God's Love, My Sins, and Death

This Wednesday, February 14, the world will be celebrating LOVE, and Christians will be observing Ash Wednesday, a day to remind us of our mortality and sinfulness. 

Pink hearts, roses and chocolate, a romantic candlelit dinner - or a somber worship service, the pastor marking your forehead with ashes in the sign of a cross. 

Which would you choose? Tough call!

And what about those who don't have a special someone in their lives, who may not even have family? Valentine's Day rubs it in their faces in a very painful way. 

Ash Wednesday marks the season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter when Christians all around the world try to focus on Jesus' suffering and death. For some, it is a season of fasting. Others try to be more deliberate in their study of the Bible, their prayer life, or their giving to charitable organizations. It is an opportunity to press the reset button on your spiritual life: Do I have time for Jesus every day? Is there room for him in my life?

Lent is a chance to think about those questions and consider how Jesus might become a more important part of your life, everyday. Because that's when we need him the most: in our daily tasks. 

Lent is also a time to remember those who are hungry, who are persecuted, and all victims of physical and emotional abuse. During Lent we face life in its full brutality. We even face death. No denial, no sugarcoating. While this is uncomfortable, it helps us to realize why we really need God: Because every day is not Valentine's Day! Our love for others is often tested, as is their love for us. God's love never fails. God's love is not conditional on our behavior or our qualities. God's love is generous and never ending. 

However you celebrate Ash Valentine Wednesday, may the season of Lent remind you of God's love for you! 

The Power of Jesus

Jesus does amazing things. He heals people, feeds crowds with just a few loaves and fishes, even raises the dead. 

In some ways, he is a superhuman with superpowers. But then he is also very human: He gets overwhelmed, stressed, angry and sad. In those moments, he retreats to a deserted place to pray. Just him and God. He needs that quiet time with God. That's where he finds his superpowers.  

In Mark 1:29-39, Jesus heals a woman who was gravely ill. He takes her by the hand and raises her up and she is well. The next thing she does is serve her family and her guests. 

Typical! Instead of those men taking care of a woman who just recovered from an illness, they let her serve them! She did was what was expected of her. What this encounter shows though is that Jesus uses his power not to make other humans into superhumans. The woman was not suddenly able to perform miracles or do something she had never done before. She was given the strength to do her daily tasks. 

Isn't that where we need Jesus' healing powers the most? In doing our daily tasks, whatever they may be? Sure, we'd love to save the world and find a cure for cancer. But first, we have to feed our family and go to work and take care of our own health. That's where we need Jesus to give us strength, and he does.

Where do we find that strength? Some may find it in coming to worship, singing and praying as a community of faith. Some find it in serving the underserved, or in small group discussions. And some find it in the quiet. I think quiet is much underrated in this day and age. Our brain needs time to process all the information and impressions it takes in during the day. Some of that happens during sleep, but the brain also needs time when it is alert and awake, and yet at rest. You could call it meditation, or prayer. Just sit and breathe and be with Jesus. Give yourself a chance to hear him and feel him. There's a reason why this is an ancient practice in all faith traditions. And it's also scientifically proven to be effective in reducing stress and anxiety. 

It may require some superpowers on your end to find that time each day. But when you make it part of your daily routine, you will discover a calm and a strength you didn't know you had.

That's the power of Jesus! 

Following Jesus

Yesterday, we read the Bible passage about Jesus calling his first disciples (Mark 1:14-20. Read it here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/? search=Mark+1%3A14-20&version=NRSV)

I've read this passage many times but it always strikes me again: These people have only just met Jesus. He has been walking around Galilee, talking about the kingdom of God being near and inviting people to change their lives and believe in the good news. Then he sees a few men fishing and invites them to follow him. And they do. Immediately. No questions asked. They leave their livelihood, their homes and their families behind to follow an itinerant preacher. 

