ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

I should post a catchy title. But after years of writing as a Lenten discipline, I know days of slogging lie ahead. So I'm uninspired for a title.

Lent. Ash Wednesday.

  •  Time to prepare our hearts.
  • Time to surrender our ambitions and plans for God's.
  • Time to be captured again by the Story of God-with-us, of God-among-us.
I don't know any person who could dream up a complete, horrific, and satisfying justice like the cross of Jesus. God dying for us? How can it be?

Most religions - including culture-only Christian-eze - focus on doing good to balance out our sins. "Do enough good and God will overlook the bad." That's switching the cart and the horse.
  • Excusing our behavior (letting us into heaven) by using the scale of good-ish and bad-ish living would make God a terrible arbitrator of justice.

What would you think of a judge who, after listening to the case against a liar, murderer, or thief would say, "Well, in general you've done more good things than bad. Why don't we ignore your crimes? After all, no one is perfect. Surely the victim (or his/her mother, siblings, employees, etc.) won't mind if I let you off the hook. You probably tried your best; maybe circumstances/ your upbringing/ your character has made righteous living a strain. I feel badly for you. Try to act better. Ok, you're free to go."

We would suspect corruption. A bribe. Behind-the-bench swindling.

We'd be outraged by the injustice! We'd be tempted to avenge the crime with our own hands.
  • So why do we suppose doing a lot of "good" will make the Judge of Heaven and Earth look the other way? 
If God is perfectly just and righteous, his nature demands perfection of us. He certainly cannot invite us live with him in heaven without removing our imperfections. We'd be consumed by his utter Holiness and Purity.
  • Here is the genius of God: he himself takes our penalty and punishment - death! - to satisfy our debt in his divine judgement hall. 
Then he sets us free to live well. To do good. To live an abundant life that reflects His own nature. (The horse of righteousness pulls the cart of good works.)


My heart skips and my soul sing todays as the ashes of last year's palm cross are daubed on the foreheads of many Christ-followers.

Welcome to Lent, our identification with the suffering and triumph of Christ.

More to think about:
Think how much the Father loves us. 
He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. 
But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is, 
they don’t know who we are.
1 John 3:1 CEV 
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 
No one has ever seen God; 
but if we love one another, 
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 
1 John 4:11-12 NIV

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