Lent #26: Discipline 6 of 7—reading and meditating on scripture.

Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture.

(First Timothy 4:13)

Linda and I took up reading aloud to one another Steinbeck’s East of Eden. It has been laying around. Linda was supposed to read it for book club, but never did. We had lost the habit of reading aloud to one another. There’s something about hearing it read in the voice of the other. Scripture is like that. It’s best heard in the voice of another.

Reading, for the ancients, was something done aloud, even when reading to oneself. Notice how Jesus reads scripture (Lk 4:16-21):

When Jesus stood up to read, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Jesus said to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Notice the drama: “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.” A scroll so precious that today all 24 feet of it is displayed in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book museum. Notice how Jesus takes his time to “unroll the scroll”—no turning pages; no chapter and verse to help him find “the place where it is written.” You just have to know the scroll to find the place.

When Jesus finds “the place where it is written” he begins to read it out loud, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” I would love to hear Jesus reading scripture—His voice? Then, when “the eyes of all …were fixed on him;” Jesus says something about what he had just read, that only he can say, “It speaks of me” (Lk 24:27). With our eyes fixed on Jesus, scripture has a way of causing “our hearts to burn within us” (Lk 24:32).

East of Eden isn’t Scripture, but there would be no “East of Eden” if it were not for Scripture: “Cain went out …and settled in the land on the Nod, east of Eden” (Gn 4:16). Like all true fiction, the novel has to do with people and places, with history and redemption. That’s the Bible story: “On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place far off” (Gn 22:4). It is about what happen on that third day of the journey when Abraham “saw the place far off.” That’s worth meditating on—a Lenten meditation.

Lent #25: Discipline 5 of 7 – Almsgiving.

Honor the aged.

(Leviticus 19:32)

Anna rigged up a virtual birthday party for me yesterday: #76. I’m living on the bonus side of my allotted “three score and ten” (Ps 90:10). Almsgiving has to do with kindness shown towards the needy. Because of this malicious virus, Linda and I have been listed among the most vulnerable. We have become the recipients of kindness.

Lent #24:  Discipline 4 of 7—Fasting.

With fasting …Who knows?

(Joel 2:12&14)

“Who knows?” Maybe the Lord will bring an end to Joel’s locus infestation and the Lord “will bring rain, as before. And, the vats will overflow with wine” (Joel 2). That’s the same thing David said when fasting for the life of his child: “I fasted and wept; for I said ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and the child may live’” (2Sam 12:22). Fasting does not presume. It’s a humble discipline. It does not remove us from suffering; nor, does it guarantee calamity will be avoided. Who knows?

Ancient locus infestation continue to plague us to this day. So too, with viral breakouts. As moderns, we’ve come to imagine that science has put an end to such ancient scourges. It hasn’t. That’s the scary thing about our present viral outbreak; science seems to have lost its magic. The malicious virus continues to have its way. The death toll rises.

The Prophet Joel calls us to fast and pray for God’s deliverance. It’s not to say science will not eventually find its magic: “There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success” (Sirach 38:13). Maybe this time, those who imagine we can handle things without God, will “pray to the Lord” and the Lord will “grant them success”.  Let us who pray, pray so.

Lent #23:  Discipline 4 of 7—Fasting.

Declare a holy fast ...and cry out to the Lord!

(Joel 1:14)

In the face of a massive locus attack, the prophet Joel calls for a national fast to put an end to the infestation and preserve their economy. Watch the prophet’s poetic plea (Joel 1:4-14):

What the cutting locust left,

    the swarming locust has eaten.

What the swarming locust left,

    the hopping locust has eaten, and

What the hopping locust left,

    the destroying locust has eaten…

It has laid waste my vines,

    and splintered my fig trees;

it has stripped off their bark

    and thrown it down…

The vine withers,

    the fig tree droops.

Pomegranate, palm, and apple—

    all the trees of the field are dried up;

surely, joy withers away

            among the people.

Consecrate a fast,

    call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders

    and all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of the LORD your God,

    and cry out to the LORD.

I can’t say that’s what needs to be said. I’m not a prophet. I can’t write poetry. I want to think about it some: Does Joel and his poetry have anything to say during our viral scourge? Whatever is to be said should probably be said poetically.

