There were no earthquakes or flashing lights. Someone shows up early in the morning and there’s just an empty tomb. The central event of human history, and nobody sees it.

Joseph and Mary were firsthand witnesses to Jesus’ birth, and even angels announced his arrival to shepherds. There were stars in the night sky that foreign astrologers could read, and an earthly king was mad enough to order a massacre of children, but with the resurrection, all we get is second-hand witnesses. It happened “while it was still dark,” but it happened.

Finding Light in the Darkness

Spiritually, the resurrection is our hope. We’ve all had dark times in our lives. When it’s dark and we can’t see what’s going on around us because of the grief and pain and doubt, it’s then we’re tempted to turn our backs on God, believing that God doesn’t care, or worse, believing it’s all God’s fault. We’re tempted to pull the covers over our heads and give up.

I remind you—Mary went to the tomb “while it was still dark.” In the midst of the darkness, she went to the tomb because she loved Jesus, and in the darkness he spoke her name, “Mary.”

So, he does with all of us. When in the darkness of sin, of addiction, of pain and loss, of grief, if we come to Jesus, he’ll speak our name—John, Sally, George, Margaret, Lynn. Mary shows us what faithfulness in the dark looks like. We find Jesus, or rather, we’re found by him, in the dark because we’re looking for him there. The tears vanish when we realize God did His greatest work in the dark. It wasn’t in the papers (I’m really dating myself with that reference), nor did it make CNN or Fox News. We can’t tell when it happened, we just know it happened. 

Life is funny. One day, we’re on a mountain and we can look and see for a million miles. But, as quickly as the sun comes, the darkness settles in, and we go from saying how blessed we are to “I can’t take this anymore!” Darkness comes. Mary was not afraid of the dark. Mary was unwilling to take Jesus’ absence as an answer to anything, and by staying in the dark, Easter dawned!  

I wonder who today is searching in the dark? Some of us remember a time when Jesus was alive. We felt his presence and knew his love. We ate with him and drank with him, and we shared life with him. But, something has happened. We lost a spouse or a child to death. Our marriage went south, or we lost our job. Perhaps we just fell out of love with Jesus.

For those of us in any of those situations we need to do what Mary did—go to the last place we saw Jesus. Was it in the Bible? Then read the Bible, even when the words make no sense.

Was it in prayer? Then keep praying even when it feels like our words are hitting the ceiling and falling back down on us.

Was it in church? Then keep going, even when we feel like we’re surrounded by hypocrites, and we’re just going through the motions.

Some today are in the darkness of broken relationships. Others are in the darkness of addictive behavior. Still others are in the darkness of grief and pain. So many of us are looking for a little light, any light in these dark, dark times. We’re here because we believe that there is still light.

Listen. Listen for the voice of Jesus calling our names. His light is shining because Easter has dawned.    When Easter dawns the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. It cannot overcome it. It never has and never will. Life and light makes our world new.

Easter comes out of the darkness.

Dark times come to everyone, even to Jesus. Darkness is not a sign that we have no faith. Darkness is the opportunity to show our faith. Darkness is the time to get up and face the fears of life head on. Darkness is the time for us to get up and go to the tomb. It is the time to recognize that Easter happened in the dark. When everybody was depressed and thought the work of God was a sham, God was doing His greatest work of all.

Easter is here, my friend. Easter is here.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Palm Sunday Ponderings…

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It is Palm Sunday. You know what that means? Yes, it is marked as the day Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem before His arrest, crucifixion and resurrection. It is such a pivotal moment in Jesus’s life that all four Gospel accounts mark the event (Matthew 21: 1-11; Mark 11: 1-11; Luke 19: 28-40; John 12: 12-19).

You know what else it means? It means that Lent is almost over! As I’ve mentioned before, this has been a challenging Lenten season for me and I can’t wait for Easter Sunday. The season began without much fanfare for me. I was quite willing to let it pass without much notice. The Lord had other plans. It’s been a good Lent, albeit a very challenging one.

The challenges of the Lenten season have been numerous, and this past week has been no different. The Lord has particularly challenged me in the area of prayer this week. I think I’ve discerned that in this season of the Church’s life, the greatest need is for prayer warriors.

