“Fear nothing and never be afraid; and don’t fret. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all. There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin that would exceed the love of God?
“Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive; that he loves you with your sin, in your sin. It has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men.
“Now go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. Be reconciled with him in truth. If you are penitent, you love. And if you love, you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love.
If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and expiate not only your own sins but the sins of others.”
- from Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
We are all wired differently. We engage the spiritual life, the life of faith, in different ways. Some of us thrive on solitude, silence, and prayer, while others long for the boisterous clamor of fellowship or the emotive power of rich worship. Some crave the intense, intentional study of the Word, while others are filled with life by emptying themselves for the sake of others in service. Now, ideally we will find ourselves moving into fluidly between each of these spheres, as we see modeled in the life of Jesus, but most of us have a tendency to gravitate naturally to one or another. That is one of the reasons that we need community. We need to be in relationship with those who thrive on different aspects of the spiritual life because it will help all of us be more holistic in our faith; we need others like ourselves to remind us that we are not alone, to encourage us on the journey of faith.
That is one reason that I am so thankful that many in the Churches of Christ are (re)discovering the beauty of the Christian calendar. Growing up I remember listening to people preach about the resurrection at Christmas and about the birth of Christ on Easter Sunday. It was always a little strange to me, out of place, like eating turkey and dressing on the Fourth of July. Even then, at that early age, there was something inside of me, something about my wiring, that needed the natural movement of the Christian calendar to help make sense of the seasons of my spiritual journey. I am neither smart enough nor disciplined enough to live into all of the depth and beauty of the Christian life each and every day. I needed the ebbs and flows of the Christian year as a vital part of my spirituality to help me on my journey. I need the birth of Christ at Christmas after the season of anticipation called Advent, the resurrection on Easter after the season of fasting, repentance, and preparation called Lent.
This week we find ourselves right in the middle of the season many Christians call Lent. While for many of us this may just bring up memories of “fishy Fridays” in our elementary school cafeterias, Lent is much more than that. Lent is a season of personal and corporate reflection and introspection, of repentance and confession. (This is important in a tradition like ours that has often minimized “confession” to be a statement of our belief in Jesus before baptism.) It is a time of restoration, during which we our refocus our vision of Christ as the model for our own lives. It is a time of solidarity, where we seek to refocus our vision for the “least of these.” So, during this time we reflect on God’s work in the world, on Christ’s cruciform (cross-shaped) life and mission, and we reflect on how our own spiritual journey can grow more into a reflection of his life in the world.
From very early in the history of the church, Lent developed as a season of introspection and repentance for those who were studying and preparing for baptism. The early church understood the deep commitment that came with baptism, and they did not want anyone to enter the baptismal waters lightly or haphazardly, so this season of fasting and commitment was vital to those who were counting the cost of taking up their cross and following Jesus. It was also a time when the baptized community looked deep within their own hearts to consider their own lives, their commitment to and their failings in answering the call of Christ. All of this led to the renewal of their baptismal commitments during the celebration of Easter, a recommitting of their lives to the way of Jesus.
That is why this forty day season is so important to me. This is a time of deep reflection and introspection for me. It is a time of confession and repentance. It is a time during which I try to commit myself to dying to sin, to seeking the way of the cross, to hungering and thirsting for God, to living for the sake of others. It is a time of preparation for me, when I set my mind to reconsidering the intense and all encompassing claims of my baptism on my life and prepare to recommit myself again to walking in the way of Jesus.
I guess that is one reason that I love Dostoevsky’s words on the deep wells of the love of God that exceed all of my sin and failings. As I live in “continual repentance” for these forty days of Lent, his words serve as an empowering reminder: “Fear nothing and never be afraid; and don’t fret. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all. There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin that would exceed the love of God? Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive.”
3 comments:
Hey Eric. I liked your thoughts. I'm glad Lent helps you restore your spirit and mind to be focused on God. Lent for me means people returning to idolatry, people giving up meat for a late night beer, people over crowding beaches because they don't have to go to work. It's funny how a good "tradition" can turn people into zombies and forget the very thing the tradition was designed to restore. When you get a chance, come to Mexico, we would love to have you in our home. shawn
Shawn,
I think that is one of the reasons we have to work to get things back to their roots. Good things can and do evolve in the hearts of people. We all struggle with idolatry by nature. Luke Johnson writes that idolatry is an attempt to make that which is finite, that which is created and contingent, into that which is infinite and absolute. He goes on to write, "The essential sign of the idolatrous spirit, therefore, is compulsion, which is simply a clinical term for enslavement. I must maintain this project, for it will collapse if I do not. Yet this is the project I pretend gives me life! Idolatry begins in fear and ends in compulsion."
For me, Lent is a time of year when I am forced to face my idolatry, to address my compulsion and prepare for resurrection. For folks in your world, it may have evolved into its own form of idolatry. When I think of this, I think of Paul's treatment of baptism in the diatribe in Romans 6. Paul was countering the human tendency to allow that which is good to become a source of compulsion and an means to enslavement by Sin. He forcese them to reevaluate the implications of their baptism, through which they were liberated from their enslavement to Sin and Death and freed from their compulsion toward idolatry and sin (see ch. 1:18-3:20) and empowered and freed to live a new slavery, the willfull slavery to the righteousness of God.
I think that one of the biggest challenges of ministers is the take the beauty of Scripture, theology, and tradition, and reinvest them with meaning and power (both in our own lives and in the lives of others), so that God can wake the zombies from the dead. Of course, baptism is about resurrection, and Lent leads to Easter. Both give me hope that God can breathe new life into that which is dead!
God bless in your work in Mexico!
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