Easter Traditions

After a wonderful Taize Good Friday service with the area churches last night, we went home to a Taylor tradition, dying eggs. For 24 years we have dyed or painted emptied eggs and kept a few each year. They aren't amazing eggs, but their ours, and reflect the changes of the years. Even our dog, Cooper, got into the act, adding his special touch to one egg. Now the Big Basket holds over 150 eggs, and this year another dozen is added. I suggested this might be the last year, but of course, was voted down.

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A Lenten Examination

My Lenten discipline is not denial, but examination. Denial hasn’t worked before. I might choose something to give up, but it wouldn’t be something crucial. And then, like a New Year’s Resolution, it would dissolve in a couple of weeks. Through pure human defect, I’m just not good at works righteousness.

So this year I choose an intentional routine of something necessary - a daily examination of the day, of self, and of God’s subtle magnificence. A discipline of filing the important stuff, sorting the demanding, and tossing the rest. And I begin with ashes.

I have always been disappointed with the turn-out for Ash Wednesday services, no matter how well attended. Disappointed, but not surprised. Who wants to come to church simply to be told, “You’re going to die”?

And yet, we come and pray, kneel and confess. To old and young alike, each age evoking its own ominous sensation in my chest, I say the words, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Perhaps we come to be told the truth, our truth - a truth so veneered and disguised that now-a-days we experience death only as a fiendish thief, rather than as a stubborn, necessary, companion in the pilgrimage.

Live. Whatever life tosses on the table before you, take it and live it well. Else the greedy companion will take it for his own. Examine the day, keep what needs to be kept, and let him have the rest.

Living Christmas Story

Once again the Trinity congregation has come together to present the Living Christmas Story. It is truly amazing all the different areas that have to be prepared - sets, costumes, casting, animals, meals, traffic and city coordination, advertising, CD production, and who knows what else - and then it all seems to come together on the day the TLC begins.

It wasn't really cold last night until the wind got up, but if we have similar weather for the next couple of nights, that will be just fine. Last night I played Herod, one of the few speaking parts. The scene is the wise men coming before Herod asking where they will find the newborn king. Their backs are to the traffic, but Herod can see when there's a gap in the line. The last half hour of the second shift the traffic was light, so it was a great time to leave the script and stump the wise men by asking things like, "Did your star tell you that Herod is the only king in Judea, and all pretenders will be killed?" or "What gift is that you have brought to King Herod?" Yea, it may be juvenile, but at the end of a cold couple of hours, it was fun.

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Warning Signs of PETS

Many pastors this week are in danger of full-blown PETS - Post-Easter Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Be alert for the most common warning signs:

1. Delusions of glori-us's. Takes many forms, including a mistaken belief that the holiday Christians came to hear your sermon, or that the hightened energy on Easter is a sign of spiritual renewal in the church, or that no one minded the service going a little long with the extra music.
2. Halpewcinations. Imagining more people in the pews than were actually there on Easter day, especially when talking about the service at the pastors' coffee hour.
3. Ifinitus. (pronounced "if-n-i-tus") A persistent itching to tell the church members that every Sunday could be like Easter, if only....
4. Teary-eyed and wheezing. Basically over-exposure to pollen from left-over lilies.
5. Couldarash. Persistent skin-deep welts indicating systemic second-guessing, i.e, wanting to go back and tweak the service and message, to initiate a few more contacts, advertise better, and otherwise improve on a great day.
6. Homiletic fatigue. You gave it your best in your Easter sermon, but now all you can think about is that you have to come up with another one, at least as good or better.
7. Epression. General malaise and apathy resulting from an immersion in the tasks of Easter and missing its meaning.

If two of the indicators are present, the pastor should immediately take an extra day off. Three to four symptoms may require peer intervention. With five or more indicators, do not call 911. Make a reservation with the nearest moving van company.

A Lenten Lament

We speak of preparation as though we intend to go somewhere.
We speak of journey as if we might move from where we are.
We know the language, and look for the signs, though
Not directional ones; only those comforting us with labels.

Cross-shapened ashes, luncheon meditations,
Dark night of rejection, and silent Saturday,
No longer point the way, or open the ways,
But nod in boredom to our customary presence.

Lent is what we do, for now (spirituality de jour);
Extra services to remember, and some denials, though few.
But the movement is hesitant, circular, and forgotten,
And we no more know ourselves, or God, than before.

Snatch from my breast the sequestered breath, and
Force me to rise up, gasping in the rarified air.
Make my movement both craving and delight.
Firm my resolve for hope to swallow my fear.

Take me into the bowels of lent, and release me,
To flounder against the cacophony of cares;
So I may crave your numinous grace
And rush headstrong to the crimson cross.

New Years Leads Ash Wednesday

In a recent poll, Ashy was lagging behind the long time front runner, Newbie, by 7 penance points. It's still too early to predict a winner in this race. Each candidate claims to be the time of a "fresh start," with only their strategies distinguishing them. Newbie claimed a hugh lead with its celebrity parties and worldwide media blitz. However, in the face of Newbie's failure to sustain change, Ashy has been gaining ground. The momentum has stalled recently with Ashy's public insistence on contrition and humilty, causing voter panic among the boomers. In spite of the rhetoric and fluxuations, voter apathy is apparent. Even those engaged in the process seem to looking over their shoulder, hoping for a new candidate with both vision and the ability to affect real change. Could such unrest be the opening for Easter to drafted into nomination?

In other news,
A season of Lent seems out of pace with the rest of life. Full article, A Seasoned Life posted on Checked Luggage blog.

"We need the Church and its non-conformist plodding through the year. We are designed for a Sabbath and for life to have its seasons. Frankly, a lot of people don’t understand this about the Church. For many, Sunday worship is just another thing to do, or “get done.” Time with friends worshipping our God just merges into the same ole’ blur as we move on to other things.

But the Church steadfastly issues Christ’s call: “Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden and weary and I will give you rest.”.” The Church says, “We will take time to sit in God’s presence (without a Game-boy or latte in hand to entertain us) and we will wait on one another for hymns, prayers, and communion.” The Church is governed not by the clock, but by eternity."

Epiphany

T.S. Eliot’s famous poem, The Waste Land, begins with the words, “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire.” He was wrong. January is crueler by far. It mixes hope with reality, a more volatile combination....

The realities of January convict us with our limitations and failures. The hopes of January convict us with what could be. That is a powerful combination, January or anytime, because together they demand we admit our need of a Savior. And suddenly, Bethlehem’s famous son is insufficient as an infant in a manger.

We need the Son of God, who boldly strides through our darkened and doubting hearts with redemption and real transformation in his hands. We need the divine Word-made-flesh to upgrade our earth-bound hopes with visions of the earth receiving its king. Babies are disarmingly cute and welcome us close into the warmth of love. But babies cannot stand in the gap for us, protect us from that which would undo us, direct us in the fray of conflict, or sacrifice on our behalf.

No wonder the ancient Church established the season of Epiphany following Christmastide. Epiphany means to “show forth” and re-tells the gospel stories in which the divine nature of Jesus shines through His humanity. In this Jesus of Nazareth, we see revealed the living God of purity, justice, and grace, who calls us to worship him in spirit and in truth....

Full article posted at my Checked Luggage blog here.