The Church doesn’t need CEO’s and entrepreneurs. It needs prayer warriors. The Church has tried the CEO/Entrepreneur model (really since the 1970’s and the emergence of the Church Growth Movement). As was its purpose, the CGM got the Church a lot of megachurches. The CGM is proof that strategies work. It also go the Church a lot of Christian celebrities and celebrity pastors. I’m not knocking the CGM. I was on that train for a long time. I rode that train until it ran ME out of steam. Now, I think the steam is finally running out of that train for the Church.

Though the CGM got the Church a lot of megachurches and celebrity pastors, it also got the Church declining attendance and fewer disciples who are willing to take up their cross and follow Jesus in the way of surrender and sacrifice. There are some who will blame the free fall in church attendance on the Covid pandemic, but I suggest the pandemic only hastened what was clearly already taking place in the life of the Church. CEO’s and Entrepreneurs cannot sustain the Church. They were never intended to. Though megachurches do show up in many places around the world, they are a uniquely western invention.

The Church (and the world) are in desperate need of revival. Revival always starts with prayer, thus the greatest need of the Church in this culture is for prayer warriors. The Church needs leaders who pray–both lay and clergy. Leaders who pray will bring change to the Church, and the Lord will use the Church to change the world. That’s been His plan from the beginning.

Makes me ask the question “How many churches have a prayer ministry?” When I say prayer ministry, I’m not talking about a prayer group that meets and prays over the prayer requests that come into the congregation. I am NOT discounting the need for that type of ministry, nor am I denying there is power in that type of prayer. Unfortunately, most of those type of groups (and most of that type of prayer) are really just gossip sessions disguised as prayer groups. There is some value in praying for Aunt Sally’s ingrown toenail or Uncle Joe’s gout, but that is not the prayer that will change the world.

When I say prayer, I mean gathering for an intentional time of seeking God’s face…of the people of God asking God what His will is, asking the Lord for His vision, gathering to actually hear from the Lord. I mean the people of God coming together to confess their sin (individually and collectively) and to repent before Him publicly so that grace and forgiveness is sought and found so that the way is cleared for a fresh invasion of the Holy Spirit can bring clarity and direction to His people concerning His vision.

How about a prayer meeting where we pray for boldness to proclaim the Gospel? How about a prayer meeting where we pray for the Lord to put people in our path who need healing and salvation? How about a prayer meeting where we read one verse of Scripture and then sit silently for an hour pondering that singular passage to hear what the Lord wants us to hear?

Yeah! That would probably be too uncomfortable for too many people. But, hey! We’ll never grow until we get out of our comfort zone. Just as our physical muscles won’t grow until we push past what we think are our limits, so our spiritual muscles won’t grow until we push past what is comfortable and easy.

I’ve lived with a great amount of conviction over this Lenten season as I’ve reflected on my own participation in and leadership of prayer group gossip sessions. I need to repent for that. I hope I have repented for that. Prayer in my congregation won’t change until prayer changes in me. Revival won’t come to the Church until revival comes in me.

So, my prayer is for revival to come…to the Church and to the culture…but first, let revival come to me. Let me pray to hear the voice of God. Let me pray for boldness to proclaim the Gospel. Let me pray for people in my path who need Jesus. Let me pray for a revival in me. Let me pray for a transformation in my attitudes and desires and priorities. Then, perhaps I can begin to pray for each of those for the Church and the culture.

The Church and our culture…our world…are in desperate need of revival. So am I! The Church and our world are in desperate need of prayer warriors who will pray for the same. I pray I can become one of those warriors. Do you have the guts to pray the same prayer?

And you thought this was going to be a blog about Palm Sunday. Silly you!

Until next time, keep looking up…

Re-gaining Focus…

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Once again, I’m discovering that this Lenten season just keeps on giving. Or, perhaps it’s the Lent that won’t end. I’m just not sure. What I do know is that it’s been another week of discovering how out of focus my life has become. What clued me in to the fact that my life is out of focus? Well, the Holy Spirit, of course, but He did so through this little verse from Paul:

9 So we make it our goal to please him,whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

2 Corinthians 5: 9 (NIV)

“…make it our goal to please him…”

I confess that pleasing Him hasn’t always been my goal. Oh, I always hope that the things I was doing He would find pleasing. After all, I was doing many of those things in His name, but HE wasn’t always the focus.

