What do YOU want to hear on Easter Sunday?

This post is thank to a friend of mine (Paul Moore) who asked on Facebook, "Could you help me out? In ten words or less, what do you think a person (who attends worship less than once a month) is looking for in Easter worship?"

 

Some of the answers, not including my own........

"A new beginning, a fresh start." 

"God's love is for everyone--no matter what." 

"Favorite songs."

"Something new. Something relevant. Something hopeful. Something real."

"Candy."

"To feel welcomed."

"To meet (his/her) obligations" because "it's tradition" to attend on Easter Sunday.

 

I'm not very good with answers in ten words or less. And when I started writing I was trending towards the cynical answer--more along the lines of the last one I shared above than the "fresh start, new beginnings." Anyway, for what it's worth, here's my full answer to the question, "What's that guy I haven't seen since Christmas looking for in Easter worship?  

 

Entering the church, bright and beautiful and smelling like lilies, and I hope for just a few simple things. I hope we won't be singing any songs I don't know. I hope it doesn't go over an hour. I hope it will be stress-free and happy. I don't want to have to think to much--or, worse yet, FEEL anything! I want to experience a good show. At least worth my time and the $20 I will generously put in the plate. 

 

And the rest of this stuff I might not think about consciously, but the truth is...... 

 

I really want to hear that it's totally OK if I only attend once a quarter or once a year, that it's OK that I only pray when someone's sick and almost never to give thanks, unless, of course, it's thanks "that I don't live like those other people do." And I want to hear that it's OK that I expect not to be challenged. Because I really don't want to be "free indeed" vs. being enslaved to the gods of my own choosing. Because I really kinda like those gods (a lot). Because, after all, they're the gods I've chosen for myself. 

 

I certainly don't want to believe MY sin is so bad as to require Good Friday. I know that if I had been in-charge (way back then) the crowd would never, never have cried out "Crucify him!" 

 

So I want to hear lots of nice and happy stuff and inspiring stuff--yes, that's right, just the kind of stuff that smiley guy on TV promises to give me: "Practical steps to encourage you to believe bigger, overcome obstacles, and live the life God has for you!" 

 

But certainly NOT the "gospel" because I can't hear the good news without first being pierced with "how great my sin and misery are" [see Heidelberg Lord's Day 1] and the horrible truth that I am inclined towards hating both God and my neighbor. 

 

I want to hear that things are still hunky-dory between me and God because I'm basically a pretty likable dude........... Right?

 

And yet.... deeper inside I know I'm not that good of a person. I'm not always that likable--especially not to those who know me the best. And even those closest to me see only part of me.  

 

Deep down I know that sometimes--even often--there is a harsh, hard, hateful me inside--a Mr. Hyde who makes me fear for my very soul because if God knows everything then how in the hell could God love me?? And I know those "practical steps" Joel Osteen talks about haven't done shit to change this dark side of me that no one, no one knows about. And, yes, yes I'd really love to be set free but nothing I've ever seen in church leads me to give any credence to this "Amazing-Grace, New Creation, Easter Transformation" stuff the preacher has talked about. 

 

Might there be a mustard seed of faith within me? I don't know. It's easier not thinking about it. It's easier just maintaining the facade. Besides it would be too horribly embarrassing to do what I really, REALLY want to do this Easter: to fall to my knees, to weep uncontrollably, to cry out, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner," to weep until I've let go of every pretense of being pretty much OK. 

 

And then to have Jesus take my hand in his. And he lifts me up and asks me just like he asked Peter, "Do you love me?" Peter said Yes. But I am speechless, the only honest answer being, "Jesus, I want to, but I haven't been.... you see, I believe--but help me--because I usually don't. At. all." 

 

Tears still streaming down my face and feeling as if every shred of self-esteem and self-confidence I ever thought I had is now dead... And then I feel myself being held (doubts and all) safe in the arms of the wounded, crucified, risen Jesus who says, "With everlasting love I will have compassion on you. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Believe this: I will never leave you nor forsake you; I will never let you down and never let you go." 

 

 

Yes, that's what I'm looking for on Easter.  More than anything in the world.

Lord's Day 34

"My Prayer" (a Lenten sermon for Lord's Day 34, the Ten Commandments)

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

    and make mere flesh their strength,

    whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

    whose trust is the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5, 7).

…If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17).

“Dark midnight was my cry; dark midnight was my cry; dark midnight was my cry…” (LUYH #423)

 Brothers and sisters in Christ:

The prophet Jeremiah has given us a stark contrast between blessing and curse… True happiness when we rely solely upon God… A curse when we rely on mortals, when we lean for support on humankind, when our hearts are far from God.

This sounds just WRONG, doesn’t it? How else are we to get through life without relying on each other? When dark midnight is our cry, don’t we long for encouragement from each other? Don’t we give thanks for get well cards and prayers and guidance from others? Aren’t we supposed bear one another’s burdens?  We need friends, don’t we?

Of course we do. Friends point us in the right direction. Friends care about us and care for us when we’re in need, comfort and console us when dark midnight is our cry. And when we’re pigheadedly heading the wrong direction, friends confront us in love. Friends are gifts from God.

And, yet, Jeremiah says “a curse on anyone who trusts in mortals and leans for support on humankind.” What does he mean?  