Lent #22:  Discipline 4 of 7—Fasting.

David fasted, pleading for the child.

(Second Samuel 12:16)

As the child born of David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba struggled for life; David fasted and prayed for the life of the child. It didn’t work. When the baby died; “David got up from the ground…washed, put on lotions, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, ate …and comforted his wife Bathsheba” (2Sam 12:16-24).

Feast days are prescribed in the Law: Sabbath, and the annual festivals: Passover in the spring, Pentecost in the summer, and Tabernacles in the fall. Fasting is not prescribed. It’s spontaneous. We do it in the face of crises, calamity, or loss. Like when David at the deathly sickness of his child; or, when Israel fasted during the oncoming carnage of a locus infestation (Joel 1:4&14).

Apparently, the Pharisees felt fasting needed prescribed days: “twice a week” (Lk 18:12), in order to assure proper piety. They questioned Jesus’ and his disciples’ lack of fasting: “‘Why do the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?’ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast’” (Mt 9:14-15). You don’t fast at a wedding celebration, do you? But, maybe later, an appropriate time will come. Today, for example, might be a good day to fast and pray for deliverance from this malevolent virus.

Lent #21:  “Analogue Church”

When the fullness of time had come,

God sent his Son...

(Galatians 4:4-5).

We’ve been spending our “shelter in place” time going through our stuff and thinning things out. My method is to toss and move on. Linda’s notion is to hold, discuss, contemplate and then figure out where best to keep each item. The process has brought us back into our analogue world of vinyl record albums and printed pictures and eight millimeter film.

These are our agreed upon non-tossables. I’m told the solution is to digitalize all those albums and prints and film. But, we can’t bring ourselves to digitalize our analogue life. I recall the first time someone showed me their digital watch—what wonder. By and by, I got one of my own only even more so—I could store data like phone numbers in it. Recently, I got a new watch after being without one for some years. My new one has hands and numbers one through twelve with twelve at the top and six at the bottom. I can’t store any data in it. It just tells time as time passes.

I’ve been thinking about such things since last Sunday when our pastor, during digitized church, said he longs to get back to “analogue church”. It caused me to think about Lent and the Christian Calendar and the Fullness of Time. Following the Christian Calendar (Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Easter Sunday followed by Eastertide and Pentecost), places us into the Gospel Story. You can’t digitalize it. Like the hands of my new watch, the Gospel story unfolds within the “fullness of time.”

It caused me to think of our present pandemic suffering. It would be nice if we could just digitalize the whole thing, hit a few key strokes, and arrive on the other side. But it wouldn’t be fair—it wouldn’t be real. Analogue life means we must live through it. We have to participate in the suffering. That’s Lent. We can’t just jump to Easter mourning. We have to allow time to play out all the way to Calvary.

Lent #20: “Saving Mr. Banks”

Christ suffered for our sins.

(First Peter 3:18)

To my surprise, there was something Lenten about that movie, “Saving Mr. Banks,” our family watched virtually together. It’s a movie about the making of Mary Poppins; and, in particular, the fuss that Walt Disney had with the author, Pamela Travers.

As the film unfolds, we discover her fantasy story, came out of her real life childhood relationship with her father. As a child she loves and idealizes her father, but gradually becomes aware that her father is a flawed man. She’s looking for the Disney movie to treat Mr. Banks, the father of the children in Mary Poppins, tenderly. Which gets us to the movie scene when Walt Disney discerns that the fantasy isn’t really about the children; but about the father, Mr. Banks. Thus the title: “Saving, Mr. Banks.”

It’s a gospel story of sin and redemption. In life, we discover that every relationship disappoints—falls short of the Glory. We are in need of redemption. Lent is about how Jesus suffered for our salvation. Christ bore our suffering in order to heal our relationship with our Creator, with ourselves, and with one another.

Fantasy, good fantasy like Mary Poppins, has a way of pointing us in a gospel direction. Notice how the opening poem speaks of a salvation that comes to us from beyond—something brewing that will bring salvation not only to Mr. Banks, but “to the whole household” (Ac 11:14):

Winds in the east,

Mist coming in;

Like something is brewing,

About to begin.

Can’t put my finger

On what lies in store;

But I feel what’s to happen,

All happened before.