There was a point in my life where the goal was “climbing the ‘corporate’ ladder” of the United Methodist system. In so doing, I thought He might find it (and me) pleasing. For the most part, I achieved the goal I was pursuing, but it left me flat…and dry…and empty…and doubtful. That’s because it was the wrong goal. I should have been pursuing Him.

I could run down a long list of “pursuits” over the years in ministry (and as a believer), but it would only lengthen the blog and end up making the same point as the previous example. Suffice it to say, this Lenten season has “brought those chickens home to roost.” I’ve lived with the dawning revelation that I have lost my focus on Jesus. It is a further exploration into the whole “working for Him or walking with Him” thing that I questioned previously here.

It came home to me in a profound way this week when I started feeling sorry for myself that I wasn’t getting more requests to fill pulpits. I love preaching and I do miss it, but the phone hasn’t been ringing much lately (not at all, actually), and it had me feeling rather down. Then, I read Paul’s words.

My goal is not to preach. My goal is to pursue Him. My goal is to please Him.

My goal is not to write. My goal is to pursue and please Him.

My goal is not to obsess over politics (Lord, have I been doing that!). My goal is to pursue and please Him.

My goal is not to sell a lot of oil (though I sure do need to!). My goal is to pursue and please Him.

My focus has been on all these things. He has just sort of been in the background.

“Lord, You guide me in my preaching, guide me in my writing, guide me in my selling oil and running a business.” That’s been my prayer. My focus has been on the performance and the completion of the tasks rather than on the One who makes all things possible.

My pursuits have been for selfish ends. Accolades, adoration, affirmation and good, old American profit. Hey, if He receives glory from those pursuits, then good for Him! Of course, the undertone was that it was all for His glory, but this week has shown me that it was really all for me. Darn this Lent!

I earnestly pray that He is giving me this Lent as a gift to re-gain focus on the right things. I say the “right things,” but there is only one right thing–Jesus Christ. He is, and always must remain, our true north. He is, and must always remain, our only pursuit, our only goal.

As He is helping me re-gain my focus on Him, He is also showing me the again the dangerous nature of sin. I guess that’s what happens. I was sinning without even knowing I was sinning. That’s because that’s what sin does. Oswald Chambers says, ‘One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it.” We get so accustomed to performing for Him that we forget to pursue Him. We think it’s our performance He finds pleasing when it is actually our pursuit of Him that most pleases Him. It is then that our performance can actually become sin…and we never even realize it.

Then, Lent comes, and we are reminded that we are sinful…that from ashes we come and to ashes we shall return…that we are called to “repent and believe the Gospel.”

I thank God that Easter follows Lent. I look forward to Easter. I look forward to the resurrection, when we’ll receive new bodies no longer stained by sin. Until then, I’m going to make Jesus the goal. May every activity of life flow from my pursuit of Him. I’ll pursue Him through prayer. I’ll pursue Him through Bible study. I’ll pursue Him through worship. I’ll pursue Him through Christian fellowship. All those will be the means. He will be the end.

I can’t wait for Easter.

Until next time, keep looking up…

“Do You Love Me?”

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Jesus, after the resurrection, encounters several of His disciples along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and in the encounter He asks Peter, not once but three times the question, “Do you love me?” (See John 21)

So, that’s the question I’ve been wrestling with most of the week myself: Do you love me? I must confess that wrestling with that question has caused me no small amount of pain and not a little confusion.

My initial answer, like Peter’s, is “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” As with Peter, so with me, Jesus has been persistent in asking the question and with each answer I find myself a little more confused, and if I’m honest, a little more uncertain that my answer is truthful.

I’ve come to the realization that I don’t love Him the way that He loves me. That’s probably because I am unable to grasp how much He really loves me and unless I can grasp that, I can’t love Him that much. Of course, you understand that when I say he loves me that I mean “us”…all of us. He loves us deeply and passionately…so passionately and so deeply, in fact, that He was willing to die for us…to give His life for ours.

Consequently, His call to us is to love others in the same way He loves us. He calls us, like Peter, to pour ourselves out for others (“Feed my lambs,” “Take care of my sheep,” “Feed my sheep”). His love for us is shown by action, not by emotion. Our love for Him can only be seen in our actions toward others. Unfortunately, I’ve come to realize my love for Him stays on the emotional level. I love Him as long as I’m receiving some benefit from Him.

