It is the middle of the week and everyone is in the house because of the Corona Virus. Justin has no schedule except to sit and study. Jordan has soccer practice on Monday and Wednesday. Aidan has study room everyday so he seems to be in the best shape of all of us. My husband went to school for a faculty meeting and I am trying to figure out how to teach online. 

This leaves us with lots of time on our hands. Way, way too much screen time for everyone! It would be so much better if I could just say, "Go play outside!" but this really isn't an option.

One of the good things about all of this time is I can read whenever I want to. I have been reading Faces at the Cross by J. Barrie Shepherd. I am reading this for Lent, which began last week. The book has more than 40 entries that are written in the first person. These are all people who were there during the Crucifixion. The entry I want to share with you is J. Barrie Shepherd's interpretation of what was going through Mary Magadelene's mind during the crucifixion.

The Face of Magdalen

So did we love him wrongly, after all?
Could this grim horror have been prevented?
Might it have never had to happen,
if we, if I, had only figured out the right way
to respond to all the love we found,
and felt and feasted on him. 

His love was unconditional,
always there for me,
even when he might have been provoked,
annoyed or disappointed 
in something I had said or done,
an attitude to others.
Our love -
mine I do know about, for sure - 
our love was always eager to possess. 
We loved him, those of us who got close enough,
just as one might love a thing of beauty,
cherishing its grace and loveliness, needing to reach out and grasp it,
have it be at our disposal, 
ready to be enjoyed at any moment.

He said his love, God's love, 
was just like that, 
was always there for us,
shining on us like the sun,
and would never let us down.
We didn't have to make it ours,
lock it up and throw away the key,
couldn't do that anyway, 
because God's love can not be held, 
can only be received and passed along.

And right then,
when we were with him, 
where he was tell us all this,
we could believe it, at least I could.
Trouble was,
he wasn't always there
and then the doubts began again.

You see, love is such a basic thing,
being loved is so important that,
if you can't be certain sure God loves you
then you just have to love yourself.
You have to watch out all the time
to make sure you don't get hurt.
You have to realize,
accept the fact that everybody else 
is busy loving their own selves.
So you can never fully trust them
because finally, when a life is on the line,
they will want it to be yours, 
rather than theirs.

See what happened to him.
See where his God-love got him in the end.
Do you suppose he still believes in it up there?
Do you think, with all the hurt and hate
He's seen these past few hours,
he still hangs on to what he taught,
and walked and worked at with us
all those weeks and months
that seemed to be leading toward forever
till they ended with a crash?

Now even the two thieves 
are cursing at him in their desperation.
Why must they pick on him?
Didn't they know?
His suffering's as bad as theirs,
and he's done nothing to deserve it.
Just to listen to them argue,
even up there when all is lost 
they can't agree on anything it seems.

What's that?
One of them is defending Jesus,
asking him to bless him in his death?
And jesus is assuring him or paradise,
blessing the legionaries too
as they gamble for his seamless robe.

What love is this?
What wondrous love is this?
Of all the miracles
I've witnessed these past months,
the miracle he brought about in my own life, 
this is the richest, truest of them all.
Even death, this cruel, bloody death,
cannot quench the flow of God's love in this man,
this man I love, and learn to in God by.

His body weakens fast now.
It's getting harder and harder for him to breathe.
And yet the love, God's love in him,
goes on, and on, and on.
It's almost as if that love can never die;
almost as if, beyond the grave, 
God's love in him will still go on,
will still be with me giving strength 
to love the way he did,
even to die the way he dies,
God grant it may be so.

One thing I know, 
whether we loved him wrong or not,
he loved us right.

______________________

Christ loves us in a way we can barely comprehend. He endured the cross for us. I am more and more certain of my own sinfulness as I walk through this life, but Jesus died to change all that. His arms are stretched out toward you. Accept his gift! 

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You can't conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone, the appealing strangeness of the mercy of God. Graham Greene

To observe Lent is to strike at the root of such complacency. Lent is a time of preparation, a time to return to the desert where Jesus spent forty difficult days preparing himself for his ministry. He allowed himself to be tested, and if we are serious about following Christ we will do the same. 

Lent is traditionally associated with penitence, fasting, alms-giving, and prayer. It is a time to give things up and to balance it by giving to those in need. Whatever else it may be, Lent should never be morose. It does not have to be an annual ordeal where we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. 

