Josh Broward
February 22, 2009
Deuteronomy 8:1-18
1 Peter 5:5-11
Mark 1:21-39
The season of Lent is 40 days. 40 days of praying and fasting. 40 days of remembering and repenting. 40 days to repair and to refocus.
40 is an important number in the Bible.
In Genesis 7, after God told Noah to build an ark, he sent rains for 40 days and 40 nights. I don't really get the flood and why God did it, but I understand this. The world was going all wrong, and God used this “retreat” to purify humanity and to make a fresh start in the world.
In Exodus, two times God called Moses up to the mountain top for a 40 day spiritual retreat (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28). When Moses left the mountain, he had the 10 commandments and the covenant from God.
After being set free from Egypt, God called the people of Israel to wander in the desert for 40 years. He “humbled” them and “tested” them in the wilderness before he led them to the Promised Land. God brought them out of Egypt, but it took 40 years for him to get Egypt out of them.
When Elijah was running in fear for his life, God gave him food from angels, and Elijah ran for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Mount Sinai for a retreat with God. There, he heard the voice of God in “a gentle whisper” reminding him that he was not alone and sending him back into the world again (1 Kings 19).
The Holy Spirit sent Jesus on a 40 day spiritual retreat in the desert before he began his ministry. For 40 days and 40 nights, he fasted and prayed and faced his own greatest temptations (Matthew 4).
After Jesus resurrection, the Jesus conducted a special retreat for them for 40 days. Throughout these 40 days, Jesus appeared to them, proved himself to them, and taught them about the Kingdom of God. After 40 days, the Holy Spirit came in power at Pentecost (Acts 1-2).
What do all of these stories have in common? For 40 days or 40 years, God's people stepped away from normal life to focus on God. God used that time to teach them, to strengthen them, to purify them, and to prepare them for their role in his mission in the world.
Lent continues this tradition. 40 days. 40 days to step back from the merry-go-round, roller coaster of life. 40 days to slow down. 40 days to fast. 40 days to pray. 40 days to remember and to repent. 40 days to repair and to refocus. 40 days.
Observing Lent is one of the oldest traditions in the Christian church. Easter Sunday quickly became the most popular day for baptisms, and the days before Easter were a natural time to pray, to fast, to repent, and to learn about Jesus. Later, Easter became the time when people who had really messed up and sinned big time were officially welcomed back into the church. Lent was the time for them to practice their repentance. Finally, the whole church began to enter the process of repenting, praying, and fasting. Really, we are all sinful.
We all need to repent. We all need to repair our relationships with God and to refocus on really following Jesus.
Lent also has another focus. With Lent, we follow Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and to the cross. In Luke 9, Jesus understood that his time was coming quickly, so “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (9:51). Jesus knew his death was coming. He knew the cross was coming. He warned his disciples. They couldn't see it, but he could. He willingly went to Jerusalem to die.
In Lent, we journey with Jesus on that journey of death. We prepare ourselves to die with Christ, so that we may also be raised with Christ. Slowly and step by step, we lay down our lives. We lay down and give up all of the things of this world that we've been holding on to. We die to our stuff, and die to our sin, and die to ourselves, and die to our hungers. Before we can be raised up, we have to die. Lent is that journey of dying.
Lent is also a time when we remember that we will all die physically. At our Ash Wednesday service this week (8pm right here!), we will put the ashes on our heads, and we'll hear the words “You are dust, and you will return to dust.” We are mortal. All of us are mortal. All of us will die. These bodies will not last forever. Suddenly or slowly, early or late, ready or not, we will all die. Lent reminds us that life is short. Lent calls us to make corrections and repairs to our lives while we still have time. Lent reminds us to live well before we die.
This week I went to visit SoYoung several times. On Thursday, I asked her if there was anything she would like to send a message to the church. She gave that great big SoYoung smile, and she started talking while I typed. This is what she said:
Hello, my true church members. This is SoYoung. Nowadays, my condition is very nice because many painkillers help me. Before this experience, I was a shallow Christian. But nowadays, through God, my faith is stronger, and I am closer to God. So nowadays, I can feel Jesus’ love.
Life is not long, so focus your attention on God and living with a good attitude. God always loves you.