The entire conversation has caused me to question my motivations for leaving full-time ministry in 2019. That’s nearly five years ago now, and this week of reflection on this passage has brought it back up. I’ve wondered if my leaving full-time, vocational ministry is proof that I don’t really love Him. I’ve questioned whether my leaving was courage, or cowardice? I want to believe it was courage. I’ve come to think it was cowardice.

Loving Jesus is a heavy lift. It demands a willingness to “take up our cross and follow Him.” It demands forgiveness. It demands holiness. It demands sacrifice. It demands loving and caring for His sheep…his smelly, dirty, rotten, hard-headed sheep. Did I abandon His sheep? Have I failed to take up the cross? Did I count the cost and determine the price was too high? Was that my way of saying, “Lord, I don’t really love You”? Perhaps I don’t have the strength (or the courage) to do such a heavy lift. After all, I’m not Peter.

I suppose the season of Lent is for grappling with these kinds of deep questions. You might be surprised to discover that when you to get to the end of this blog you’ll not find a deeply compelling answer or a shocking revelation. I’m still grappling with the question. I don’t have an answer yet. Jesus really has backed me into a corner with His question.

All I know to do at this point is pray this prayer: Break me, Lord, until I love you. Let me hurt with the most awful pain until all I have left is to love You. Perhaps I don’t understand what I’m asking for, but perhaps You know best what I need. I know I want to love You the way Peter came to love You. I want to take up my cross and follow You. I want to be broken by You and I want to be broken for You because I want to answer Your question with a definitive, “Yes! Lord You know I love You!”

I can only thank Him that Sunday is coming! Lent can’t be over soon enough.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Thinking Out Loud…

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In the midst of Holy Week, with Lent winding down, I’m contemplating the season in which I consciously chose not to “give up” anything for Lent. No, the season didn’t begin with me receiving ashes. I didn’t chose to fast, or refrain from eating meat on Friday. I gotta’ confess…I don’t feel like I’ve missed that much in opting out of any particular Lenten observance. You may argue, therein lies the problem.

The observance of Lent hasn’t historically been a Protestant thing. I never knew of Lent in the church where I grew up. It wasn’t until I entered seminary that I was challenged to “observe a holy Lent,” as the United Methodist Book of Worship extended the invitation. I sought desperately to learn what this “holy Lent” was all about. It was more pronounced by the fact that in Junction City, KY, where I served as pastor during seminary that the Roman Catholic Church was literally next door. Yet, it was all still new to me.

I suppose it’s a good thing that seminary opened to door to all things Lenten because my first post-seminary appointment was in Morgan City, LA. Does anyone know where Morgan City, LA is located? That’s right. Deep in the heart of cajun, heavily Roman Catholic south Louisiana. There, almost everyone observed Lent. Sit down restaurants in Morgan City? During Lent you wouldn’t find meat on the menu on Friday. Catholic churches would have fish-fry fund-raisers every Friday. Lent was a real thing. I’ve sought to observe a “holy Lent” ever since.

Honestly, as I anticipate the coming of Easter Sunday, I think more about Christ’s call to new life, and not just to new life, but to a holy life. Too often, in my observances of the Lenten season, my anticipation for Easter was that I could have coffee once again, or re-engage with social media, or have a big, old juicy steak on Friday evening. It was about getting through Lent to celebrate what I could do once again. It was about going back to the old life, not living into the fullness of the new life.

I suppose it is for me that the Lord hasn’t called me to observe a “holy Lent,” but rather to observe a “holy life.” I rather believe the Lord has been calling me to instill the practices that constitute a holy Lent into my life throughout the year, not just for a season. It might just be that practicing fasting regularly (which John Wesley did, by the way) will take me deeper into the life of a disciple.

Perhaps I’m just over-thinking things here. Perhaps I’m convicted that I didn’t observe Lent this year. Maybe that’s what really has me thinking out loud. Perhaps it’s just that it’s Tuesday and I should be writing a blog and I couldn’t think of anything else to write about. I’m not sure what it is, but I am sure that if a “holy Lent” doesn’t lead to a “holy life,” then it’s been a wasted Lent, and I hope none of us have a wasted Lent.

