Month: February 2018

Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day have probably coincided before, and it’s not that big of a deal for most people unless someone planned on giving up chocolate for Lent, then it’s a VERY BIG DEAL!           It is quite the juxtaposition, though.  Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romantic love when sweethearts exchange cards and gifts, which may include chocolate and jewelry, perhaps dine out at an expensive restaurant, and do whatever else Hallmark and convention demand.  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, which for many Christians is an observation of six weeks of repentance leading up to Easter.  Ashes are placed on believers’ forehead in the form of a cross recalling Genesis 3:19 – Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  These words were spoken by God to Adam and Eve to remind them of their sinfulness and mortality and, indirectly, of the need for repentance.  The forty-day period of Lent is meant to correspond to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and praying, as well as the forty days Moses spent repenting and fasting after destroying the false idol the Hebrews had constructed.  Usually, a believer will give up something for Lent in an act of self-denial to constantly remind him or her of the need to repent.

Both days are about the celebration of love, but they come at it from entirely different angles.  Valentine’s Day is about romance and lavishing gifts upon one person.  Ash Wednesday is about the ultimate and lonely sacrifice love demanded of one person.   In English we use one word, “love,” with many shades of meanings.  New Testament Greek gives us several words for love, including eros, typically expressed as the love between a man and a woman from which we derive the word “erotic,” and agape, a sacrificial love, an unconditional love that is typically used to describe a parent’s love for a child and, of course, God’s love for us.  Valentine’s Day is about eros; Ash Wednesday is about agape.

The symbols for each day stand in contrast, too.  Valentine’s Day is represented by a stylized heart (a picture of a real heart is just not very romantic), while Ash Wednesday is represented by the rough outline of a cross drawn with ashes.  Both represent love, but again, different kinds of love.  We speak of the heart in various ways including following the heart, heartache, full hearts, weary hearts, and lonely hearts, among others.  We place a lot of importance on the heart in determining relationships and making decisions.  In all of this, think of the heart as our mind and emotions.  But Jeremiah tells us something interesting about the heart: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick’ who can understand it?”  It is important to note that these are the words of the Lord quoted by Jeremiah.  God Himself says our hearts are sick, yet we rely on our hearts to guide us.  In Psalm 10:3 we read: “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.”  In Psalm 14:10, David writes, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  How can we function with such a sinful, self-centered heart?

Fortunately, God gives us the answer for that a bit further into the Psalms:

I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely.  Psalm 16:7-9

It is not explicitly stated in this passage, but God gives us a new heart.  If we listen to His counsel, if we keep the Lord continually before us, our hearts will be glad.  But we must allow God to change our hearts.  David cries for God to create a clean heart in him in his great prayer of repentance in Psalm 51.  In Ezekiel 36:26, God states it explicitly: “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.  I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” In context, this is a promise to the people of Israel in their covenant relationship with God.  However, it holds just as true for God’s people – believers – under the new covenant relationship established at the cross.  In fact, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we are completely new creations.  The old has been done away with and we are new beings in God.

The cross placed on foreheads on Ash Wednesday lasts for the day, but the commitment made leads to the cross and to the empty tomb.  Both are symbolic of the amazing, overwhelming love God has for those who accept His grace.  It is the cross that gives us new hearts and the tomb that assures us of eternity.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m not sure “Happy Ash Wednesday” is a thing, but if it works for you … Whatever the day means for you, don’t forget the One who expressed true love for you by giving His life.

A few days ago, I ran across an online listing for a pastor for a small church in the West.  It contained many of the usual phrases, which are important, but common in this sort of ad: heart for discipleship, servant leader, man of prayer, etc. But then the church got real.  It is located in an area that is definitely not part of the Bible Belt, so the listing read, “This position is not for the faint of heart. It is quite literally a mission field inside of the United States.”  Fair enough, but the church had also apparently experienced problems in the past (I know – completely unique situation).  The ad mentioned the church was in a rebuilding phase and then added, “Our new pastor must be strong in the Lord as well as being a strong leader, not being sacred to make hard decisions. We are looking for a Pastor and his family to come in and be the example of a real life Christian family. With that comes the extreme highs and extreme lows.”  That is not a typo in the blog, although it surely was a typo in the ad.  I’m sure the church wanted a pastor who would not be scared to make hard decisions, but they asked for a man to not be sacred in making hard decisions.

Most people think of something sacred as being holy.  The word is often used to indicate something that can’t be messed with, e.g., a “sacred cow.”  Or we use it to elevate something to a special level simply because it is special to us, e.g., “chocolate is sacred to me.” Quite simply, that means “step away from my chocolate and no one gets hurt!”

At face value, the ad called for someone to not be sacred in making hard decisions, and that’s what I love about it.  To me, that means to get your hands dirty; to lose any holier-than-thou attitude and make the tough calls.  It means not putting yourself above the ugly, fallen world we live in, but figuring out how you’re going to jump in and engage the ugly, fallen people and share the love of Jesus, all the while being ugly and fallen yourself.

None of us is sacred in the sense of being more special than anyone else, but each believer is sacred in the sense that God has saved us by His grace.  We are set apart (the meaning of the word “holy”).  Peter tells us in his first letter, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10) Believers are sacred and set apart in order to proclaim God’s excellencies, so we have sacred work to do.  But we cannot act sacredly (is that even a word?) in carrying out this sacred work.

I also believe each life is sacred, because each of us in made in the image of our Creator.  God gave us life, a wonderful, beautiful gift.  Too often we degrade and abuse this gift because of our choices.  And we cheapen life, even complete discount it, when we accept the acts of abortion and euthanasia, and in the casual taking of life which is all too prevalent in our world (and on our screens).

Believers must make the sacred choices that God would have us make, without approaching the world and the work in a manner that presents us as holier-than-thou.  I guess, in a sense, we are holier-than-thou because we have experienced the saving grace God offers, but that alone should make us humbler-than-thou, because we should realize what great sinners we are and what a great price was paid for our salvation.

So get out there and don’t be sacred … or scared!

As a final note, the ad for the pastor closed this way: “What we need is not a person that is ready to retire, but a Spiritual Leader that is ready to dive in with their whole being, ready to serve and treat this as a duty that God has laid before him. We need a dedicated man who loves people…saved and unsaved. We need a man that is not perfect…even though, if Jesus were available to be our Pastor, we would accept Him!”  So maybe they really do want a sacred decision-maker!