Lent

WED., MAR. 1, 1995, 9:30 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

Lent, commencing today, is a season of the church year that has not been particularly significant or important to you. You’re aware of this lack of zeal, but have not given it much attention. So this morning, after an early communion service, some ashes on your forehead, and some discussion of this time, hear what I have to say about you and Lent. And, always remember, what I say to you my not be what I say to all others. My messages do vary.

In the newsletter you just have assembled you referred to Lent as a time of remembrance and of anticipation. It can be either… or both. What should you remember? My life as Jesus. As I have reminded you, the remembrance of this Life, in your church’s time perspective, is only about 4 months long. That is, I was born in December, was arrested, tried, and crucified in late March to late April. The Gospels focus mainly on My years of active ministry, about 3 years. So lent is a time to renew your knowledge and understanding of this time of recorded activity. A dedication I ask of you, then, to fulfill this remembrance theme is a complete reading of the four Gospels, preferably each at a single time… at least not chapter by chapter.

You know the story rather well, generally, but you shall discover a few new insights, and on these I shall comment, as you would expect. Read with as positive an attitude as possible… an attitude that judges apparently conflicting accounts as just different emphases, remembrances, or ways of telling My story to different “audiences.” I’d also recommend reading the account of each Gospel writer in your Bible encyclopedia, so you have at least some background on the person who is given credit for the writing.

Lent is also a time of anticipation. Of what? Of Holy Week which commences with acceptance and acclaim of Me, as Jesus. Many decided that I was the Messiah, but that meant expectations I was not willing to fulfill. I accepted this adulation on what you designate as Palm Sunday, even as I knew it had to be short-lived.

Was this the time, during this week, that I showed forth anger and violence against money changers and sellers within the Temple? I obviously had seen these before. Had I done this before, and then again at this time? Was I deliberately confusing the people who had shouted for Me earlier? Was it fundamentally different than selling tickets to a supper, or urging the purchase of reading materials for Lent? Would I approve of all that goes on in your “temple” if I should return and join your congregation for a year?

How should you feel about this Lent Supper, which is institutionalized, in different ways, as Holy Communion, or the Holy Eucharist? I tell you that it was still a time of joy and good comradeship. I knew that My earth time, in the physical body, was now short, but I also knew what great good would come from My death. In your culture today I would be represented by one or more attorneys, and I probably would never have been crucified. (If I had had a choice between painful, awful degrading public crucifixion and a quiet, private lethal injection, which would I have chosen?) Would My impact have been greater if I had not been convicted? Would I have written My own equivalent of a Gospel story if I had been merely imprisoned for some years?

Your culture is understandably ambivalent about this death. If I was simply put to death, sort of against My will, was I then a weak savior? Is the Lamb going meekly to slaughter a comfortable image of a powerful God? On the other hand, if I truly arranged the whole experience, from arrest in the garden to death on the cross, was I, in effect, committing suicide and, hence, devaluing human life. Spiritual life for eternity is promised. How important, then, is bodily earth life?