Maybe I shouldn’t think out loud so much. Maybe I should just focus more on Easter. Yeah, that’s probably what I should do.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Somewhere Between Holiness and Hell…

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We are in the season of Lent. Lent is that 40 day period (okay 46–but Sundays don’t count) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday that began historically as a time of spiritual preparation as early converts were prepared for membership in the body of Christ. It was also a time when those who had separated themselves from the body of Christ were reconciled through confession and repentance.

I’m struggling with what it means to “observe a holy Lent,” which we Methodists are invited to do on Ash Wednesday.

I can’t say that I like Lent. I don’t like Lent because I am convicted by how un-holy I can be.  I am convicted because Lent calls me to reflect on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, and as I consider his response to temptation, I realize my own failure in places that I’d rather not reveal here.

Confession

This time of reflection necessarily leads me to this whole idea of confessing my sins in the face of all those failures. Oh, I’ve got lots to confess, too.  I am reminded of a story I heard of four pastors who often met for a friendly gathering. During the conversation one preacher said, “Our people come to us and pour out their hearts, confess their sins and needs. Let’s do the same. Confession is good for the soul.”

In due time all agreed. One confessed he liked to go to movies and would sneak off when away from his church. The second confessed to enjoying cigars and the third confessed to enjoying card playing. When it came to the fourth one, he wouldn’t confess. The others pressed him saying, “Come on now, we confessed ours. What’s your confession?” Finally he answered, “It’s gossiping and I can hardly wait to get out of here.”  I really don’t like Lent because it causes me to reflect and confess, and that’s just awfully painful.

And then, there’s just the whole idea of self-denial.  I actually have to give something up?  Come on, now!  You can’t be serious?  I enjoy my coffee, or my diet coke, or my red meat, or my…well, you have to fill in the blank, because I have too many of my own blanks to fill in (whoops! There’s another confession!), but you get the idea.  I just don’t see the need for self-denial, after all.  God has blessed me greatly, and doesn’t God want me to enjoy these blessings?  But because I’m a company man, and I want to at least appear holy, I acquiesce and I practice the Lenten observance by reflecting and praying and confessing and giving up.

A Land Between Holiness and Hell

What I come to discover through the observance of Lent is that I live life in a land somewhere between holiness and hell. I long desperately for holiness, but hell is so much easier.  I discover that one who is truly holy cannot help but enjoy the blessings of God—blessings like love, joy, peace and contentment.  I discover God’s grace poured out in a thousand ways in the most unnoticeable places, and I learn to say, “Praise the Lord!”

The observance of Lent reveals to me that what I counted as blessings (material possessions, health, good success) are more fruits of my own labors than they are God’s blessings, and the reality that any and all of those “blessings” are transient in nature—here today and gone tomorrow.  It causes me to wonder if there were no material possessions, no good health, no great success, would it affect my trust of Him?

I realize just how hollow I can be, and somehow, by some mysterious means in this realization, I am drawn closer to Christ (isn’t grace amazing?), and I don’t seem quite as hollow as before, somehow perhaps even a little more holy.  Forget that I was drug kicking and screaming to the observance. The Spirit has done His work—somewhat akin to the terrible tasting medicine we received when we were children.  We hated it, but it worked.

So, I invite you to observe a holy Lent.  Pray more deeply, reflect more seriously, confess more faithfully, and deny the comforts that shape us. Do so kicking and screaming, if you must, but be prepared to see the Spirit work and draw you closer to Christ. That is what Lent is about, you know.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Power and Purpose…

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The great Methodist hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, is known for some great hymns of the church. Among those hymns are Blessed Assurance, Rescue the Perishing, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Historians have noted that Crosby is responsible for over 9,000 hymns in her lifetime. That’s incredible when we remember that she was blind from the time she was six weeks old. She died in 1915 just shy of her 95th birthday, and the final verse she wrote said, “You will reach the river brink, some sweet day, bye and bye.”

Long before she penned those last words, in 1869 she penned another of her now famous hymns. That hymn resonates with me as I spend this Lent at the cross of Jesus. Hear the words of the first verse of her hymn Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross:

Jesus, keep me near the cross;

There a precious fountain,

Free to all a healing stream,

Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

“Keep me near the cross” is my prayer this Lenten season. It is near the cross that we not only see Jesus, but we hear the words he speaks from the cross. Jesus made seven statements while He hung on the cross. They were the last words of Jesus; each one has significance and meaning, and teach us something about the heart of God.

