Open Mike

Prepare Your Spirit with an Easter Fast: Fasting Guide with Prayers Attached

So friends, here we are toward the end of Holy Week.  Some years ago I began taking our church through 'ancient-future' explorations, though the term isn't original to me.  It's simply been a way for a hyper-modern 'low' church like ours to apply humble teachability to the wisdom of Christians from centuries before us.

The most helpful ancient Christian practice we've learned, to me, has been the Easter Fast, and I invite you to join me in it beginning this evening (after you enjoy a full dinner!).  Before practicing Lent and the Easter Fast, I used to arrive at Easter worship as though it were any other Sunday, just a little amped up.  Which isn't entirely bad - every Sunday is a celebration of Resurrection Day.  Every day, for those who follow Jesus, is an opportunity to live out of the resurrection power and values of our Lord.  BUT it is good and right that annually we specifically remember and celebrate this central fact of human history - the bodily resurrection of the God-Man Jesus Christ from the dead, in victory over death, suffering, sin, shame, and human division. 

One member of the LFC tribe wrote me this encouragement just yesterday: "We are so incredibly thankful for the ways that LFC has mentored and taught us how to draw near to the Lord through Lent and fasting corporately over Easter weekend.  Easter has more meaning for us spiritually than any other time of the year because its been such a powerful experience for us the past 3 years."

The Easter Fast prepares my spirit with readiness to worship along with the Holy Spirit in powerful ways each Easter.  It uses a spiritual practice that is best exemplified by Jesus, and the Bible teaches that fasting uniquely reorders the desires of our flesh and hones the attuned-ness of our spirit to God's Spirit.

Attached is an excellent guide for this year's Easter Fast (again, to begin after dinner tonight, Maundy Thursday, and continue to Saturday morning or longer, as you choose).  It has instructions for how to fast, specific prayers during the beginning, end and over each scheduled meal time during the fast.  And a way for you to give the money you would have spent otherwise to feed the hungry if you so choose, in the name of Jesus.  It has been adapted by us with permission, as noted.

Download 2015Easter FastingGuide

I will post some helpful thoughts on fasting from my readings on Friday and Saturday mornings this week.

The only suggestion I will add to the attached guide is this - when I fast, whenever a hunger pang pangs me, I turn it toward God in a prayer of these words of Jesus during two of his fasts:

"Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”. Matthew 4:4

"My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." John 4:34

 

Beside St Patrick's Grave: My Ode To Cathal in an Irish Pub

My doctoral dissertation concluded with this story from my Ireland travels.  After I completed research on the transforming missiological leadership of St. Patrick, i had the pleasure of travelling through Ireland to tie off my studies. For a week i drove around the emerald isle in a stick-shift, other-side-of-the-road volkswagen.  I visited the earliest known Christian archaeological sites, and the latest pagan Celtic sites.  All i can say is the trip was glorious. 

The first day i was in Ireland, I drove straight from Belfast's airport to Patrick's reputed grave. 
After a time of reflection and journalling around the huge burial stone, i then obeyed my English friends' instructions (I had been in a monastery in northeast England for a week before, the Northumbria Community) - go to the first pub you find and order a Guiness.  I followed their lead.  The results are as follows, and are recorded as the concluding section of my doctoral dissertation on St. Patrick. I pray that I could actually be the answer to my own prayer, to post-Christian culture in Charlotte NC. I hope  you enjoy:

 

 

To Cathal[1]

    The town of Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, is the reputed burial place of St. Patrick.[2]  A great stone bearing a carving of a Celtic cross and the inscription “Padraig” lies beside a church on a hill.  Down the road, the first pub on the right celebrates four hundred years of continuous service.

    After visiting the burial site, the American traveller slipped into Denvir’s pub on a rainy June evening (2005).  While journaling thoughts inspired by proximity to Patrick, conversation is begun, in the Irish way, over a pint of Guinness offered to a stranger.  Cathal (ca-hal) is a twenty-two year old, fresh in from his father’s wake.  His offer to buy the American ‘writer’ a drink is hospitable, particularly considering the circumstances. 

    Pleasantries are exchanged, cultural jokes indulged.  It comes out that Cathal’s late father’s name was Padraig (Patrick).  A second Guinness is poured, the conversation turns serious as Cathal’s eyes suddenly brim with tears as he recalls his loss. 

    MM: “What a tremendous loss – your father, so young, so suddenly.  I’m here because of the strong leader his namesake was – Padraig, Patrick.”