It is tempting, even NATURAL to put our confidence in the THINGS God has given us instead of in God. To trust the GIFTS rather than the Giver. And it’s even tempting to look towards friends and our Christian sisters and brothers INSTEAD OF GOD… 

And, here’s the bug-a-boo with that….

Sometimes people fail us—indeed, ALWAYS… eventually… we all fall short…

So trusting in mortals instead of God is a recipe for disappointment…. 

And so I think what Jeremiah is saying is that if we’re looking to our friends, to our church family, even to our leaders (deacons, elders, and pastors)…  If we are looking all of them and/or humankind in general to SAVE US, to RESCUE US, to heal us, to revive and renew us… This will bring sadness and frustration… It will bring us the very opposite of blessing.

Because you aren’t God, you can never take the place of God in someone’s life, right? And since my friend, my brother, my mom or dad aren’t God, they can never be my All in All and I can never expect them to be, right?

And here is a very important corollary— If friends or leaders or even all of humankind cannot be my All in All… then certainly I can’t be MY OWN “all in all” either, right? 

Anne Lamott says,

Most good, honest prayers remind me that I am not in charge, that I cannot fix anything, and that I open myself to being helped by something, some force, some friends, some something. These prayers say, "Dear Some Something, I don't know what I'm doing. I can't see where I'm going. I'm getting more lost, more afraid, more clenched. Help."

These prayers acknowledge that I am clue­less; but something else isn't. While I am not going to go limp, I am asking for the willingness to step into truth. It's like the old riddle: What's the difference between you and God? God never thinks he's you.”

In the very first commandment God said, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

And so the logic behind “NO OTHER GODS” is the logic of FREEDOM.The God who set us free from the chains in the first place sets us free indeed with ten "rules for grateful living" and the first rule is to renounce all other gods but God because all those other gods eventually put us back in those chains again. We are set free so we might LIVE free!

We are set FREE from thinking we need to trust in or ultimately depend on any mere mortals including ourselves! And we are set free when we let God be God in our lives.

And then—oh my—what a wonderful paradox it is when our hearts are close to God and we put our confidence not in each other but solely in God:  THE PARADOX IS THAT THEN, JUST THEN AND ONLY THEN… MIRACLES OF MIRACLES:  we find our relationships transformed, redeemed, made new again. Admitting my own brokenness, I can let my sisters and brothers be broken and wounded people JUST LIKE I AM!

Henri Nouwen says “Friends cannot replace God (but) God gives us the friends we need (as a gift) WHEN we need them IF we fully trust in God’s love.”

“Blessed is anyone who trusts in the Lord, and rests his confidence in God”—solely, completely, totally, unwaveringly in GOD and in God alone.

Together putting our faith in God and depending TOTALLY on God’s grace and mercy, we find oneness with each other in Christ in spite of our woundedness.   And by God’s grace—ALL THINGS BECOMING NEW—we can follow Jesus in the way of the cross. Mutual self-sacrifice. Offering ourselves to each other as the VERY PRESENCE OF CHRIST yet without an expectation that we can imitate him perfectly.

And so we forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. And we affirm each other because we each bear the image of God inside us—we are of GREAT VALUE and IMMENSE WORTH to God.  He made us and we belong to him.

And so together we can help each other walk in the way of the cross, confront each other when we trust in anyone or anything other than God. Plead with each other to LOVE God and LOVE OTHERS.  Inspire each other to die to our old selves and rise anew daily to OUR true selves, our new selves in Christ…. Loving Life… Loving and Respecting Each Other… Sharing instead of Hoarding… Speaking the Truth instead of Hiding… Loving instead of Reacting in Fear… Putting Envy and Jealousies aside because our hearts are humble and overflowing with gratitude.

This is the NEW CREATION—our best and truest selves alive within us through the Spirit.

This is my prayer.

“In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, give me Jesus. Give me Jesus; give me Jesus! You can have all this world; give me Jesus.”

Upcoming on Sunday, April 6 (Palm Sunday)

Just two weeks before Easter, the 5^th Sunday has, in many traditions, special significance and special customs.

In Scotland and parts of England, for example, peas cooked in butter are traditional on this particular Sunday. I can’t recall why this is, but I personally like buttered peas and it seems like a neat bit of “indulgence” in the midst of a Lenten fast—at least the butter part, right? J

For most of the history of the church, the 5^th Sunday in Lent was known as Passion Sunday, an opportunity to renew personal Lenten commitments to repentance, self-examination, prayer and fasting prior to Holy Week. Our series in the Heidelberg Catechism calls for the Ten Commandments to be our focus on this particular Sunday. We will recite them together following the prayer of confession and assurance of pardon. Why at that point in the service? Because the Heidelberg puts the commandments in “Part III-Gratitude” and envisions “the Law” as a guide for grateful living.  

The sermon, entitled “My Prayer” will be a personal testimony of sorts—Lord willing—an opportunity to share not merely what the scripture might be saying to us, but what God’s grace and living in gratitude mean to me—deep down inside of me. The sermon flows out of the contrasting prophecies of God in Jeremiah 17, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord” (verse 5) and “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord” (verse 7), scripture passages referenced in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 34.  And we’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper, too. So even though April 6 isn’t a “special day” on the calendar of the church year, I hope this mostly-traditional service of worship will prove to be deeply inspirational for all.