Famous Last Words

First, He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they’re doing.” In the midst of being unjustly wronged, Jesus was still able to offer a prayer of forgiveness. Next, he interacted with two criminals being crucified beside Him. One rejected Him, the other repented and cried out to Him to save him to which Jesus responded, “You will be with me in paradise,” a wonderful word of salvation.

Then, Jesus spoke a third time from the cross. In his anguish, he looked down from the cross and saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved–the Apostle John. Here is what John recorded:

25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home. (John 19: 25 – 27 NLT)

As I read these words, I make two discoveries.

The Power of a Passionate Love

The first discovery is the power of a passionate love. I see the passionate love of Jesus. Let’s remember all that happened to Jesus in the past 24 hours. He had been whipped, His back being completely torn to shreds. He had been punched repeatedly in the face. Romans had taken a crown of thorns and crushed it down upon His head. He had suffered an incredible loss of blood. He was desperately weak and thirsty. They took spikes, driving them into His wrists and feet, fastening Him to a cross, slamming it into the ground with all of His weight being held only by those spikes. He knew he was dying.

Samuel Johnson, the 18th century British author and poet said, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Here is Jesus, hanging on the cross watching the soldiers gamble for his clothes. If there was ever a time Jesus would be justified in being selfish, it was now, but his mind turned not to himself, but to others—particularly, his mother. Jesus dying concern is for his mother.

Jesus saw his mother and said, “Woman, he is your son.” Jesus was taking care of his mother’s needs. It was his tender compassion at work, even from the cross. Joseph was likely dead, and in ancient near eastern culture widows had no means of support. It was the oldest son’s responsibility to care for his widowed mother. Jesus was doing what I’ve witnessed so many others do through 28 years of ministry. As I’ve journeyed with many through their last days the concern most expressed is not for themselves, but for the one’s they leave behind. Who will care for them? Did I leave enough for them? Will they be alright? Jesus had a deep, passionate love for his mother, and he was expressing it from the cross.

Jesus wasn’t the only one expressing a passionate love, though. So was his mother, Mary. What mother could choose to watch her son die such a gruesome and painful death? Don’t you know that with every blow of the hammer, Mary felt the nails going into Jesus’ feet and hands? Don’t you know that with every labored breath of Jesus she lost a little of her own? It was a mother’s love that kept her near the cross in the face of such pain.

A few years ago, a newspaper report out of south Florida reported of a little boy who decided to go for a swim in the lake behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went.

He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore. His mother in the house was looking out the window saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, she ran toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could.

Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. An incredible tug-of-war began between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck, took careful aim and shot the alligator.

Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were scarred by the vicious attack, and on his arms were deep scratches where his mother’s fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.

The newspaper reporter, who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, “But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Mom wouldn’t let go.”

This was Mary hanging onto Jesus as long as she could. Her passionate love kept her from turning away.

The power of passionate love was at the cross that day. Jesus, keep me near the cross that I might know such a passionate love.

The Power of an Incredible Purpose

The second discovery I’d like for us to make is the power of an incredible purpose. We find this power in the Apostle John—the one whom Jesus loved. It was this John who had a special place in the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. It was Peter, James and John who saw Jesus gloriously transfigured on the mountain. It was Peter, James and John who were invited by Jesus to witness the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and they were invited to go with Jesus deeper into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before his arrest. It is an awesome lesson for us that those who are close to Jesus will be entrusted with great opportunity to serve in the Kingdom: to do for Jesus what he could not do for himself.

Jesus was saying to John, “You have to take my place. You have to do what I cannot do.” We see in these words, not simply a concern of a son for his mother, but also a demonstration of the re-ordering of relationships based on Kingdom principles. Jesus was affirming what he taught in his ministry. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus had been confronted by great crowds, so much so that Mark says his family was looking for him because they thought he has “lost his mind.” Word came to Jesus that his mother and brothers were outside:

33 Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 34 Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. 35 Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3: 22 – 34 NLT).

We are familiar with the saying, “Blood is thicker than water.” In Kingdom relationships, Spirit is thicker than blood. This was John’s commissioning to become the hands and feet of Jesus and demonstrates to us that the purpose of the church is to become the hands and feet of Jesus. As the elder son was responsible for the mother, so those who are becoming people of Christ are responsible for the forgotten of society. You and I are responsible for others. What an incredible purpose!

