Lenten Reflections: Naked

"...just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too.."

Romans 6:4 

Resurrection

Redemption

Hope

Restoration

Life eternal


Truth stands naked in front of us. There is no need or place for subjective clothing. And yet we often have the conditioned tendency to create emotional coverings to cloak the truth. Mental apparel to shield the world from who we really are. Coverings act as barriers between the divine and humanity. Coverings act as barriers between ourselves and others. A shirt of pride. Pants of arrogance. A dress made of fear. Shoes of selfishness. A suit of individualism. 

Coverings conceal our shame so that the true self is kept from being revealed. 

Within the Kingdom of God we all stand naked. Truth becomes obsolete because we no longer need to seek it's definition. Truth simply is what is: Truth is truth.

Through our Christ nature, truth is simply reality. Coverings fall to the floor and we stand completely unashamed before God and others. Complete unity exists when there is nothing between us. 

Just as Christ stood naked, raised from the depths of the earth, we too will one day stand naked, raised from the death. 

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

Lent reveals to us the coverings that we adorn. As we make our way through the Lenten season, we strive to lose these coverings, one by one. As we approach Easter, we embrace more truth about ourselves and others, so that as the sun rises on Sunday, we will rise with Christ; naked and unashamed. 

God of all truth, we cover ourselves with clothing of our false selves. Coverings that hide our true spiritual nature. Coverings that lie and avoid the truth. As we move closer to Easter Sunday, enable each of us to shed the coverings that hide the true person that we are in you, so that with you we may stand naked and resurrected. Amen     

Lenten Reflections: Accusation

"Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” Matthew 26:48

In the simplest of acts, the first wound of Christ was delivered on his cheek. The cruelest of actions in the form of a kiss. The sting of betrayal was no less painful for him that he knew it eventually come. With a kiss, Christ was accused. An act that usually brings warmth, came with pain. A relationship severed. A heart broken. A world to heal.   

False accusations are the beginning. The birth of pride. Based on half truths and lies, we twist the truth and develop disunity based on a false reality. Even those who are closest to us are not immune from the accusations delivered with a knife in the back. Betrayal at the hand of a friend can be the most painful experience and the most destructive to any relationship. And if that weren't enough, we twist the knife until the pain reaches the pinnacle. 

We're good at inflicting pain on each other, aren't we?  But we won't admit it, because in the end, we make better liars. 

"I love you!....But I'll lie in a heartbeat to defend and protect myself. I'll shove this knife into your back quicker than you can say, "I love you too!", and I'll twist is again and again and again and again and again....."   

"You feel it? Good!  I win. You loose. I'm protected. I'm sheltered. No one can come inside, and if you do, you'll get a knife in the back as well! By the way, I love you."


How often do we mask our own selfish, senseless cruelty to others, with "love" based on lies and deceptions? How many relationships die at the hands of pride? How much loss? 

I love you.

I will lie.
  
I will endure.

We live false lives and the falsehood accuses the truth. We accuse. We lie. We stab. We kill.

We sharpen the knife, in the name of love.

God, when we lie to each other and accuse each other falsely, we not only hurt each other, we break your heart as well. When we feel the need to protect ourselves with lies, we simply reveal that we don't trust you. As we make our way through Lent, reflecting on the messes we make in this world, help us to trust in you and only in you, the Christ nature within us all. Let the kisses we give to others not be followed by knifes in the back, but with a dagger of love. Amen

      

Lenten Reflections: Pilate

"Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” - John 18:37 

We offer cheap and ineffective defenses when we are threatened. Like scared little children, we defend our tiny little kingdoms and preserve what little control we have. The irony is that we are usually not threatened at all. The external factors that we consider threats, usually have nothing to do with us. The truth is, most of the world that revolves outside of our fortified cities doesn't really care about us and what we've built for ourselves. That's just reality. 
 
We are arrogant creatures at heart.

We defend what we don't have.

We protect what doesn't need protecting. 

What we defend is really not threatened.

Christ was no threat to Pilate, yet he chose to defend what needed no defense. Fueled by lies, deception and half truths, he chose to believe the propaganda that his kingdom might be destined for destruction. 

Pilate stockpiled pride.

He horded arrogance.

He was prepared for the future. 

In many ways, we're no different from Pilate. We believe the false threats and choose to put our faith in ourselves. We look our for #1. But what we fail to realize, is that while we build trust in ourselves, we diminish trust in our Christ nature. Our true selves. Because.....

"I've got this, God. You just keep the world spinning and me and my little world will be just fine!"    

The world says THREAT. We defend.

The world says FEAR. We react.

The world says PREPARE. We stockpile and hoard. 

The world reveals the ENEMY. We shout CRUCIFY!  CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY! 

And wash our hands of the enemies blood. 

