Sermons

“WHAT’S LENT?”
A SERMON BY PASTOR DAVE RING DELIVERED AT LOS ALAMOS FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25, 2007 (THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT)

GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: Matthew 16:21-25 -- 21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" 23Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

PRAYER: (Please join your hearts with mine for a moment of prayer at this time.) "Lord, we seek today to apprehend a difficult teaching from your Word. Grant us an extra measure of Your grace, that we may better receive whatever You wish for us today. Amen."

MESSAGE: Many of you are aware, through probably not in great detail, that the Christian church observes an annual cycle of "seasons." Our secular calendar is based upon events, times, and occurrences in the everyday, natural world. The Christian calendar finds its roots in events, times, and occurrences in the life of Jesus Christ. The idea of a "Christian year" is not found in the Bible as such, but is an obvious extrapolation there from that is in no way contrary to Biblical teachings.

The Christian year begins, usually late in November, with the season of Advent. Advent is a period of preparation -- spiritual preparation for the great celebration of Christ's coming into our world -- the earthly birth of Jesus at what we call Christmas. The Christian year continues on a high note beyond Christmas day into a short period of further celebration called Christmastide, and onward into a longer time of uplifted spirit called Epiphany. Epiphany commemorates the manifestations of God upon earth by Christ, through his years of teaching, healing, and the working of miracles.

Sometime between early February and early March of each year, the Christian calendar enters a different sort of season. For a period of 40 days prior to the commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, the focus of the Christian faith is a much more sober one. In the Church, in place of the bright greens, reds, and whites displayed in other seasons, dark purple and even black are the dominant colorings. This period of time is called Lent.

Lent, like Advent, is a time of preparation. 40 days is a Biblical span of time that is often employed in scripture, usually to denote preparation--for important things to come. For example, Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness prior to beginning his public ministry. During the 40 day period called Lent, Christians are encouraged to concentrate upon spiritual preparation for the coming great events at the end of Jesus' earthly life among us --His rejection, trial, suffering, crucifixion, death, and, ultimately, His Resurrection from death unto life eternal. Since, with the exception of the last of them, these events are troubling and negative in nature, the mood of Lent is generally introspective --quiet, somber, even brooding. The themes of Lent are "heavy" subjects -- repentance, self-examination, getting one's spiritual house in order in case we, like Jesus, should be called upon to endure trial and suffering because of our faith in Him.

In the modern day, Lent is not a very popular season of the Christian year among churchgoers of any persuasion. Protestants -- and many modern Catholics -- scoff at the tradition of older Catholics regarding "giving up" something for Lent as being silly and unfounded in Scripture. Here at Los Alamos First United Methodist Church, about the only specific attention we pay to Lent is a brief and somewhat perfunctory observance of Ash Wednesday, which was attended by a fraction of our congregation this past week.

Why must there be such a thing as "Lent" in the Christian faith? Why can't we talk all year long about roses and ringing bells and Resurrections -- about happy times and abundant life?

The answer should be obvious. Our faith is based, first and foremost, upon the life and teachings of the one whose name we bear -- Jesus the Christ. And the life of Jesus was most certainly not always filled with sweetness and success. Jesus was almost constantly, if we believe what the Gospels record for us, one who faced pressure, stress, and problems. In Biblical language, the term used is "trials and temptations." Whatever we call them, Jesus certainly had his share of tough times. Particularly as His earthly life drew toward its end, the stresses and the trials grew even tougher. The last 40-plus days of His life were overburdened with pain, sorrow, and mounting opposition.

If we are to be honest, in the Christian church, in passing on the totality of the faith founded upon Jesus, then there really has to be a Lent. The word "Lent" carries unfortunate prejudice for some -- so call it what you will. Name it "Spring Cleaning Season for the Soul" if that is more acceptable to you. The Season of Lent will probably never be a popular time among Christians -- and I fully understand why. Certainly, I'd sooner speak to you about love, joy and peace -- about faith, hope, and charity -- rather than trials, temptations, stresses, and sufferings. It's only natural -- and human -- for Christians to want to emphasize the positive aspects of our faith -- and to major upon our times of celebration, like Pentecost, and Christmas, and Easter.