I am reminded of the story of the husband who had an affair and divorced his wife so he could marry his mistress. The two married and had children. After the children were born, the new wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As her days final days drew near, she asked the ex-wife to visit her. The ex-wife reluctantly went to see the dying woman. As the two chatted, the dying woman looked intently at the ex-wife and said, “I have a request.”

“What is that?” the ex-wife replied.

“When I’m gone, will you take care of my children? I don’t know anyone I could trust more with their care,” was the woman’s request.

The ex-wife hesitated for a few moments and the air became heavy as the mother thought about the request she had made. Finally, the ex-wife replied, “I’ll gladly care for your children after your death.”

Later, friends asked the ex-wife, “How could you consent to do that after she destroyed your marriage?”

“God’s love has given me the power to forgive. I think I can accept her children as my own,” was the woman’s answer.

God’s children become our own when we stand near the cross. Like John, we are charged to do for Jesus what He can no longer do for himself–care for others. What an incredible purpose!

Want to know your life purpose? Stand near the cross. That’s where we discover the power of an incredible purpose.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Deferred Maintenance…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

The countryside is dotted with churches in disrepair. I’ve seen them. As a District Superintendent for the United Methodist Church, I saw several churches that were abandoned and left to deteriorate. I also visited lots of churches that weren’t kept very well. What brings this to my mind is the fact that we’re dealing with many issues of maintenance that need attention where I serve as pastor. But, I’ve visited others where the building was falling down around the congregation and no one noticed. The congregation is so accustomed to the peeling paint and dirty carpet that they no longer notice it. They haven’t taken the time to fix the faucet in the bathroom, and the Sunday school literature, well it’s only twelve years old, but it’s still useable, so…

We just don’t take care of our buildings the way we should. What’s that got to do with Lent? Shouldn’t we be talking about repentance and prayer and other spiritual disciplines? Yes, we should, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. The description of those run-down buildings gives us a good idea of the state of the Temple in Jerusalem when the prophet Joel was young man. Centuries of misuse and disuse had caused Solomon’s once magnificent structure to look more like a building in the slums than in the upscale section of Jerusalem. As Joel grew, there was a turnaround. Later, this dilapidated building was cleaned up and refurbished. After the remodeling, the offerings and sacrifices were restored and Temple life returned to normal. Well, almost.

The prophet Joel wrote the words of his prophecy because there was still a problem. The turnaround in the nation wasn’t complete. Everything looked good on the outside, but there really hadn’t been much of an internal change with these people. God wasn’t looking for an outer change as much as he was looking for an inner one.

It’s the same for us as we seek to observe a holy Lent. God is looking for repentance from us. He doesn’t just want us to say all the right words, and he doesn’t want to simply give us a list of duties to work on, or as we walk this 40 day journey. Outward actions are nice, but if there is no inward change, it’s really all for naught. Jesus says as much in Matthew’s Gospel.

That neglected building, that church that no one is taking much care of, is me. If I take an honest look at my life, here’s what I see?  I can’t say there’s been more good than bad. I can’t say that during this past year, I have been more interested in the things of God vs. the things of this world. In just this past week, I can’t honestly say that the Lord has always taken first place in my heart, but he has slipped through the cracks as other priorities crowded him out? Work, spending time with friends, the television and the computer, even simply “me” time have all taken priority. I am good at scheduling things that bring me happiness…and making sure that I keep those appointments.

But, have I been so busy taking care of the other matters of life that I neglected the church inside of me? Is that building strong, well-kept, and beautiful? Or, is there deferred maintenance that needs attending too? Sometimes, we lock the doors of our hearts, and just expect that our faith will remain intact, and so we can take a little vacation from working hard on our Christian lives, and when we come back, everything will be fine. If we don’t keep up the maintenance, the spiritual building will begin to fall down around us–metaphorically speaking…

Lent is a perfect time to begin that deferred maintenance in our heart. Joel’s prophecy has one word that serves as the beginning of the work–“Return!” If we’ve been away from the Lord for a while, or if we haven’t followed him as vigorously as we know we should, God is holding out an invitation to us: “Return! I want you back!”

