Saturday of the Third Week in Lent

“To lend each other a hand when we are falling....Perhaps that’s the only work that matters in the end.” -Frederick Buechner

    The good news for all of you but, especially me, is that I am in Paradise. My house is full of beautiful women -- my wife, my three daughters, and my daughter-in-law. Everyone is here to help my daughter Rebecca shop for maternity clothes and baby items and enjoy each other’s company. Why is it good news for you? --  I am soaking in all kinds of material for my meditations. Although there is not much silence to contemplate in right now. Why is it paradise for me? --I am surrounded by family when I choose, yet no one even misses me when I slip upstairs to watch basketball.

    “Stock price rises on announcement of new layoffs and health benefits being slashed at Company Y.”  “Hottest growth stock — Private prison company.” “ Government cuts again Welfare and Medicaid programs.” “ Government announces Immigration crackdown.”

    Sound familiar? Don’t worry I am not going to engage in a political meditation. I want to just point out the economic and political realities of the times, and the background noise that accompanies our personal melody. No one is called to solve all the world’s problems. Mother Teresa said, “ We can do no great things — only small things with Great Love.” During this Lent we seek God’s presence in our prayers, in our meditations, and in our worship. We will also find God’s presence in the smallest acts of kindness to our fellow humans. We feel his pleasure every time we lend some one “a hand when they are falling.”

    For the background music to change the first area of change must be in ourselves. We must be different.  Gandhi brought Independence to India by making salt ( and a few other acts of civil disobedience). During this Lent, as we change and respond to God’s mercy and grace with humility and love, others around us will respond to our song. It can become a movement, and in the background will be a symphony of a much more beautiful type.

    It all begins with “a helping hand” and heart.

    Webb

4th Friday In Lent

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." -- Robert Kennedy

After starting a small storm of theological discussion over the meaning of Jesus's words on the cross from the Gospel of mark, I'll try to write something a bit more uplifting today.

In an earlier meditation, Dad asked us to look outside ourselves and ask, what can I do to help? The quote above from Robert Kennedy perfectly describes the results of such action. This is not an easy time to live. No matter what your faith, class, or political persuasion we all have some good to offer mankind. God's call to us isn't just to use our gifts for our own greater glory, but to the greater glory of humanity. It isn't enough that we serve God, we must serve each other as well.

In making the movie "The Great Dictator" Charlie Chaplin chose to take a risk and use his amazing gift of filmaking and humor to point out the growing danger of fascism and anti-semitism in Europe. He did so at great risk to his career and his reputation, but he took the risk, he used God's gifts for action in order to help save humanity. Here is the first part of his closing monologue from the movie. Read it and ask yourself, am I using the gifts given to me to help humanity? What risks have I not taken and why not?

Walter

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost." - The Great Dictator

Thursday in the Third Week of Lent

“I could never reconcile Jesus saying “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?,” with what he said in the Book of John. All throughout the book, Jesus already understands what is to happen to him. If we understand the Trinity, why would he at the last moment ask and act in doubt. Why not say “I’m coming home?”
Good topic for me. I understand what you wrote but it seems to be a stretch. . . . ‘why did you forsake me” sounds like he is separate . . acting different . . . thinks his father ran out on him. He’s acting pretty mortal at that final moment.
You call it “the single most difficult moment in the bible”. Interesting, it is for me too.” -- A reader of yesterday’s Lenten Message

The passage troubles me as well. Maybe Luis, Andy, or Cathy have given a clarifying sermon on this one. If so I would love to hear it or from them.

I am not a theologian, a biblical scholar, or a simple parish priest, nor are these meditations meant to bring an answer to our reader’s questions.

Yet, he/she poses a wonderful opportunity for meditation. So here goes.

This passage troubled (troubles) me as well. I find comfort that Jesus' cry is from Psalm 22:1. Perhaps he is reminding his audience of a few onlookers to go to the scriptures and find the following: Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.” That Jesus is not calling on his father to save him, but reminding his followers, “ To you they cried, and were saved;” -- Psalm 22:5

Before you think Psalm 22 is the complete answer, read it all. It can be a difficult read as well.

That is the point. Matthew and Mark did not leave us a “Commentary,” to explain why they thought Jesus' last words were so important, nor did Luke and John explain why they left them out. More importantly, as Keats observed, “ That he ( Jesus) so great a man, that though he transmitted no writing of his own to posterity, we have his mind and his sayings and his greatness handed to us by others. .... Yet through all this I see his splendour.”

I am not sure that during Lent we are called to find the answer to the theological debate whether Jesus was a man or God in man’s image. ( However if anybody has perfect clarity on this point we are happy to publish their revelation first on http:thehubbellpew.blogspot.com .) I think, and it is only one person’s opinion, that Lent and our daily meditation is better served on the fact that it is okay to cry to the Lord, “ Help me. Are you there?” Then to listen and hear God’s answer. These are the Lenten conversations we are called to have in the quiet of our private moments with God.

They do occur. “To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.” ( Psalm 22:5 ).

Webb

P.S. Thank you to our reader’s contribution to our meditations. It made writing this evening a whole lot easier. W.

