Enjoin!

Deuteronomy 26:6-11; Luke 4:1-13

February 14, 2016

So, what is this season of Lent all about, anyway? Commonly understood – and by common understanding I pretty much mean ‘this is what Wikipedia says about it’ – Lent “is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers a period of approximately six weeks before Easter Sunday. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.”

Wow! That sure sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Seriously, though, it is true that there to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. So, in the life of each individual and every community there are times for repentance and atonement. These are fundamental to a healthy spiritual life. But they are not the only fundamentals, and, more to the point, they do not feel right to me in this particular season.

They don’t feel right to me because these traditional disciplines of Lent – at least insofar as we have learned them over the years – are practices that turn us inward. I believe, in this particular moment, we are called to turn ourselves outward.

In fact, we can see this in the story of the temptation of Jesus. The devil tempts Jesus to turn inward: to feed himself; to take power for himself; to protect himself. Jesus rejects this exclusively inward turn and goes on to invite his disciples to cast their nets broadly, to practice their faith with their faces turned toward the world.

What might be some disciplines of discipleship, practices of the faith that turn us outward?

What are practices of the faith that turn us outward?

It will surprise no one who knows me to hear me say that I find my own answer to that question in Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love with merciful kindness, to walk with humility – which is to say with regard for others and their feelings and convictions. In other words, God asks us to turn outside ourselves. Indeed, Micah insists, God requires this of the faithful.

Happily, I am utterly convinced – by study and by experience – that this is how we grow. This is how we grow our own faith deeper and stronger, and it is how we grown the community of faith.

We grow by attraction when it can be said of us as it was said of the early church: “see how they love.” As Jesus told his disciples, “this is how they will know you are my followers: that you love one another.”

I’ve invited the community, during these 40 days, to consider what brings you deep joy and to practice that. I’ve noted in several places the difference between mere pleasure and deep joy. Simple pleasures – good chocolate, a nice red wine, mind-candy on TV – are all well and good. But deep joy is different. It’s the difference, for me, between listening to music and creating music, it the difference between reading a fun mystery novel and reading Walter Brueggemann.

For, in reading Brueggemann I am challenged to consider, for example, that

“When we live according to our fears and our hates, our lives become small and defensive, lacking the deep, joyous generosity of God. If you find some part of your life where your daily round has grown thin and controlling and resentful, life with God is much, much larger, shattering our little categories of control, permitting us to say that God’s purposes led us well beyond ourselves to live and to forgive, to create life we would not have imagined” 

When we live into God’s larger purposes we get to participate in something beyond ourselves, and in doing so we live into deep and authentic joy. Even when the way is rough and rocky, others will be drawn to it.

That’s why our Lenten sharing this season is about the ways that some of us have found deep joy in the ministry of membership in the community of faith. Membership in the body of Christ – as spelled out in the Book of Order – invites us  to live fully into the meaning of that ministry by proclaiming the good news in word and deed, taking part in the common life and worship of a congregation, lifting one another up in prayer, mutual concern, and active support, studying Scripture and the issues of Christian faith and life, supporting the ministry of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents, demonstrating a new quality of life within and through the church, responding to God’s activity in the world through service to others, living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life, working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment, participating in the governing responsibilities of the church, and reviewing and evaluating regularly the integrity of one’s membership, and considering ways in which one’s participation in the worship and service of the church may be increased and made more meaningful.

Through such practices, we offer praise to God and we find deep joy in our common life. We enjoy God forever, and we are joined by others who seek after such enjoyment.

Together, then, like the children of Israel, we shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord our God has given to us and to this house. May it be so.