I want to join the worship service with my friends by playing violin and piano, but now I can’t. That is also God’s will. Sometimes, God just keeps silent – no answer. But we must know that silence is also an answer. So don't be disappointed; God has already made a plan for us.
Don’t be afraid. God made us to be strong. Sometimes, we forget we are Christians. That is not good. I don’t want to be guilty of this ever again. My true friends, don’t forget that you are Christians.
Now I don’t blame God. I don’t need to do that. God already decided my destiny, so I am staying in peace.
My lovely friends, don’t worry about me. Instead, pray a lot please. That is a good way to help me. I love you.
Throughout this season of Lent, the focus of our worship services will be on prayer. Before and after each service, the lights will be dim, and the room will be quiet for 20 minutes to give people time to pray. Instead of walking around to greet each other at the beginning of the worship services, we will sit in our seats and pray. The pulpit will be on the side of the stage because our focus will be on prayer not on the sermons. After the sermon, we will have extra time for prayer and extra ways to pray. We will celebrate the Lord's Supper every week, and we will also have prayer stations for you to experiment with different types of prayer. You will be able to kneel in front of the cross and pray. You can have someone pray for you. You can write a prayer request. You can light a candle as a sign of your prayers for someone else. You can simply stay in your seats and pray. But the focus of our service will be prayer. In fact, the focus of the whole season of Lent for us will be prayer. We hope that these prayers on Sunday morning will help us all pray more on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Each week we will hear a short sermon based on a psalm and a different type of prayer. We will talk about prayers of trust during hard times, prayers of suffering, prayers connecting us with God, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of silence, and prayers for guidance. And every week, we will practice those types of prayers together.
Part of Lent is also fasting. Ironically, fasting is really about slowing. (Crazy English!) The point of fasting is really slowing down our ordinary life so that we have more space for God and others. The first Christians fasted for two reasons: to be closer to God and to give more to others.
Fasting is giving something up. Traditionally, people give up food. They skip a meal, or they don't eat meat, or something like that. Then, when they are fasting, they focus their energy on God. Instead of spending that time feeding ourselves with food, we spend that time praying and connecting with God the Source of all Life.
But early Christians, also fasted for very practical reasons. If someone in their community did not have enough money for food, they shared their food. But if they didn't have enough food to share, then everyone fasted until everyone could eat together. Fasting is a basic practice of justice. We give up what we don't really need so that others can get what they absolutely need.
In our church, we have a tradition of fasting two types of things. We fast something that costs money (like food or coffee) and something that costs time (like TV or internet surfing). Then, we redirect that money and time toward God and toward others. We spend the time in prayer, and we give the money to the poor.
This year, we have two really cool projects for our Lenten fasts. Our money that we save by fasting will be split two ways: locally and internationally. Locally, we'll help New Hope Single Moms Home. We'll encourage these moms by giving each of these single moms a small shopping spree for clothes. Internationally, we'll help support Don's House a Nazarene home for homeless boys in Vietnam. Our support will help pay for their food, clothing, and education. By giving up something small, we will be able to give strength and encouragement to others.
Really, Lent is a season to help us follow Jesus. We stop. We slow down. We look again. We repent for where we are wrong. We repair what we can make right. We refocus our attention on God. We remember that life is short, and we refuel to live well. Lent is really about going back to the basics of following Jesus.
In 137 AD, a guy named Aristides gave the Roman Emperor a report on Christians. Aristides was not a Christian himself, but listen to how he describes Christians.
It is the Christians, O Emperor, who seem to have sought and found the truth for they acknowledge God. They don’t keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them, but they show love to their neighbors. They don’t do to another what they would not want done to themselves. They speak gently to those who oppress them. In this way, they make their enemies their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one among them who has nothing. If they see a homeless stranger they bring them in under their own roof. They rejoice over that brother or sister as if they were a real sister or brother. For they do not call one another sisters and brothers because of the flesh, but because of the spirit of their God. If anyone among them is poor, while they themselves have little to spare then the whole community will fast for two or three days until everyone can eat together. In this way they can supply any poor person with what they need. This, oh emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians. This is the way they have come to live.
Lent is about learning to live this way again. To learn this way again, we slow down and fast. We listen, and we pray. We humble ourselves before God, and we ask him to remake us. This is Lent.
“A Solitary Place” Video
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