Jesus must have been pretty convincing! The question I ask myself is, what does that mean for us today who call ourselves Christians, followers of Jesus Christ? How far are we willing to follow Jesus and what are we willing to leave behind for him? There are lots of different ways of interpreting what "following Jesus" means. Many of us probably pick and choose what feels right for us and what we can manage. We have lots of reasons why we can't leave our homes and our families behind. But what can we do? What risks can we take in order to follow Jesus? Where is he calling us? 

Lots of questions for you today and no answers. Just an invitation for you to think about this: How far am I willing to follow Jesus? What risks am I willing to take, what am I willing to leave behind? Maybe not material goods so much as habits, behaviors, thought patterns? My personal attempt is not to judge. Jesus was a role model of accepting people for who they are and where they are in life. He corrected some of their behaviors but he never judged a person. It's so easy for our mind to go there, when we disagree with someone or we just don't get them. We judge. We shake our heads, we sneer or laugh. Even though we don't know what they're going through or what experiences may have shaped them. So instead of judging them, we could ask: "Why do you say that? Tell me more about that. What made you decide to do that?"

That's my personal attempt at following Jesus: Accepting people for who they are and where they are in life. This doesn't mean I agree with everything they say or condone everything they do. It just means I respect them as a person and leave the judging up to God. 

What is your attempt at following Jesus? 

Sunshine

Yesterday, we celebrated "Sonshine Sunday," referring to the SON, Jesus, who shines for us. We tried to create a summer feeling to bring some light and warmth in the midst of this cold, dark winter!

The theme was based on Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

I explained how this Psalm was an intricately crafted work of art, a poem of praise about God's word. It celebrates the fact that God's word gives us guidance and wisdom, at any age. 

I also tried to encourage people to read the Bible, to take some time with it. There are passages that we will struggle with, because they seem boring, because we don't understand them, or because we are appalled by their brutality. 

And yet there is beauty and truth to be found in this dear, old book. Some passages we will only understand with background information about their cultural context. Others will jump right out at us and speak to us as if they directly were written for us.

What I enjoyed most was the conversations I had after worship. People had brought their own Bibles and shared their history with me: When they were given to them and by whom, what was written or marked in them. 

Others told me why one particular verse was meaningful to them, or asked for some more information. 

This, I believe, is what God's word is intended for: To inspire conversations between people of faith. To give us something to work with. Something to wrestle with at times, something to learn from, and something to talk about. 

Faith is a complicated matter! At the end of the day, we each need to figure it out for ourselves. But it is good to know that we are not alone. That others are on the same path: trying to get closer to God. Trying to tap into that sun that rises anew for us every morning, that shines for us even when we cannot see it. 

"God is my sunshine, my only sunshine. God makes me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much God loves you and won't take your sunshine away." (Original words by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell, adapted by Valeria Schmidt.)

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It will be 50 years this April that Dr. King was shot. 

Since then, a lot has changed. People of color are free by letter of the law. 

But they are still being held back in many other ways, subtle, and very overt.

Most people I've been speaking to were shocked to learn that Boston is known as one of the most racist cities in the United States. The Globe published a Spotlight series with extensive research on this subject. 

Boston, Massachusetts? One of the most liberal states in the country? Our capital is more racist than cities that have much smaller percentages of people of color?

Sadly, it's true. 

And it's good to know that there is still a lot of work to be done. Just because we're not living in the South, all is still not well here. 

It's also good to know that we can be the ones doing the work! We can have open and honest conversations about what makes us different, and what makes us the same. We can learn from each other and learn about ourselves. 

And, most importantly, in this day and age: We can come together. 

The Boston Children's Chorus gave their MLK Day Concert at Symphony Hall last night. Hundreds of kids from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds were singing together about Dr. King's Dream. It was powerful, moving, and inspiring. 

At the end, a room full of people (around 2,700 of them) stood together and sang: We shall overcome.

Deep in my heart I do believe, we shall overcome some day.