4th Wednesday in Lent

"May God bless and keep you always, May your wishes all come true, May you always do for others And let others do for you. May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung, May you stay forever young," Bob Dylan "Forever Young"

Today my son Will went to the dentist to have a couple of cavities filled. In the past the dentist was kind of fun; some brushing, some flossing, some pictures and a chance to watch cartoons on the TV overhead. This time it was not. I sat in the waiting room and heard the sound of Will crying out from the back, "I want my Daddy!" It tore my heart to stay in my seat and let the dentist do his job.

In my short time as a parent I have discovered that this is the hardest part. Seeing or hearing your child in pain is agonizing. All I want to do is go to him and take him away from the hurt. But at the dentist, I know its something he must go through. Pain is as important a part of life pleasure. Next time I try to get Will to brush his teeth he will remember this pain. But that doesn't make listening to your son cry any easier.

I believe that the the single most difficult moment in the bible is when Jesus, suffering on the cross, says "My God My God, why have you forsaken me!" It's the cry of "I want my Daddy!" on an epic scale. Would I, you, or any parent have been able to withstand that cry and not intervene. There is no greater proof of God's love for us than that single moment.

"For God SO LOVED the world that he gave up his only son to suffering and death."

My quote today is from my favorite song, it's the song I sang to my sons in the cradle, on my Ipod its tagged as "most played". It remains my fervent wish for my children throughout their life.

In Lent, and every other day of the year, if we hope to understand God's meaning and purpose in our lives, it is paramount to remember what God was willing to do for each of us.

"My God My God why have you forsaken Me!"

Walter

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

There are days and nights that meditation comes easily. Tonight is not one of those nights. Usually when I return from my EFM class, I relax for awhile and then drift off into some mindless activity until the day’s cobwebs clear, and I can go to sleep. I must write instead tonight, and my usual tricks are not working.

Part of tonight’s discussion was about whether the journey to one’s soul is really a journey, or whether the soul is there just waiting to be discovered already formed to be what it it is. My lame contribution to this discussion was a retelling of Bagger Vance’s words that inside of us is one “authentic swing.” For each of us our swing is unique and all we must do is get out of its way. Believe me others were much more prophetic.

I don’t have an answer whether life’s journey is internal or external, or both. I am without answers tonight. John Keats in a letter to his brother and sister asked, “Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul?”

I do believe that given the choice I would opt for a loving soul than an intelligence that has not experienced pain or trouble. In Lent my journey whether internal or external is to find my soul and remove all the barriers in its way from being “authentic.”

Webb

3rd Monday in Lent

"That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God." Albert Einstein

Dad's discussion yesterday about the importance and power of presence brought to mind a quote that I copied down from a biography of Einstein I read a while back. What a remarkable man, possibly the greatest single mind of a century and a firm believer in the existence of God.

A couple of days ago Jake and Will asked me out of the blue , "Can God die?" I was taken aback at first then responded in the usual parental way, "of course not." Both boys seemed satisfied with the answer but the question has stuck with me for me since then. "Can God die?"

Maybe the better question is, if we cease to believe in him, is he still there? I am not ashamed to admit there have been many times in my life when I questioned the existence of God, times when I doubted. But I also believe now that I never lost God. It was in the times of the worst distress that his presence was the greatest, even though I may not have know it at the time.

So I am in agreement with Dad, that I choose to focus on the presence rather than the loss. And I am confident that when it comes to God, not only can God never die, but it is the times when I think he is lost, that his presence is with me the most.

Walter

Third Sunday in Lent

Yesterday's Lenten message was late in arriving. Thunderstorms and Saturday mornings are both valid reasons. The third reason need not be said. Walter's, Will's, Jake's and my beloved Razorbacks lost in the "Big Dance."

Only one team can eventually win it all and there was no realistic chance that the Hogs could have won it all, but it is still a loss and it hurts. I have written before about sports and what is that makes us loyal to a team or a school. Today I want us all to think about the positive side of loss. That's right Hog fans -- the positive side of loss.

Luis started me thinking about this concept several years ago. I was so captured by what he had to say I made notes about his sermon and still keep them in my personal journal. To summarize only a part, he said there must have been a presence for their to be an absence or a loss.

In Lent, we sense the negative presence of our bad habits as we try to shed them for forty days. Yet their absence is felt because they were a presence. We usually feel that there is no greater loss than a loved one who has died and entered God's kingdom. That loss is so huge and our suffering so great because that person was so much of a presence in our lives. Usually the deeper the feeling of loss is proportional to of the strength of their presence, or a presence cut short. Yet the pain of that loss is eased by our memories of their presence.

The positive aspect of loss? As we mature, we learn that people come and go. Sometimes their absence is caused by distance or events beyond either's control. Reunions are great for bringing back the presence of those who had touched our lives a long time ago. Other times, the absence is caused by something more painful? A betrayal, the wrong thing said or done, someone or something steps in between a wonderful presence, and we are left, it seems, only with a painful loss.

It is here that we have an opportunity. An opportunity to change our focus from the cause of the loss, and focus on the past presence. It works either way. If the presence was a positive event than we overcome the pain of the loss by focusing on the joy of the presence. It the presence was a negative in our lives, than we celebrate the loss.

Lent can be used as a time to search for the positive aspect of our feelings of loss. There have been friends in my life who were a powerful presence. People to this day want me to focus on the loss. I choose to remember their presence.

Webb