The Real Deal

It is widely known that I am the best looking pastor in Midland. 

I’m not bragging.  This is just what people tell me.  I’m sure it is true because they have nothing to gain by telling me this, besides a bigger mansion in Heaven, of course. 

That’s how it works.  You suck up to the pastor you get Heavenly swag.  It says so in the bible.  Near the back.  Promise.

While I enjoy the benefits of being so handsome, and I feel that it enhances my ministry, Jesus did not enjoy such genetic favours.  While the picture of Jesus on the wall outside my office (I didn’t put it there) has a picture of a blonde haired blue eyed Jesus who looks eerily like the father from Family Ties, scripture tells a different story.

We don’t really know what he looked like, but the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah, talking about Jesus, the Messiah to come said this about him, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”[1]

So what did attract people to Jesus?  Certainly hundreds, even thousands, gathered to see what he was all about.  Remember that story about Jesus feeding the 5000?  So ya, he had superstar status.  But why?

My guess it had to do more with who he was then anything else.  His attraction came from within.  He had a peace and a wisdom and a presence that none before had ever seen.[2]  He didn’t have to rely on charisma or good looks.  He was the real deal. 

He still is. 

A

www.knoxmidland.ca

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[1] Isaiah 53:2

[2] Luke 4:32

Sacrifice. Me?

My generation (X) isn’t really big on going
without.  For the most part we don’t know much about it.  Our parents grew up going without, so when they had kids they made darn sure we didn’t.  But there is a problem here – going without is part of a healthy human experience.  We learn a great deal when we go through lean times.  For one thing we learn what is really important.

For a long time now Lent has been a time where followers of Jesus have actually, now get this, chosen to go without something.  Often it is meat, or snacks, or coffee, or internet.  Whatever is given up it is done to remind that person what Jesus gave up for them. 

And Jesus gave up a whole lot.

He gave up his life.

This year I’ve chosen to give up fast-food.  That may not sound like much to many of you, and even I will admit that it isn’t a heroic sacrifice, but every time my stomach rumbles and I crave an Angry Whopper with Poutine on the side, well, I will remember the much, much, much, larger sacrifice God made for me.  After all, Lent isn’t really about what I’m giving up – it is about remembering, and appreciating, what Jesus gave up for me.[1]

A

www.knoxmidland.ca

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[1] Hebrews 10:14  “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

Tangible Reality

Today is the first day of Lent. Around the world today people are lining up before their priest or pastor to have their foreheads smeared with ashes.  They will get up early, take time off work, skip their morning round of golf, or leave after their shift ends to participate in this centuries old ritual.  Followers of Jesus who frequent Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and other places of worship will shuffle awkwardly down the line until they are greeted with the refrain, “Turn away from sin and turn to the Gospel.”[1] They will bow their heads.  Their foreheads will be traced with ash in the shape of a cross.  Then they will leave solemnly for breakfast, work, golf, or the sofa, marked by an ancient symbol of death and hope. 

They are encouraged to leave the symbol there until it wears off of its own accord.

 Ash has been a symbol of mourning since long before the time of Jesus.  A grieved prophet Jeremiah once declared, “O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes.”[2]  Sometime around the eleventh century this ritual was adopted by Jesus’ followers, often with burned palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday branches.[3]  For them it was a symbol of mourning their personal sin and the death of Christ that resulted from that sin. 

Does this millennium-old practice fit in today’s digital age?

In this smartphone world too fast for email and too tech-dependent for print media, how does a thousand-year-old ritual find a place of any relevance?  Yet it does.  Many people today, even those with enflamed texting thumbs, will unplug their iPods for twenty minutes today and do something that seems particularly countercultural.  It defies most pop trends and it doesn’t involve a single tweet, poke, or text.  It is the simple, tactile, and spiritually profound act of mourning achieved through a simple physical experience.

 Perhaps these are two things we need to do more of in the digital age: grieve our brokenness, and experience life tangibly, not just virtually.  Some of us - namely those with dark smudges on their foreheads today - have already begun to figure this out.  

A

www.knoxmidland.ca

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[1] Mark 1:15

[2] Jeremiah 6:26  

[3] http://www.americancatholic.org/newsletters/cu/ac0204.asp