2024 March news-letter article

Hosanna! blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

For those who were present for our Wednesday evening study on February 14, you may recall that our more liturgical brethren (brothers & sisters) commemorated Ash Wednesday that day.  I told those of you that evening that when I hear “lent” (you can’t hear the E), I remember to check the filter on the clothes dryer.  Those of you who were raised Catholic, or Lutheran, or Anglican/Methodist, or even some Presbyterians, you may be familiar with giving up something [a vice, or a luxury] for the lenten season.  Of course, the point isn’t so much to give up a thing, but to replace that thing with meditation/prayer.  As we spend time praying and meditating upon the Word of God, it’s as though we are taking a metaphorical Q-tip and clearing our “ears” of distractions such that we might better hear from God and allow Him to draw near to us, revealing Himself in new ways.  Why?  So that we can prepare our hearts for Easter.

Lent is supposed to reflect the forty days when Jesus fasted in the wilderness, during which Satan tempted Jesus.  Though there certainly is merit in fasting for an extended period of time, whether from food or some other thing, I’ve never really given up a luxury or a vice for a season to commemorate lent.  However, I do believe that it is a wonderful thing to have seasons of preparation.  Though certainly not as culturally pronounced as Christmas (which is probably a good thing), it’s a good thing to take time to prepare ourselves for Resurrection Sunday!

The Festival [or Feast] of the Resurrection, as it was called in the early Church was, and should be today, a time of profound celebration!  Of all the days we have a reason to party, it ought to be the day when King Jesus conquered sin and death!  Before we can rightly appreciate this victory, however, we must also appreciate the death and the sin our Lord defeated.  As we approach Resurrection Sunday, let’s all, together, allow God to prepare our hearts.

On Sunday mornings, we are going to hear about what the resurrection did, what it means for us, what the implications of it are, and how we can live because of it!  On Wednesday evenings, beginning February 28, we are going to take a look at the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see what the Disciples saw in the week prior to Jesus’ resurrection.  (For those asking, we will return to our study of systematic theology in the summer.)  As we prepare corporately for Resurrection Sunday, let me also challenge us all to prepare ourselves privately.  Pray.  Ask God to show up.  Ask Him to strengthen your resolve to set aside distractions from your heart (internal) and life (external) so that you can be better focused upon Him.  Ask Him to reveal Himself to you, to your family, in new ways.  Praise Him for who He is.  Repent.  Thank Him for what He has done.  Ask Him to speak to you this year, about your sin, your death, and His victory.  As you pray, meditate upon His Word.  Read our Sunday passages; read our Wednesday evening passages.  Read something else; read anything in your bible!  As we pray for Him to speak, and as we read His Word, He'll speak.  Will we listen?

Perhaps you can take a lesson from our liturgical brethren, and give up something specific in your home, or in your life as you prepare yourself.  As I challenge you to prepare your heart, be encouraged.  As we press in to a closer relationship with God, He will naturally reveal His own holiness.  We will naturally be made aware that we are unholy.  As He speaks, if we are listening, He’ll reveal new areas of sin we didn’t even know were there.  As we repent of these, the Holy Spirit is sanctifying us, and we are growing in spiritual maturity.  As He speaks more, if we are listening, we’ll become acutely aware of our sins, and we’ll become acutely aware of what we deserve: death…separation…eternal death…eternal separation…separation from God…hell.

As we allow Him to prepare our hearts, our church will be learning just what, exactly, Jesus did go through as He passed around the cup saying “this is my blood”, as He prayed [for us] in the garden, as He pleaded “let this cup pass from me” with the Father, as He was arrested, as He stood “trial”, as He was beaten and mocked and beaten some more, as He was sentenced, as He was crucified, and as He died.  Again, as I challenge us to prepare our hearts, be encouraged!  Don’t we feel encouraged yet?

Well in reading the past two paragraphs, assuming we have properly pondered the words, we aren’t naturally encouraged.  In fact, we’re probably quite discouraged.  Good.  Now we have come to grips with sin and with death.  Read these paragraphs over and over between now and Resurrection Sunday.  Why?  Because if we are ever going to appreciate the resurrection, we must appreciate what – exactly – He defeated: sin, and death; our sin, and our death!  Are you encouraged yet?  Are you ready to party?  No, you’re not.  I’m not either, but if we take days ahead to sit in these truths (no, not read them in twenty minutes, but ponder them for a half-hour, or a full hour, every day), over the next several weeks, we’ll have stewed in the richness of the mercy of Jesus.  Then, perhaps, we’ll really be ready to party!  Prepare our hearts.  Where’s your Q-tip?

O sing hallelujah! our hope springs eternal o sing hallelujah!
Now, and ever, we confess:
Christ our hope, in life, and death!
--A.J.