Yes, it's natural -- and human -- to want to avoid the negative. But it's not fully Christian. Just as our Lord Jesus endured His season of tough times on earth, we who follow Him must prepare ourselves, lest when trials and tests come our way, we fall away from following after Him.

It's interesting -- and maybe just slightly encouraging -- to read the Gospels' accounts of the original 12 disciples' reactions to Lenten-type themes and ideas. The 12 were quite content to trek the countryside with Jesus -- to listen at His feet to great sermons, parables, and wise sayings. They were excited to witness miraculous cures happen before their very eyes. They even saw, on more than one occasion, a man rise from the dead at Jesus' command. It was all so wonderful -- truly, as Peter said on behalf of them all, this was obviously the Son of God.

But then Jesus began to uncover the "flies in the ointment." There was going to be opposition. There would be suffering. Eventually, there would even be murder -- and all because of Him! "...Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed..." And the disciples, once again with Peter as their spokesman, said, "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you." It can't be! Don't even talk about such negative things. We don't want to hear it! God forbid! Tell us another interesting story, Jesus. Let's go hold some more children on our laps, Lord. How about curing some blind people? Explain to us more about the Kingdom of God -- will it really have golden streets and will we get to wear beautiful white robes? But don't -- don't shake us up with that negative thinking. That's not what we're here for!

And now, to return again to directly quoting our Scripture lesson, "Jesus turned and said to Peter, `Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'" If you'll pause long enough to think about it, that's a very interesting response from Jesus. Apparently, the "things of God" include struggling with negatives -- such as Jesus knew he was about to face. The "things of men," on the other hand, are attempts to avoid dealing with trial and temptation, suffering and sacrifice.

I mentioned earlier that there was perhaps a note of encouragement to be found even in this difficult passage of Scripture -- and it's this: You and I are very little different from the original 12 disciples who gathered about Jesus. They were neither worse, nor better – spiritually -- than we are. They didn't want to contemplate the negative side of following after Jesus --and neither do we. But Jesus forced them to come to terms with the negative -- by directly confronting them with its reality. The Church continues this kind of honesty about following Jesus -- by having the season of Lent -- an annual time when harsh realities are not to be avoided.

And then Jesus took his Lenten-style thinking one step further. It was bad enough to suggest that He would have to suffer opposition, hard times, maybe even pain and death. Even so, well...He was special -- the Son of God -- He could handle it! But then the conversation went from just plain tough preaching to inexcusable meddling! He drew them into it all, too! "Then Jesus said to His disciples, `If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.'"

Oh! Oh! This was serious. There wasn't going to be trial and suffering -- and hard times -- and maybe even a wrongful death--just for Jesus alone. No -- Jesus was saying that anyone who wants to follow after Me had better get used to the idea of self-sacrifice. There wasn't going to be a Lenten season just for Jesus. Instead, there would be a Lent in every Christian life. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

Each year, for 40 days prior to the joyous celebration of Christ's Resurrection from the dead which we call Easter, the Christian Church focuses upon a far different reality. We center our thinking upon an earthly Jesus -- a man all-too-human, just as we are. Stressed and strained -- tried and tempted -- just as we are. Wrestling with problems, failures, enemies, fickle friends, bodily pain -- lots of negatives, just what we have to deal with. And this very human Jesus impels us to carefully examine ourselves -- to look thoroughly at our lives -- and to prepare, in faith -- for the worst -- or the best -- that comes our way.

It's taken me a whole sermon to say it, but Jesus summarized this message in just one sentence. The reason for and the meaning of the entire Christian season of Lent is this: If anyone would come after Jesus, he must deny himself, take up His cross, and follow Jesus.