God, with our faith and trust rooted in you, we know that we have nothing to fear. No threat to our kingdoms. No reason to defend. No reason to protect. Help us to break down the cheap defenses that have been constructed. Yes, the world is a fearful place, God. It's easy to yield to the pressure. It's easy to believe the lies. Help us to be attune to you truth and only and truth; the divine living within us all, as we make our way through this journey of faith. Amen   

Lenten Reflections: Pride

"For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, PRIDE, and foolishness."
Mark 7:21-22

Look within. See our ashen hearts. What lies just below the surface? Allow me to introduce you to my favorite sin.

Pride creeps forward, ever hidden from the conscious mind, ashamed of what it demands. Pride spits forth every evil intention, not the least of which it's very own nature. The Green Monster lurks within, devouring the "selves" of others, in order to feed the "self". 

Ravenous. 

From which all other sins are conceived, Pride gives birth to sin. Sin's origin fights for first place. And when Pride crosses the finish line, it accepts the medal, while the entire family of sin is waiting to celebrate it's victory. 

"There's Lust, waiting with a smile!"

"Oh look!", Pride thinks to itself, "Greed is here too, pushing himself to the front of the crowd!"

"Murder's here as well! But where is Sexual Immorality? Oh yeah!  Hiding behind that tree, as usual!"

"Victory is mine!"      

Pride puts "ME" above "EVERYONE ELSE". Me first. You last. I win. You loose. I'm great. You suck.

Pride climbs the ladder of success, makes as much money as it can, in order to buy more than anyone else. Pride hordes what it produces and justifies it as "The American Dream". 

Pride sends us across the globe, to "minister" to the poor, while we kick them out of our communities at home. Then pride calls us "Missionaries". Makes us feel better, doesn't it?

"Not in my backyard!", Pride screams out. "But downtown? That's fine. I'll drive down there Saturday night and help, before the sun goes down."  

Pride hurts. Not just the others that it devours, but our own hearts as well. Because Pride reveals what we hate to see.

"You know, you think that ol' pride's gonna choke you going down, but I tell you what.. Ain't a night goes by I don't thank the boss up there for giving me a big enough throat.... Think about it Bud, pride's one of those seven deadlies, you know what I mean?" - Uncle Bob

Pride made Bud flip off Sissy from his Ford Pickup. 

"Even those tears; I. Me. Mine. I Me Mine. I. Me. Mine." - George Harrison

Don't try and console me! I'll suffer alone!

"They cannot take your PRIDE." - Bono

Oh, how I wish they would.  

God, we look around and see that pride is strangling our world, killing our families, destroying our society. Starve our ravenous pride so that we may hunger instead for truth love, unity, community, selflessness and our spirits. Starve us for humility. Amen     

Lenten Reflections: Here

 "And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:20

"I'll be with you. I'll be HERE." 

Promises.

"I'll be right HERE."

"I promise to never leave you."

"I promise to stay HERE until it's over."

"I promise to get you through this."

"I promise to be HERE when you get back." 

"I'm HERE."
HERE
 
We make a lot of promises in our lives. We keep some and others we break. We promise to be HERE.

I Promise.

Promising to be HERE for one another is one of the most difficult of all promises, because the ego often gets in the way. We begin with the best of intentions, but life, and the false self, have the tendency to pull us in different directions; away from HERE. 

Selfishness takes control and before we know it, we're not HERE any longer. We end up THERE; alone, isolated and consumed by guilt for leaving the one to whom the promise was made. Even if we physically stay connected, we can leave emotionally or spiritually. We're here, but not HERE. 

The promise that Jesus made in Matthew 28:20 is the only promise to be HERE that has ever been kept.

He's HERE.  

The Christ nature dwelling within us all.  

There is a duality of Lent. Through our journey, we rest in knowing that God is HERE. He has been, he is and he will be. But we lament that we are not always HERE for one another. As we face the isolation of a global pandemic, being HERE for one another has become that much more difficult and complex. But perhaps this illuminates the truths of Lent with even more clarity. While Christ no longer dwells the earth in physical form, he still remains HERE. Within the spiritual realms. Within each one of us. Does that not reveal a much deeper dimension of being HERE?

In this time of isolation and solitude, let us be reminded that being HERE does not always manifest itself in the physical, but the spiritual. In fact, as with the presence of Christ, our spiritual connections can be much deeper. We're on this journey together; physically, emotionally and spiritually. However we connect with one another, let us commit to be HERE for one another.

I'll do my best. You'll do yours. 

But let's face it: You'll leave from time to time, and I will as well. 

Occasionally you won't be HERE. 

From time to time, I won't be HERE.  I'll leave. I'll let you down.

I promise.

Lord, we do our best to be HERE for one another, but selfishness often gets in the way. Life gets in the way. Help us to be as committed to one another as You have been to us. Amen