Tag Archives: lent

Theology & Culture

The case for Palm Sunday of the Passion – Pastor Thoughts

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We are at the mid-point of the season of Lent. Jesus has come from the wilderness to meet us where we are. Jesus has addressed our fears along with Peter’s fear.

Now the lectionary turns from the Gospel of Mark to the Gospel of John, we hear the story of Jesus clearing or cleansing the temple. This story is one that needs care and attention to address it properly, particularly as it can be taken as license to condemn Jewish religious practice more broadly as if Jesus is condemning all of Second Temple Judaism by clearing out the market vendors. 

This scene takes place in the Gospel of John early on in chapter 2. But in the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) it happens following the triumphal entry… the story that we hear on Palm Sunday of the Passion. 

This week at our clergy gathering, we had some good conversations around Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday or as I call it: Palm Sunday of the Passion. For many, it can feel like a weird day, with two different stories jammed together. Are we talking about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem or are we hearing the passion story? And do we hear the passion story for all those folks who might not make it to Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services and end up going straight from a street party with Palms to celebrating the empty tomb? 

But there are reasons why this seemingly contradictory day actually makes a lot of sense. 

Liturgical reason:
There are four versions of the Passion story but each year on Good Friday we hear the Passion according to John. So on Passion Sunday, we hear the Passion according to Matthew, Mark or Luke or the Synoptic Passions. These are meant to contrast John, to be heard alongside the usual Good Friday Passion. 

Scriptural reason:
In John’s gospel, the clearing of the temple happens 3 Passovers prior to the triumphal entry. But in the Synoptic Gospels, it is the event that comes right after the Triumphal Entry, it is the thing that Jesus was on his way to do as he processed into the city to the crowds shouting Hosanna. After Jesus clears the temple of the money changers and animal sellers, the religious authorities decide to kill him. 

Now, there is a lot more to the story that gives reason to the meaning, purpose and symbols of this event. But what is important is that the triumphal entry story paired with the Synoptic Passion helps us to understand how it is we get from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, and why the crowds that cheered for Jesus have changed their minds by the end of the week.

Without the Synoptic passion, we jump from something that feels like a street party to crowds demanding Jesus’ death and it might not be clear why. 

So as we hear the story of Jesus clearing the temple and prepare to move to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, remember that these stories are connected and help us to understand the Passion of Jesus. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Only half way getting it with Jesus – Pastor Thouhts for Lent

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Our Lenten journey has taken us from the wilderness where God waited for God’s people for 40 days. And when we didn’t go out, God came to find us. 

The next stop of Lent is the hustle and bustle of Greek Caesarea Philippi. A busy tourist stop where Jesus gathers his disciples to teach about what the Messiah must endure. Just before Jesus has asked them who people say that he is and who they say he is. Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah. 

Then moments later Peter seems to forget and scold Jesus for talking about the Messiah dying. 

It seems that Peter only kind of got it, he only halfway saw just who Jesus was. 

Only kind of seeing or only halfway understanding feels normal these days. All the chaos surrounding us feels like struggle and hardship swirling around. We try to make sense of our world, of the division, conflict and struggle that permeates our lives. Picking Jesus out of the storm can feel like a futile endeavour. 

Living our faith can seem like a mystery that we just don’t have the time to unpack or another burden added to our ever-growing list of burdens. How are we supposed to take up our crosses and follow Jesus if, like Peter, we only halfway understand who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing?

I think that is kind of the point. Jesus’ invitation to take up the cross is about accepting that the burdens and struggles are part of walking the path of faithfulness. But also a reminder that in the end, Jesus is the one who carries and then climbs up on the cross. 

Living a life of faith isn’t necessarily about perfectly understanding what God is up to in the world or what God is calling us to. But taking up the cross is practicing faithfulness amid the storms and chaos, understanding that hardship and struggle are part of the journey. 

And that ultimately, Jesus is going to be the one doing the Messiah’s work – the work of faith. We are the ones being worked on. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Filling in Mark’s wilderness gaps – Pastor Thoughts for Lent

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Each Lenten season takes its own shape and form, at least in my experience. Whether it is things going on in the world, things happening locally in the congregation, things happening in our personal lives or simply the fact of getting older, each year Lent has a different slant to it. Who can forget the Lenten season of 2020, during which we learned just how quickly the world and the church can adapt to change?

In addition to things happening in the real world, the variety of Lenten stories we hear in the yearly lectionary cycle also adds character to the season. 

Lent always begins with the story of Jesus facing temptation in the wilderness.  This year, in the year of Mark, we hear the shortest version of Jesus’ temptation. So short in fact, that the baptism story is tacked on before, just to give the text some length. Matthew and Luke provide extended narratives between Jesus and Satan or the Devil, describing three different temptations faced by Jesus. 

But Mark simply tells us that Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days, to be tempted by Satan, with the wild beasts and waited on by angels. 

Mark’s version of the story is brief and to the point… at least on first reading. But when you slow down to hear and consider the picture that Mark paints with an economy of words, our imaginations are left to fill in the vast empty spaces. How did Satan tempt Jesus? Who or what are the wild beasts? What was Jesus doing for 40 days? What does it mean to be waited on by angels?

As we come back to the journey of Lent year after year and take the time to reflect on our own journeys—as a society, as a church community, as families and as individuals—the differences can be striking. Some years we get the struggle described in vivid narrative, as Matthew and Luke tell it. But other years we get Mark—a few details that evoke a lot of questions. 

