The Story of God

Philip Yancey has said that the story of the Bible is the story of a God who is reckless with desire to get His family back.  While that is a nice statement most of us cannot believe that God is really like that.  It comes across as a nice religious statement that people like to say, but one that is not true.  We know that God is good and that He loves us, but pursues us, really?  Isn’t God too busy with running the cosmos?  Plus, I’m not that bad and surely He must spend His time dealing with the really bad people of the world.  Or, we think we are not very good people and God only notices the exceptionally good people.

The story of God is the story of grace gone wild and a grace that does not make sense.  It is a grace that troubles us because it seems too good to be true or too soft on the people we dislike.  In Luke 15 we find three stories that illustrate God’s radical grace.  In our first week we will look at the first two stories because they set up the story most know, a story we call The Prodigal Son.  In it Jesus clarifies the story of God in the characters of the younger and older brother as well as the father.  In it we see the radical nature of God’s love and mercy (grace) and why we have such a hard time accepting such an amazing free gift.  In this season of Lent it is my hope that we experience the love of God in fresh new ways and maybe for the very first time.  Join us as we look at The Story of God.  

Lent and Ash Wednesday

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.  Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means “spring.”  The season is a preparation for celebrating Easter.  Historically, Lent began as a period of fasting and preparation for baptism by converts and then became a time for penance by all Christians.  The First Sunday describes Jesus’ temptation by Satan; and the Sixth Sunday (Passion/Palm Sunday), Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent passion and death.  Because Sundays are always little Easters, the penitential spirit of Lent should be tempered with joyful expectation of the Resurrection.

The Great Three Days—sometimes called the Triduum or Pasch—from sunset Holy Thursday through sunset Easter Day are the climax of Lent (and of the whole Christian year) and a bridge into the Easter Season.  These days proclaim the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.  During these days, the community journeys with Jesus from the upper room, to the cross, to the tomb, and to the garden.  They should be seen as a great unified service beginning with a service of Holy Communion on Holy Thursday and concluding with the services of Easter Day.  These services may be connected with a prayer vigil lasting from Holy Thursday evening (or Good Friday) until the first service of Easter and may be accompanied by fasting.

Ash Wednesday emphasizes a dual encounter: we confront our own mortality and confess our sin before God within the community of faith.  The form and content of the service focus on the dual themes of sin and death in the light of God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ. 

The use of ashes as a sign of mortality and repentance has a long history in Jewish and Christian worship, and the Imposition of Ashes can be a powerful nonverbal and experiential way of participating in the call to repentance and reconciliation.  This practice is the historic focus of Ash Wednesday observance and gave the day its name.  It is traditional to save the palm branches from the previous Passion/Palm Sunday service and burn them ahead of time to produce the ashes for this service.

From The United Methodist Book of Worship, pages 320-321.  

The Divine Drama

Isn't it strange that God searches for us and yet knows where we are all the time?  Isn't it strange that God reaches for us and yet we are always in His hands.  How mysterious are His ways that He would participate in this divine drama just so that we would understand and know that He finds us of infinite worth and that He desires to give us life through a relationship with Him.  And how foolish we are that we would run and insist on doing what we want and arrogantly trying to find life apart from Him the Fountain of Life.  When we ran we only found emptiness and poverty in our souls.  And still God participates in this divine drama to let us know that His arms are still open and we can come always back home to find rest and renewal in our souls.  How great is His love for us and so much higher than human understanding and ways.

Core Fitness-Keeping in Shape

You may have heard the word “core” related to fitness before and are not sure what it means.  Core fitness works all the muscles that attach to your hips, pelvis, lower back, abdominals, ribs, and shoulder blades.  Every time you lift, bend, reach, push, pull, twist, sit, stand, or walk you are using your core, so these muscles are vital to every movement we make in our daily lives.

            The Bible describes the Church as the body of Christ and our core muscles are our core values.  Knowing and building these core values (muscles) will keep us focused and on track for the mission God has called us to pursue. This Sunday we are beginning a six-week series that will look at our core values.  Each week we will post the core value on our web site.  Let’s start from the core, the center of the body where movement originates, and stay fit to fulfill our calling to grow in our relationship with Christ as well as help others do he same.  The benefits are eternal!