Vol 5 No 16 - Shortcut to Easter?

It's Holy Week, ladies & gentlemen.  There's really not much more to add at this point, so just some brief reminders about this week's schedule.

By now, you know that we will be joining the church universal in worshiping at our Lord's table on Holy Thursday, solemnly gathering in the shadow of the cross on Good Friday, and basking in the glory of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.

As is the case whenever God's people gather for worship, there is always the joyful anticipation of Christ revealing himself in ways heretofore unimagined to us.  I know most all of you will be in worship with us (or somewhere, for those of you who are not in our area) on Easter Sunday.  Don't forget, however, that we don't get to Easter Sunday without going through Holy Thursday and Good Friday.  Make it a point to be here @ 6:00 both evenings.

This year, we will also be blessed by joining with our friends from Trinity Episcopal on Friday @ 3:00 to process through the stations of the cross.  We will start and finish our journey at their facilities on the corner of Second and Greenwood.

Sharing the journey of our Lord into the Upper Room, over to Golgotha at the cross, and to the soon-to-be empty tomb - personally, I can't wait!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 15 - When Things Slow Down...

I know, I know.  Things are very busy this time of year for so many of us - it's amazing how many things we allow to slip through the cracks.  I've talked to several who have said that the mission run kinda slipped up on them this year and they hadn't heard as much, then are a little sheepish when reminded it's been highlighted prominently in our past two newsletters, in the bulletin the past 4-5 weeks, and mentioned in this e-mail for a few weeks.

However, I sympathize on so many levels.  After all, who among us doesn't have a great deal of stuff occupying our time or preoccupying us mentally, physically, and emotionally?  Almost on a daily basis, I realize there is stuff that I need to pay attention to that slips through the cracks because I have been focused elsewhere, and I know I'm not alone on this.  Whether a meeting, a social event, someone's birthday, a mission run, a financial pledge made to this or that, a phone call that needed to be returned - we all miss things from time to time that we mean to do, and will catch up on as soon as we are reminded.

The ironic thing about this reality for many of us is that in the midst of our busy-ness during the past few weeks we have, far more than we realize, missed the true meaning of the season we are observing.  This season of Lent, this season of reflection and introspection, has been lost at times because we delude ourselves into thinking we are too busy, and "when things slow down" we'll get back in 'routine'.  What we fail to realize at these times is that if we are not intentional about ordering our lives in such a way that tending our souls, individually and through the life of the faith community known as the church, we will never get it done.  If we are not intentional about making sure that we order our lives to where we focus on worship and sharing our lives together in Christ, we will have nothing to offer all the other activities that consume us.

One of the most seminal moments in recent years for me was the realization that not everything is going to get done.  No matter how hard I try, there's always going to be one more call to return, one more letter to write, one more e-mail to compose, one more event to attend, one more person that I need to check with, etc., etc., etc.  I realized that my challenge was not to make sure that I was all things to all people, but to make sure that in whatever I did, and in whoever I spent time with (family, friends, colleagues, church members, or anyone else), I was in the proper perspective.

So, cherished ones, as we head into the final 13 days of the holiest time of our year, take a breath.  Get some perspective.  Let us all covenant to be people who may be extremely busy or preoccupied, but people who can handle things not because of our own strength, but because we draw from the well of grace, mercy, and love found in Christ through the community he gave us for that purpose, his church.  Let us find that strength by making it an absolute priority to worship, fellowship, study, and pray together SO THAT we may take Christ into all of our life and the lives of those we encounter daily.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 14 - Lenten Journey

Looking out the window this morning while waiting, I was reminded once again of the glory of this Lenten journey.

It's no small secret that the elevator at a local hospital is notoriously slow in arriving to the upper floors, and usually I find this wait more than slightly annoying.  Today, however, I took pause and reflected on how when I left the house it was pitch dark.  By the time I got done visiting with one having surgery, it wasn't quite as dark - the first glimmer of light started peeking over the horizon as I looked down Victor II.  Then as I waited for the elevator (those of you who have been there know what I mean), there was more and more light, and by the time I got to my office, there was no need of the car's headlights.

This is, upon reflection, the story of our Lenten journey.  A journey from darkness to light.  A journey wherein we see things in a different way by moving from existing in darkness to living in the light.

Until we allow ourselves to traverse through the dark, we cannot have an appreciation for just how much light changes our world.  That is what is so transformative about the Lenten journey - by spending time in a season of darkness, we can more appropriately respond to the glory of Easter Sunday.

Don't allow yourselves to be one who misses the joy of Easter by skipping the long journey through Lent.  Through worship, study, weekly luncheons, mission opportunities, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week, there are plenty of ways for you to join in our Lenten observance.  By being with fellow Christians on the journey to Easter, we can bask together in the glory of the Resurrection.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 13 - Insurance?

As we continue the journey through Lent, the long journey of reflection and introspection, I am struck this morning by how transformational Lent can be if we are truly of the mind that God can change us and if we are truly intentional about letting God change us.

Our Sunday/Tuesday study groups are spending the Lenten season reflection on The Challenge of Easter (N.T. Wright), and this week's lesson deals with what is our true understanding of resurrection.  Journeying through Lent, and spending time in dialog with Bishop Wright and the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15, I have come to the conclusion that so many of us miss the joy of Lent because we look at resurrection in an incomplete way.

