No Expiration Date

Digging through the pantry you discover a jar full of a special treat your best friend gave you. It was a special gift. Something you would never buy for yourself. And so you had put it away with the idea of saving it for a special occasion—maybe one when you could share it with the friend who gave it to you.

Now you wonder how long has this jar been hiding behind the pickles and jelly and olives and mustard. You twist it around in your hand looking for that subtle marking that says: “Best if used by . . . .”

You may not pay much attention to the expiration date of the food you purchase as you shop for groceries week after week. You know the stock never stays on the shelf for long. There have been too many times when you asked someone to go check in the back for what you wanted.

Still there are some sections of the store where you reach past the items on the front of the shelf to see if there is a loaf of bread or a carton of milk that is a few days fresher. And even though the vegetables in the bulk bins are not marked with an official end date, you sort through the produce until you are satisfied that you have found the freshest specimens available.

It is all just one more reminder of what seems to be the inescapable inevitability of decay. Food goes bad. Clothes wear out. Appliances break. Organs shut down. Death wins.

Those who celebrate the resurrection of Christ know that death is not the end. We gather as a community of faith to give thanks for a new reality:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials” (1 Peter 1:3-6).

Imperishable. Undefiled. Unfading. No expiration date on those who believe in him. “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:55). 

Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed!

Listen to the Shouting

March Madness. Even if you haven’t watched a single college basketball game this year, even if you aren't planning to watch a single game of this year’s tournament; if you turn on the television or listen to the radio or glance at the posters on your way into the restaurant, you have noticed something is happening in sports arenas across the country.

If you tune in to watch one of these games, there is one thing you can be sure of: when the buzzer sounds to end the game you will witness one of the more enthusiastic victory celebrations you will see anywhere.

All the players know this is a single-elimination tournament. If they lose, they go home. Their season is over. All they can do now is watch from the sidelines and dream about next year.

If they win, they have the opportunity to play again. They meet another opponent. Their hope of a national championship stays alive. The possibilities are thrilling—especially as they play before bigger and bigger crowds and the attention grows more and more intense.

Sweet Sixteen. Elite Eight. Final Four. National Champions. It is hard not to get caught up in the excitement. Even if you’re not a fan—of the sport or the team—if you watch the last few minutes of any of the games, don’t be surprised if you find your heart rate accelerates and you’re tempted to join in the cheering.

We love winners. We always have. As Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a colt, the people who had followed him remembered many of the things they had seen Jesus do: heal the sick, feed the hungry, teach the crowds, challenge the authorities, welcome the children, raise the dead. This was their opportunity to praise God for all the deeds of power they had seen. This was their chance to cheer for their champion. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Some wanted the shouting to end there; instead, the shouting changed over the next few days—from praise to scorn, from cheering to jeering, from acclamation to condemnation. Still Jesus kept “advancing” from one loss to the next—betrayal, arrest, trial, scourging, crucifixion, death, burial.

It is a very different path to victory from the one played out on basketball courts around the country. As we move through these days as a community of faith, let us remember that it is the one who emptied himself, humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross, who was highly exalted by God and given a name above every other name.

Lavish Grace

The way you picture God makes a difference in the kind of person you are becoming. Many of the most strident adversaries of Jesus were those who imagined God was more ready to kick people out than welcome them in. Consequently, they found one opportunity after another to pronounce judgment and to find reasons to exclude people from the community of faith. Throughout the gospels, you find them repeatedly grumbling that Jesus was welcoming sinners and eating with them.

Jesus offers a very different picture of God.  Over and over Jesus portrays God as one who does everything possible to make sure whatever is lost is found. Furthermore, God is the one who rejoices in the finding. God's mercy is not laxness, but love. In other words, God is bent toward mercy, toward lavish grace.

Early Christianity and early Methodism understood that part of becoming “bent toward mercy” was to begin practicing acts of mercy toward others. These acts of mercy were understood to be among the “ordinary means of grace.” Practicing works of mercy opens your heart to the grace and mercy of God, creating pathways for the Spirit to continue and bring to completion the entire bending of your heart and life toward love.

There are so many temptations to become judgmental in our increasingly polarized and self-justifying culture. There are so many who welcome the opportunity to step into the role once occupied by the Pharisees. The challenge during this season of Lent is to remove whatever is keeping you from believing, receiving, and sharing this lavish grace of God.

As a community of faith let us remember that our task is not to judge people for where they are on their journey, but rather to help them identify where they are and offer solid support for them to take the next steps in cooperation with God's sanctifying grace.

As this picture of a loving God becomes more real for us, may the lavish grace of God at work in us convert us into people who will go running after the lost, even while they are a long way off—not out of compulsion, but out of the joy of love.

Our Generous God

If you have been to Forsyth Park on a Saturday morning in the last week or two, you may have been surprised to find a score or more of vendors selling the produce from their gardens. February—and even the first few weeks of March—are not the time when you tend to think of bountiful harvests. This wet and rainy season seems much better suited to finding a warm cozy spot inside to pour over the seed catalogs, make lists of crops you want to harvest, and sketch out plans for ways to fit everything in the space you have to garden.

Nevertheless, a stroll down the sidewalk at the south end of the park is a powerful reminder that, even in the middle of winter, the earth is producing a rich and varied harvest. While the palette is mostly green, there is such a diversity of shapes, sizes, and textures that it is nearly impossible to come away unimpressed.

The season of Lent is a time when Christians are encouraged to consider their practice of the traditional spiritual disciplines—prayer, the study of scripture, fasting, and works of service. It is also a time when the faithful are asked to reflect on the habits and inclinations that have led them away from God; and to admit that they need to turn away from those things in order to return to God. Psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually this can feel much like the wet, rainy days we have been living through—especially if you believe that God is holding out on you.

Let me remind you that God loves you. God is not holding out on you. God is ready to bless you and full your life with good things. God is always more ready to forgive than we are to repent. You don’t have to earn God’s approval; you have to accept the grace, mercy and love that God is waiting to give you.

God is more concerned with what you are going without, than with what you are giving up. Consider these words from the prophet Isaiah: “Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food” (55:2).

Here’s the good news for Lent: “Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously” (Isaiah 55:6-7).