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Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Taking a break from the discipline of Lent

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As we enter the back half of the season of Lent we are near to Laetare Sunday or ‘Rejoice Sunday’ which occurs on the 4th Sunday of Lent. It is meant to be a Sunday to celebrate – in the middle of a season of solemnity – as we approach Easter. 

It kind of feels like a lot to unpack. Lent itself is meant to be a time that breaks us off from our usual rhythms and patterns of life.  It is a time to pull back from all the usual things that occupy our attention in order to make room to focus on the promises of God, on our baptismal call to take up the cross and follow. Lenten discipline is about doing things that help us to see God, to see what God is revealing to us in and through Jesus’ journey to the cross. 

But maybe it is a bit weird that after only 3 Sundays of Lent, there would be a Sunday where we pause the solemn and sombre reflection to celebrate. Surely five weeks of Lenten discipline isn’t too much to ask of us, too hard for us to follow.

While sometimes it can feel like the Church has a million rules, especially when it comes to worship and liturgy, the practices and traditions that we follow come from generations of Christians previously forming and shaping them. Maybe all the faithful siblings in faith who came before us understood what human beings are really like. We need shifts in pace, big and small, to help us along the way. Taking a moment to celebrate that we are nearly through our Lenten journey is a way to help us mark the passing of time, to keep us from getting too weighed down by Lent. 

Though it seems like five weeks isn’t that long, we are creatures who need signposts to help us along the way. We are not meant to do the same thing over and over; rather we live according to rhythms and cycles that mark and make meaning of time. Even though we live by patterns of annual and seasonal repetition, we need things to change day to day, week to week in order that we can locate ourselves in time. We need things to change to keep us engaged and present in the here and now. 

At four weeks into Lent, we anticipate the end of our Lenten journey, knowing what is to come in Holy Week. We look with even more hope to what is coming at Easter, and it is this hope that allows us to finish the journey of Lent.

So this week we take a moment to celebrate that the promise of resurrection is just and always around the corner. 

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

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

“Dad, you talk about depressing stuff a lot in your sermons” – Pastor Thoughts

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Sometimes being a pastor and being a dad can intersect in interesting ways. Recently, my son was commenting on my sermons. Surprisingly, he seems to mostly appreciate my preaching, but in our most recent conversation he remarked, “Dad, you talk about depressing stuff a lot in your sermons.”

What followed was a good conversation about what kinds of things are important in sermons, and more generally the ways and places that God meets us and gets involved in our lives.

Over the past few weeks, we have heard stories about Jesus meeting people in a variety of places. Jesus was walking along the seashore and calling fishermen to be his disciples. Jesus met them where they were working. Jesus went preaching in the Synagogue in Capernaum. Jesus met folks where they worshipped and gathered as a community. This week Jesus goes to the home of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and heals her there. Jesus meets people in their homes.

There has been a habit among Christians over recent decades to draw distinct boundaries between the places and times where we talk about God and where we don’t. Hence the idiom, “We don’t talk about religion and politics in polite company.” Religion, God and faith have been portrayed as private matters; churches are often seen as exclusive clubs where only members are privy to the content and conversations.

Yet, as we can see from the biblical witness, Jesus didn’t seem particularly limited about where he went and talked about God.

When we limit the places where we are willing to invite our faith into the conversation, it means that many people might never hear about God unless they enter into the right places at the right times. Similarly, because we are neither practicing nor in the habit of talking about God, it can quickly get uncomfortable when it is time for God to be the conversation topic.

But perhaps most importantly, when we limit the places where faith can be part of conversation and lives, we quickly forget that God has something to do with all of life – the places we work, the places we gather, the places we worship and in our homes. 

And in those places, there has been a lot of struggle lately. Struggle globally, locally, and individually. My response to Oscar’s comment was that my sermons have a lot of depressing things in them because the world has a lot of depressing things going on. But just naming the depressing things isn’t the point. Rather, naming them reminds us of the hope found in God’s love, mercy and grace, opening up a way to meet us in all areas of our lives. Wherever we struggle and suffer, God comes to meet us, bringing the promise of new life. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Finding hope to hold on to – Pastor Thoughts

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Mark is my favourite Gospel. This year we are in the Lectionary year of Mark.

As we begin hearing the stories of Jesus’s teaching and ministry, particularly stories around Jesus calling his first disciples and Jesus beginning to minister in the region of Galilee, I cannot help but think about how our world has rapidly become similar to that of the folks of the first century. 

Around the lifetime of Jesus, the Roman Empire had crept up around Israel, eventually occupying and conquering several areas including Jerusalem. King Herod and the Great and his sons – the Herodian Dynasty – were puppet rulers of the area kowtowing to Rome, exploiting the people and abusing their power. The Sanhedrin, the religious authorities were often more concerned with maintaining their power than fulfilling their duty of assuring that the people had access to God and God’s righteousness. (Oh, we will get deep in these weeds this year!)

All the authorities, systems of power and institutions of Jesus’ day were failing and corrupt, unable to offer much help or protection to people living in Judea and Galilee as they were supposed to. The powers of the day seemed incapable of dealing with the problems that their world was facing.

I think back in our own history to around the time of the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Even with a global financial crisis to deal with, we seemed on track to deal with most of the issues we were facing. Maybe racism would end with a black US president? Climate change didn’t seem that serious. 9/11 was solidly in the rearview mirror, politics didn’t feel that divisive and there were these new things called ‘iPhones’ taking the world by storm.

Fast forward to 2016 and the election of another US president. Then to 2020 and the outbreak of a certain virus. And there have been protests and convoys, inflation and shipping backlogs, and more economic troubles. War in Ukraine, war in Israel and Gaza. And that same guy from 2016 is back again. 

Similarly, the powers, authorities and institutions of our day don’t feel up to the task of dealing with the problems that felt manageable 15 years ago.

In and through all the turmoil, Mark found something to hold on to. The first followers of Jesus found something to keep them going forward. Our forebearers in faith were able to run the race and fight the fight despite everything seeming hopeless.

If there was ever a message that speaks to us today, it is the hope that Mark found in the life and story of Jesus. Even as the troubles of the world seem to overwhelm us, there is something to hold on to, someone who comes and holds on to us.

I am looking forward to hearing that story again and anew with you this year.

Pastor Erik+