Lent begins in earnest
Luke 4. 1st S in Lent
"If you willingly carry the cross, it will carry you." Thomas a Kempis Thoughts on this would say how good , but would we not add that God carries us before we carry Jesus' Cross?....But I get what he is saying. Can we see Lent not in the darkness of the ashes and its mire but in the light in the Candles , the Communion Cup that glows in the morning light & the hope of everlasting life? He does carry us, but we are to carry him too.
Today's Romans reading reminds us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. In Him, we have life. On the other hand, " Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them" Do this and live so to speak, which is impossible as no one can do the law perfectly. In Christ, we hear live and do this. In Christ the law is fulfilled by His righteousness on our behalf received by faith.
This is the gospel of grace and of good news . Lent is not about earning eternal life. It is about working out our own salvation because God works in us . "
Lent awakens spiritual hope in us, just as the sight of the enemy awakes the spirit of an army. They were lagging just now, tired with the march, dispirited; but a sudden signal, one turn in the road, shows them the enemy's lines stretching right across their way. How the men's hearts leap up: who is fagged now? So Lent awakes the energy of hope by showing us our enemy, the reality of the battle of life, of our conflict with evil. We all know that our fifty or seventy years in this world were given to us for a great achievement--to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, to win holiness for eternity; but we easily forget this, and slip out of range.
But Lent rallies us, reminds us of the seriousness of our moral life, of the reality of sin, of bad tendencies of our childhood not conquered yet, of the strength of sins of the flesh, of pride and temper, of love of the world, of cowardice in confessing Christ" FR Congreve , London
Testing comes to us as it did to the Son of God in the desert. Esau in the OT got in trouble with hunger, but Jesus did not. He quotes from Deuteronomy and testing is in there too . Listen, " And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna , which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Deut 8:3... The test here was the devil making Jesus doubt who he was . " If you are the Son of God..." We too as Christians should act on who we are in Him instead of following the ways of the devil. That is the trap to not remember who we are when testing and temptation come our way. We should also remember the comforts of Holy Scripture instead of mtv or whatever news cast is what we follow.
The other tests are fairly brazen...trade the kingdoms of the world for what? For eternal life? The third one in Luke is a test about identity. Prove it the devil says. Do this off the mountain and God will save you because of who you are. This sounds tricky but Jesus is not going for it . He will not give up the cross and salvation of all who will believe in Him because of His sacrifice to satisfy the whim of someone else. How often we get caught here too. Some use Scripture twisting it so that you can do anything you want and still have eternal life, and it does not matter how you live in this life. Not true. It does matter .
I close with what FR Congreve said so aptly about Lent again in some wrap up thoughts about it ," There is no evading the issue; that sin is going to conquer me, and separate me from God for ever, or I am going to conquer it. Lent means nothing if it does not imply in each of us a very definite resolution to deal with our besetting sin. But if that resolution of facing the particular evil that holds us back is made, then Lent will not prove for us a mere mediaeval ceremony gone through. No; in two months time we shall be in the middle of April. Will that be nothing? merely two arbitrary divisions of time passed through? Ah! this world will have come to a new life in that short time; the blossom will be on the pear tree then; every field will be aflush with tender green, every willow bush will have its flower. So the honest effort to repent more deeply, to conquer our chief sin by a good Lent, brings us to our spiritual Easter, a new spring of the soul."
Thomas a Kempis again, " If you willingly carry the Cross, it will carry you."
In God's Holy and Blessed Name, Father, Son and Holy Ghost . Amen.
"If you willingly carry the cross, it will carry you." Thomas a Kempis Thoughts on this would say how good , but would we not add that God carries us before we carry Jesus' Cross?....But I get what he is saying. Can we see Lent not in the darkness of the ashes and its mire but in the light in the Candles , the Communion Cup that glows in the morning light & the hope of everlasting life? He does carry us, but we are to carry him too.
Today's Romans reading reminds us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. In Him, we have life. On the other hand, " Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them" Do this and live so to speak, which is impossible as no one can do the law perfectly. In Christ, we hear live and do this. In Christ the law is fulfilled by His righteousness on our behalf received by faith.
This is the gospel of grace and of good news . Lent is not about earning eternal life. It is about working out our own salvation because God works in us . "
Lent awakens spiritual hope in us, just as the sight of the enemy awakes the spirit of an army. They were lagging just now, tired with the march, dispirited; but a sudden signal, one turn in the road, shows them the enemy's lines stretching right across their way. How the men's hearts leap up: who is fagged now? So Lent awakes the energy of hope by showing us our enemy, the reality of the battle of life, of our conflict with evil. We all know that our fifty or seventy years in this world were given to us for a great achievement--to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, to win holiness for eternity; but we easily forget this, and slip out of range.
But Lent rallies us, reminds us of the seriousness of our moral life, of the reality of sin, of bad tendencies of our childhood not conquered yet, of the strength of sins of the flesh, of pride and temper, of love of the world, of cowardice in confessing Christ" FR Congreve , London
Testing comes to us as it did to the Son of God in the desert. Esau in the OT got in trouble with hunger, but Jesus did not. He quotes from Deuteronomy and testing is in there too . Listen, " And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna , which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Deut 8:3... The test here was the devil making Jesus doubt who he was . " If you are the Son of God..." We too as Christians should act on who we are in Him instead of following the ways of the devil. That is the trap to not remember who we are when testing and temptation come our way. We should also remember the comforts of Holy Scripture instead of mtv or whatever news cast is what we follow.
The other tests are fairly brazen...trade the kingdoms of the world for what? For eternal life? The third one in Luke is a test about identity. Prove it the devil says. Do this off the mountain and God will save you because of who you are. This sounds tricky but Jesus is not going for it . He will not give up the cross and salvation of all who will believe in Him because of His sacrifice to satisfy the whim of someone else. How often we get caught here too. Some use Scripture twisting it so that you can do anything you want and still have eternal life, and it does not matter how you live in this life. Not true. It does matter .
I close with what FR Congreve said so aptly about Lent again in some wrap up thoughts about it ," There is no evading the issue; that sin is going to conquer me, and separate me from God for ever, or I am going to conquer it. Lent means nothing if it does not imply in each of us a very definite resolution to deal with our besetting sin. But if that resolution of facing the particular evil that holds us back is made, then Lent will not prove for us a mere mediaeval ceremony gone through. No; in two months time we shall be in the middle of April. Will that be nothing? merely two arbitrary divisions of time passed through? Ah! this world will have come to a new life in that short time; the blossom will be on the pear tree then; every field will be aflush with tender green, every willow bush will have its flower. So the honest effort to repent more deeply, to conquer our chief sin by a good Lent, brings us to our spiritual Easter, a new spring of the soul."
Thomas a Kempis again, " If you willingly carry the Cross, it will carry you."
In God's Holy and Blessed Name, Father, Son and Holy Ghost . Amen.
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