In a message entitled, "God So Loved," Wm. Willomon wrote: "Go ahead and admit it (preachers),...Lent is your favorite season of the year. Children love Christmas, missionaries love Epiphany, charismatics get turned on by Pentecost... but for preachers, nothing beats Lent. Go ahead and admit it. You love it. For six weeks," Willomon said, "We preachers are given license to do what we would do all year if we could- breast-beating, belittling, berating. And the beautiful part," he concluded, "is that the people love it too." Well, maybe. I'm not sure because I've always been blinded by God's grace... but maybe people do love "fire and brimstone."
But Lent is not about "hell-fire and brimstone," and it is not about what we've done or how we feel. It's about what God has done, and at it's heart, Lent demands a choice. Will we serve Christ... or the lesser gods of this world? Will we "let go" or will we continue to carry our burdens? The choice is ours, but it's not easy- in part because we're in love with the life we know... and in part, because Jesus asks too much of us. We know, especially if we're religious, that Jesus is carrying a cross... and we don't want to be anywhere near him! The problem is the cross... and in our not believing that it is the gateway to life. It's the cross that holds us back, isn't it? The Apostle Paul put it well 2000 years ago- the cross, he said, is a "stumbling block" to the Jews and "foolishness" to the Greeks. It is foolish to believe in a suffering God. It's foolish to believe that we gain our lives by losing them, and it is foolish to think that we'll be free when we take on His yoke. It doesn't make sense! It's crazy, in fact. Suicidal... and we want no part of it. We may go to church, but we won't carry a cross. We may be a deacon, but we won't give up control.
Kings don't hang from crosses. God's don't get crucified. Everyone knows that... except the very gullible and the foolish. Many years ago, the Dutch priest and theologian, Erasmus, noted that smart and worldly men have little to do with God, and he concluded, "The very young and the very old, and the simpletons... take the greatest delight in holy things, and they are always found nearest the altar." Only women, children, and the simple-minded... would stand along a rode and wave palms as a man rode by on a donkey. Only those who have nothing else to lose would cry out, "Lord, remember me," and only those who have eyes of faith... can see freedom in the cross.
My first spiritual mentor was a strong Catholic living in Omaha, and he helped me take my first steps of faith. "Ken," he said, "No one has ever been too stupid to embrace God, but legions of people.. have been too smart." Many people are too cynical, too clever, too "scientific" to discover that life can only be lived fully "in Christ." They are too complicated to "let go." They just can't do it... and heaven cries for them, It's Lent... and we have the opportunity to be a Christian- as in one who has chosen to follow Christ. Christians are those who have chosen to pick up their crosses and follow him all the way to the end. They are with him when he touches the untouchable... and they are with him when he sets his face to Jerusalem. They are there when he cries, "I thirst," and they will be with him when he dances on his grave.
I'm not a kid anymore, and I've never been a woman. So, I guess that makes me a "simpleton." Maybe so, but I thank God everyday... that I wasn't as smart as I thought I was!
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