This year may very well be a year for a Markan Lent. We know that we are in the wilderness and we know that the journey ahead is long. But it is hard to identify who or what the wild beasts are. We don’t know what the tempter is up to. The wilderness is hazy and unclear. We are left to fill in the gaps with our imaginations. 

And somewhere in all of that, God has sent angels to wait on us. We cannot always perceive them, but we know that somehow the mercy and grace of God come to us just the same. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Call the midwife and Why Serve? – Pastor Thoughts

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As we round into the final Sunday and week of Lent, we are coming to our last Soup+Bread study session – “Why Serve?”

We have been asking the “why” questions, beginning with the broad issue of “Why Faith?”. As we have gone along we have narrowed down the topics from Faith, to Christianity, to the Word, to Worship. Along the way we have been building a foundation for understanding why we do this thing called “Church” together. 

Now as we ask the question, “Why Serve?”, we are trying to get at what this foundation means for us in terms of how we ought to live our lives. But to get the answer to that question, you will have to come to the study on Sunday!

However, as a tangent to the question of “Why Serve?”, I will admit that I have often been interested by the monastic life. I cannot say that I would have ever really considered becoming a monk, but the idea of living in a community whose life together is gathered around a singular purpose and governed by ritual, rhythms and patterns has a certain appeal. In some ways I got a parallel taste of that life in my five summers of working at various bible camps. 

For quite a while now, one of my favourite TV shows has been Call the Midwife. It is a British drama set in the 1950s and ‘60s following a group of Anglican nuns and National Health Service (NHS) nurses/midwives serving the fictional community of Poplar in London’s East End. Of all the depictions of Christianity on TV, Call the Midwife has to be one of the best. 

The nuns and nurses live together in Nonnatus House, and from there they serve the community around them. Primarily they serve as midwives during the Baby Boom of the post-war era, helping women to safely give birth to the many children born during this time. Throughout the show, they cover several of the various health crises that marked the time, including the Thalidomide crisis and the Polio epidemic.

Interwoven with stories of their personal lives and those of particular characters in the community, the nuns and nurses live lives of service. The nuns punctuate their busy days of births, pre- and postnatal clinics and general medicine with daily prayer – morning, noon, evening and night. 

Several poignant moments of the show have shown the nuns praying the prayers of Vespers (evening) and Compline (night): “Into your hands I commend my spirit” with moments of Birth, Life and Death that go along with the practice of midwifery and medicine. 

I encourage you to check the show out. But the way Christianity is portrayed is so different from what is usual for Hollywood dramas. There are no Bible-quoting villains, neither are there heroes sitting in a church praying to an unknown God in a moment of desperation. God and the Church aren’t some foil for misguided virtue or judgmentalism. Faith, as a part of life, informs the care that the nuns offer to the community around them. God isn’t some outside force to be appealed to in a moment when all hope is lost; instead, God is a part of every moment of life. When the skills of midwifery and nursing fail to bring a new child into the world safely or to extend the life of someone sick, there are traditional prayers that remind the nuns, the people of Poplar and us that, in Life and in Death, God is there. 

Service, Caring and Empathy are the main themes of the show. And while not all of us can live such lives of service, the show provides a template for what it looks like to be bound by something larger than ourselves that calls us into the world as people of faith. As we ask the question, “Why Serve?”, an important place to begin answering that question is to explore all the “why” questions we have explored already, to know why Faith is important to us and how to take that Faith is the foundation holding our feet to the ground and turn it into a way of life. 

Pastor Erik+

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

All of our “whys?” might be different

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A week into the season of Lent, and I cannot seem to escape reasons to continue thinking about some of the “Why?” questions at the heart of our faith. Of course, I brought it on myself by planning a Lenten study on the theme of “Why?” questions. 

But just a few days ago I was asked my professional opinion about what kind of groups qualified as Christian ministries or churches. For example, could a ministry to gang members that worked to “rehabilitate” former members (and still maintained some connection to gangs) be considered a legitimate ministry? The scenario was a complicated one, which I won’t share here. But the question did bring me back to that core question of Lent, asking “Why Church?”

The answers to this kind of question can vary wildly. In fact, if you were to poll most people sitting in the pews or watching church online these days, you would likely find some vastly different reasons for why folks are present or watching. 

The starting place for the question has to be sorting out these answers for ourselves before we can ask them of others, before we can begin to have conversations about what we ought to be and do together as communities of faith. 

Last week our Lenten study asked the question, “Why faith?” And it took us on a journey to explore why we believe in something or someone rather than believing in nothing. 

As we continue our Lenten study this week, we will be exploring “Why Christianity?” Why does this version of believing in something or someone capture our attention, imagination and faithfulness more than something else? Why don’t we believe in re-incarnation or the power of the human spirit or that Mohammed is the prophet of Allah?

I know that I won’t be able to provide THE answer or, maybe that I won’t be able to necessarily provide the answer that makes sense for you. But it is a question that I have been working on since I was young man imagining what I might be when I grew up and the idea of becoming a pastor kept floating to the top of the list of possibilities. 

So when you come and explore this question at our Soup+Bread Lenten study this week, or you just take some time to ponder this question on your own, I hope that exploring these “Why?” questions are a way for us to journey through Lent together. That, as we seek to understand who and what we are as a community of faith, and why we do what we do, it will help us seek God’s leading for our future. 

Blessings on the journey.