Its Ash Wednesday: the first day of Lent. Both this year and last year I've thought about the Via Dolorosa, "the path of suffering". And both years I've lamented the fact that when I was in Israel I didn't take the time to walk through every station. And once again, I find my soul longing to take the trek back to Israel and walk it...slowly, very slowly, like slow motion to the 200th power. To walk through the fifteen stations over the course of the 40 days. Embracing the different moments of Christ's suffering. That journey of entering into it with Him. I dream that one day I will get this chance.
I recognize and feel like a lot of people don't understand the need for this. After all Christ died and was raised up by God (both actions in the past tense) and we have been set free so why would we go back and enter into His suffering for 40 days when we have been set free? And fair enough. I am set free and Christ's life resides in me (past, present and future tense). But there is something to be said for remembering. For slowing down to remember what it cost him in the face of our betrayal. It feels to me like our culture has lost the value of suffering, the value of working long and hard for something. This is something the church Fathers and Mothers seem to write about extensively, how entering into Christ's suffering births in us new life and grace and oddly, freedom. A paradox I'm not even going to claim to understand. But I'm willing to believe the wisdom that has stood the test of centuries and I'm going to try to enter into this mystery.
And so on this Ash Wednesday (which by the way if you are in Abbotsford there is an Ash Wednesday service tonight at 7pm at Bakerview church) I've been doing some reading, reflecting and contemplating.
I keep being brought back to three stories: one from the Pentateuch, one from the Prophets and one from the Gospels.
The Pentateuch:
Gen. 2:7 "then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." It is from the dust of the earth where we came and that is where we return. We are completely at His mercy. But I'm struck by the fact that God didn't just make us, He breathed his very own living breath into us and we became alive. And it is in Him that we live and move and have our very being: our life. And apart from Him there is no life.
The Prophets:
Ez. 37:1-14 "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, 'son of man, 'can these bones live?' And I answered, '\O Lord God, you know'. Then he said to me, 'prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: 'Behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.' So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, 'prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live'. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold they say, 'our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.' Therefore prophecy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my spirit within you and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord.'". And I contemplate these words, and I think about how often we lose our hope, of how often we choose to do our own thing. Of how we let the world teach us how to live when the world doesn't know the first thing about living (paraphrase Msg. Eph.2). And I think about the paradoxes of how when we were dead in the graves of our lives, Christ came and breathed His life into us and we live. And how we have to die to ourselves in order to embrace life.
The Gospels:
Mk. 8:31-38 "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man". And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said them, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the hold angels". And so for me this is what lent is about this year. About "setting my mind on the things of God and not on the things of man". Its about entering into His sufferings so that I may be, and am currently being made, "alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved and raised up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...and this is not of our own doing; it is the gift of God" (Eph.2).
I know that this post is already out of control long, there was just lots to say today :) But I want to leave you with a prayer from the Puritans:
Lord, high and hold, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me into the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess it all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the well the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley."
Amen. Be blessed this Ash Wednesday.
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