Think about it - every Sunday, through the affirmation of faith, we profess to believe in the resurrection of the dead.  And that is a good thing, for if we do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, we cannot, by definition, be Christian.  Where we get in trouble is when we think of resurrection in terms of just getting back up and resuming life as it was before we died.  The gospel narratives dealing with the resurrection point to a Christ that had been transformed, and transformed in such a way as to not be recognizable to those who had known him well.

By crawling through the waters of baptism, we profess to a life where we have died to ourselves and risen in Christ.  The question we must face, and the one the annual observance of the Lenten discipline demands we answer, is:  Have we truly been transformed by rising from death in sin to life in Christ?  Do we truly believe that when Christ brings to us new life by water and the Spirit that we are transformed?  Do we truly believe that when Christ comes again in glory and we are raised from the dead that we will be transformed?

Or is this Christianity business simply an exercise in 'fire insurance'?

See you Sunday!

Lamar

P.S.  Our first Lenten Luncheon will be tomorrow at 12:10.  I hope and pray you will make the effort to be here and be fed not only by the food provided but by the words of our speaker.  

Vol 5 No 12 - Little Stuff

Did you notice it this past Sunday?  I know some of you did.  Others may not.  Trust me, it was intentional, and it will happen again this week, and for the rest of the season.  And, yes, it happened to make a statement, so the more we talk about it, the more the message may get out.  It's a little thing, to be sure, but it's amazing sometimes how much value we put on the little things.  Oftentimes, when the littlest things are changed in our lives, it can have a huge impact on our outlook as it relates to other things.

This was done not only to draw our attention to the simplicity of Lent, but to remind us that sometimes we can focus on those things that, in all reality, are not that big a deal when looked at from a broader perspective.  For, even though this change may have been made for this season, in no way was our worship compromised.  In fact, even with this change the symbolism was not, nor will be lost, in our worship setting.

All this to point to the fact that far too often in the Lenten observance as we look to eliminate those things in our lives that keep us from fully exploring the divine will, we try to make and embrace BIG changes.  Often, as we see in this little example of the candelabras in the sanctuary, we allow little things to truly make a BIG difference.

What is something 'little' in your life that is making a BIG difference in your relationship with Christ?

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 11 - The Stench of Mardi Gras (Not What You Think!)

Mardi Gras just stinks around our house.  Every year, just by stepping on the back porch, I can tell that tomorrow marks the beginning of Lent.  The smell permeates my hair, my clothes, and even seeps in the house occasionally.  To make things even more invasive, it doesn't matter whether or not I handle my usual observance of this day on the porch of the house, the church, or elsewhere; the fact is that the mess of Mardi Gras reminds me more and more of the need for Lent.  Every one of us who has participated in the events of Mardi Gras in south Louisiana know that today is messy, has a unique smell, and, usually, requires a shower before bed to get the mess out of your system.

However, the mess I am talking about involves the annual ritual of the burning of the palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration in preparing the ashes for Ash Wednesday.  Lent is unique in the season of the Christian year in that through this time - starting with the reminder on Ash Wednesday that it is from ashes we come and to ashes we return, through the season of reflection and introspection, into the crowds of Christ's final entry into Jerusalem, up to the Upper Room for the Last Supper, to Golgotha for the victorious moment of Christ's triumph over evil - the journey through all these events leads us to examine just how estranged we allow ourselves to be from God and how much we are in desperate need of divine grace.

Like many of you, I love the joy of Easter Sunday.  However, if you really want to have even a hint of what Easter Sunday is all about, don't miss Lent.  Don't miss Ash Wednesday.  Don't miss the worship and study opportunities of Lent.

So, to that end, join us in worship tomorrow morning at 6:30AM or 6:00PM for a traditional observance of Ash Wednesday, including the sacrament of Holy Communion and the Imposition of Ashes.  Our Easter Sunday worship starts tomorrow.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 10 - Special Days

At a meeting I attended yesterday, the speaker who was to give the devotional stood at the podium and said something along the lines of with two such notable days on the calendar, he didn't know which subject to address: Super Bowl Sunday or Valentine's Day.  I had to laugh, for I was thinking he was going to say: Transfiguration Sunday or Ash Wednesday.  After all, these are the two more notable days upcoming on the calendar.

But then I started thinking more about it and came to the conclusion that, yes, it would be appropriate for these two days to be recognized on the proper level, for our Christianity must influence not only how we celebrate the high holy days of the congregation's life, but also how we celebrate all the secular holidays of which we take part.  The question we all face in this matter is: do we factor in our Christianity even a little bit when it comes to the idea of celebrating the secular holidays?

When celebrating Super Bowl Sunday, do we consider the ways in which God would have us respond (and, no, I don't think God is 'on one team's side' over another)?

When celebrating Valentine's Day, do we consider all the ways we should love those dearest to us, and not just in a romantic way - for the Bible addresses love in many different contexts?

When celebrating Mardi Gras, do we consider the theological implications of how and why we celebrate this day?

I could go on and on - but I think you get the point.  No matter what special day we are observing, it is our duty as Christians to observe it in a way that is fitting to honor the grace first shown us through Christ our Lord.

The next day we should all celebrate in this fashion?  TODAY.

See you Sunday!

Lamar