We need to remember that Lent is an opportunity, not a requirement.

After all, it is the Church's springtime. Out of the darkness of sin's winter, a repentant, empowered people emerge. It's little wonder that some refer to it "this joyful season!"

Let's borrow from C.S. Lewis. Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy. 

Our self sacrifice serves no purpose unless, by laying aside this or that desire, we are able to focus on our heart's deepest longing: unity with Christ. 

In Christ, in His suffering and death, his resurrection and triumph, we find our truest joy.

This joy is costly. It arises from the horror of our sin, which crucified Christ. 

This is a kind of dread. There is this nagging sense that we have missed something important and have been somehow untrue to ourselves, to others, and to God. 

Lent is a good time to confront the source of that feeling.

It is a time to let go of excuses for failings. 

It is a time to ask God what we really look like.

Importantly, it is a time to face up to the personal role each of us plays in prolonging Christ's agony at Golgotha.

Richard John Neuhaus put it this way: "Send not to know by whom the nails were driven, they were driven by you, by me."

The Good News is that Christ overcame all our sins.

His resurrection frees us from ourselves. 

That beautiful empty tomb has turned everything around. 

We move from all that is wrong with us and with the world, and spurs us to experience abundant life. 

Lent lets us discover Christ anew. He is the scarred God, the weak and wretched God, the crucified and dying God of blood and despair amid the alluring gods of our feel good age.

Christ reveals the appalling strangeness of divine mercy and the Love from which it springs. 

Love that could not stay in an imprisoned, cold tomb.

We will surrender to Christ again. 

#Lent #Easter #Easterjoy #Christ #crucifixion #beauty #love

  
Is it possible to find God in the Calendar? Can we look at months and seasons and find His presence in the myriad of life activities? Can we find Him in the seasons? If we think of each of these as moments in time, it is possible.

The church thoughtfully put together the church calendar to correspond to the seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Let's talk about the beauty of spring.

The month of March is a series of beginnings here in Korea. For my son, it is the beginning of high school. For my husband and myself, it is the beginning of the school year. My two youngest start grade two and grade four. I love that fact these beginnings correspond to the weather becoming warmer. It’s the beginning of spring. Thawing, new starts, new life.

This first week of March also marks the beginning of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Holy Week and Easter. Traditionally, we are supposed to give something up over the 40 days in order to understand what Christ experienced with the 40 days of fasting in the desert before he began his ministry.

Lent is a time to re-orient ourselves, to clarify our minds, to slow down, focus on God’s kingdom and the value he has set on us. It’s supposed to be a wakening or renewing of vision.

This past Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday.  This is the day that gets you ready for the journey. We are confessing sins or being ‘shriven’ or absolved. It also a day to prepare for the fast. My Nazarene church tradition celebrates this with a meal of pancakes. A way of fattening you or getting you ready for fasting.

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. This is the day where you go to church to pray, fast, and repent. It derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to either the words "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or the dictum "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

I do find something really beautiful about this. We are pushing away darkness and getting ready for God’s amazing light.

This poem by Scott Cairns expresses the beauty of Lent and the coming glory of Easter.

 Death of Death
 Put fear aside now that                                                                               He entered into death on our behalf                                                           All who live longer die as men once died                                                       that epherical occasion has met its utter end                                               as seeds cast to the earth                                                                         we will not perish                                                                                       but like those seeds shall rise again                                                             the shroud of death itself                                                                       having been burst to tatters                                                                         by love’s immensity

If you are one who has never heard of Lent, Shrove Tuesday, or Ash Wednesday, I want to encourage you. This season of Lent and these days are markings, beginnings if you will. New beginnings can a blessed thing as we come out of winter. Take the time to find out more. Choose someone who can help you. Read. Pray. Reflect. Make room. I pray you will walk in the immensity of God’s light.
 
If you are one of those who have stepped away from these traditions, I want to encourage you too. God is still there just waiting for you. He is there watching and hoping you meet him. Make room for God’s light to come into your life again. Read. Pray. Reflect. Walk in the immensity of God’s light again.

If you are one who participates in these traditions, but the meaning has been lost, I want to encourage you too. Often we are just too busy to slow down and reflect. Find that time in whatever way you can. Go to a church service. Close your bedroom door, open the Bible and pray. And don’t let your children in. Let the immensity of his light touch you.
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Let the immensity of his light in!

The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior, who will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love.   Zephaniah 3:17