God tells us how he wants us to return to him. The Lord says, “Rend your heart and not your garments.” In Biblical times, if a person were really upset over something, they would tear their clothes as a sign of sadness. But many people played a little game with God. When they were confronted with their sin by God’s priests and prophets, they would tear their clothes, they would put ashes on their heads. They’d do everything that made them look sad, and then they would go back to those same sins. The problem was they were trying to cure cancer with a band-aid.

The outward signs of Lent—putting ashes on our forehead, confessing our sins, singing sad songs—are all nice things to do, but they mean absolutely nothing if we are playing the crying game with God, telling him how sorry we are, but returning home to the same life we have been leading when Lent is over.

Joel helps us get into the proper mindset when he prophesies, “return to me with all your heart.” Returning is repenting, but repenting is not simply being sorry for what we’ve done. Repenting is turning from what we’ve done. Repentance includes not doing it again, and repentance starts in the heart. Missionary Gypsy Smith shares the story of the time he spent in South Africa. On one occasion, a handsome Dutchman came into his revival service, and God laid His hand on the Dutchman and convicted him of his sin. The next morning he went to the home of another Dutchman and said to the homeowner, “Do you recognize this old watch?”

“Why, yes,” answered the homeowner. “Those are my initials; that is my watch. I lost it eight years ago. How did you get it, and how long have you had it?”

“I stole it,” was the Dutchman’s reply.

“What made you bring it back now?”

“I was converted last night,” was the answer, “and I have brought it back first thing this morning. If you had been up, I would have brought it last night.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever read through the 95 Theses that Martin Luther nailed to the church door in Wittenberg, but the first of those theses reads, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance is a process that is repeated over and over throughout our life.

During Lent, as we stress our desperate need for repentance, there is a silver lining. There is time for us to come back to God. The prophet says “even now,” with our rebellious past, the Lord still wants us. We talk about doing deferred maintenance, having genuine from-the-heart repentance, and God does something awesome when we come to him on his terms. The sinner repents, and the Lord relents.

Here’s Joel 2: 13: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” We are hopelessly guilty, and we know it. We look around and see the peeling paint of our hearts. We smell the old, dirty carpet. We see the burned-out light bulbs. It’s all around us. That’s exactly why we need Lent. We come to repent because we know He is a God who relents.

Lent is a  journey toward the cross of Jesus. The cross is where we learn how God can afford to relent. Our deferred maintenance begins on Ash Wednesday, but it finds its full restoration at the foot of the cross.

It’s popular thing to give up something for Lent. Considering ourselves to be more spiritual than someone who isn’t giving up something for Lent is not an appropriate start to the journey, nor is supposing that giving up something puts us in better standing with God. The proper way of beginning is to remember that Jesus gave up everything for us, so out of gratitude we give up something we love for him. It’s an offering of sorts. But, avoiding chocolate or not watching our favorite TV show for 40 days isn’t going to make us more spiritual unless we fill the time with the Word of God and prayer.

God doesn’t command that we give up something for Lent, but if we choose to do so, here is a way that will be a spiritual benefit to us—think of something you really enjoy doing: maybe it’s eating a particular food or drinking a certain beverage. Maybe it’s an activity like shopping or exercising. Maybe it’s staring at the television or computer screen for hours on end. If you chose to give something up for Jesus, then be sure to replace it with prayer, and Bible study. Maybe instead of spending 2 hours watching a basketball game, you go into your room, and read through the Bible, slowly digesting every word, considering how God is talking to you, praying that the Lord speaks to you and makes you a better disciple. Joel ends verse 14 with these words, “I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully.”

We repent, God relents. And when we go into his Word, God opens his storehouse of spiritual treasures to us and gives us gift after gift. The Lord wants to replace the trivial things in our life with real gifts. Gifts like peace in our hearts that can deal with any problem. Gifts like a greater willingness and ability to serve Jesus in our life.

So, let’s start those maintenance projects. Our lives resemble a building that needs some upkeep, and Lent is the time to get to work. Jesus won the ultimate struggle for us. He has fixed us up, and He is fixing us up to make us a glistening, beautiful building in which we will dwell forever. God has made us into a building like that, and now with the Spirit’s help, strive to keep that building up! Let’s not be satisfied with mere cosmetic improvements, but let us plead with the Lord to use His Word to change our hearts to make us a more repentant, more useful servant in God’s kingdom.

Until next time, keep looking up…