Monday night I had the wonderful privilege of hanging out with some people associated with Humble Walk, a mission start in the West Seventh area of St. Paul, MN. I was their guest theologian and we talked about worship. I had great fun and I hope they did too.
Our conversation moved to discussing how worship should be about the whole human experience, not just one part of it. (The logic here is that Christ was human and experienced the plethora of aspects of human nature, the Bible attests to the wide range of human experience, God is alongside us in our suffering, etc.) I mentioned how wonderful Lent is because it causes us to stop and see that life is painful sometimes and that God knows what that pain is like. Lent is important for us to take a break from our busy-ness and refocus on what is truly important. Well, on Shrove Tuesday, the pastor of Humble Walk posted a link to an article by a former professor of ours that he wrote for the Huffington Post.
The article mentions that Lent is becoming less and less popular as Theology of Glory becomes more and more popular (this is my spin, of course). We, modern Americans, see Lent as less of a time to slow down and focus (Lento is a musical term meaning “slowly”) and more of a downer. We don’t have time to have any emotions other than joy, so let’s just skip this Lent thing anyway, right? But, “Life is pain,” as the Dread Pirate Roberts says to Buttercup in The Princess Bride, “Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Lent is necessary for us, because anything different is a load of horse manure. Our lives are painful—my dog loses control on the living room rug, close friends die in accidents, we stub our toes! Lent is a reminder that God has done it all too. Though I’m not sure Jesus had a pet, Jesus wept for Lazarus, felt temptation, and was tortured and killed for us. He knows what it’s like to suffer, because he is human.
This season is important, because in it we remember that Christ suffers alongside us and in the end of our suffering is a resurrection, a renewal. We are changed because of it. We are better for it.
Lent is no downer.
Lent is the most uplifting season.
Because through it all, Christ has gone before us.
3 comments:
Good point...and pretty thought-provoking too.
It's also much-appreciated to read something that emphasizes that Jesus was fully man as well as being the son of God. We don't often talk about Jesus as a "real" person.
Does anyone ever think about Joseph and Mary potty-training Jesus? Cleaning up bloody scraped knees from playground falls? Not even that elementary/middle school "You're not my friend any more" thing ... and Jesus' experience with his best friend Peter claiming he'd never even met Jesus is even included in the Bible!
Meridith,
You raise a good point about the humanity of Jesus--and your comment about scraped knees reminds me of the line in "Away in a Manger" where we sing "no crying he makes." Why do we try to convince ourselves that Jesus is some sort of super-human, impervious to pain and suffering? A Jesus that doesn't cry is no good to me. And it's also not the Jesus of John 11.35: "Jesus wept."
Mark 11:12-25 now comes to mind as another good "Jesus really was human" Bible passage -- the one where he's hungry, find no figs on the fig tree, and orders it to die, as well as getting mad at the moneychangers / merchants in the temple and kicking them out.
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