    C: “Ah yes, I heard he was…Protestant…eh?”

    MM:  “Patrick was part of the Catholic Church.  He fascinates me because of the way he stood for the hope you are wishing for and speaking about right now – that all is not futile, that God exists, God is good, and there is more on the other side of death.”

    C: “I know these things are true, somehow.”

    The conversation moved to the back room, where Cathal’s friends gathered to drink, smoke, and talk the evening away after the wake.  The American 'writer' was invited down.  Football, life and death were visited as topics, with Cathal’s sister offering neo-druidic thoughts, and the others wisps of philosophy, hopefulness, and stark naturalism.  Despondence ruled over hope in the words and countenances of those gathered, none of whom had ever attended church regularly their entire young lives.  Genuine interest was expressed in the American’s talk of a post-Protestant/Catholic Jesus, and humanity’s destiny found in his story, including the souls of the recently and anciently mourned Padraigs.

    The private room quieted, more Guinness was poured, then Cathal spoke.  “I think Jesus must be the way.  If church were like this, where priests just simply talked about God and life from the heart without talking down to everyone, people would listen.  And it would be good.”  The visitor invited Cathal and his friends to try an experimental form of ‘church’ the following week – Ikon.[3] 

The American traveler left,  walking while lifting up hands in the cobblestone street and praying for Cathal to encounter a Jesus-community that speaks his post-Christian, neo-barbarian language.  The traveler asked God to raise up an apostolic leader for this generation, in the spirit of Patrick, a leader whom God might use to transform disaffected people into a gathering, a movement, a church.  Who will that leader be?  For twenty first century Ireland?  For post-modern America?  Whom will the Lord send?

 

“Ego Patricius…”

Here's a picture of the pub where I met Cathal:
 

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[1] Closing reflection from the author’s Ireland travel journal.

[2] The connection of Patrick’s burial to Downpatrick is based upon legend.  The pointed hill in the middle of town was the ancient seat of tribal power in northern Ireland (Ulster) during the time of Patrick’s arrival.  There is no solid evidence for the location of his resting place in Downpatrick or elsewhere.

[3] Visit http://www.paperstreet.org.uk/ikon/ for a glance at this experimental alt-worship community in Belfast.

Let it Go...Let it Go...For Lent

The movie "Frozen" is helping me prepare for Lent.  I'd like to help you prepare today. Okay, really just the chorus to the mega popular song is helpful to me (angie and I went on a post-Oscars date last night to finally see the movie - it was good, but not 'highest grossing Disney animated film of all time' good IMHO).  To kickoff Lent at Lake Forest Church -Huntersville we will hold 4 Ash Wednesday services on Wed. March 5th, starting at 4,5,6, & 7pm.  In partnership with Church of the Good Shepherd Anglican.

There are a number of Lenten practices that have proved helpful to my walk with Christ as I've learned and participated in this ancient Christian tradition for a number of years now.  Lent is simply a period of 40 days leading up to Easter, in which many Christians choose to prepare to celebrate the resurrection through a season of intentional repentance, prayer, fasting and good deeds done in the name of Jesus. (If you search Lent on my blog's front page, you'll find entries of mine with a more full description of Lent and its history).

The most helpful practices for me have been putting something off and putting something on, detachment and attachment, fasting from one good in order to feast more on another good.  This is in keeping with the New Testament's exhortations to 'put on Christ' and all that belongs to his identity and way of life, and to 'put off' the old self' and its sin, folly and even simple things (not necessarily sins) that hinder the life of Christ emerging more fully in us. I follow these practices during Lent to pursue Christ more fully, and to do so in unity of practice with most Christians for over 1,500 years and today.

So as the queen in 'Frozen' sang "Let it go, let it go!" last night in the Birkdale theatre, I was considering, "Lord, do I feel called to let go of, or give up something for Lent this year?"  Last year I didn't.  I never had clarity about something particular to fast from, and decided to not choose something just for the sake of it.  It helped me to ensure I'm not rehearsing the middle ages and turning Lent into a law that I must measure up to or a good work that makes me more pleasing to God.  Its simply a spiritual practice, a spiritual discipline, another practical tool in the toolshed for cooperating with the Holy Spirit to bring greater Jesus-like order to my garden.  Maybe this year some of you need to fast from fasting during Lent?

So I'm going to give up snacks.  Each time I start to make a move to the pantry between meals or after dinner (multiple times per minute), I will have constructed a sentence prayer that I breathe out, to use my desire for savory satisfaction in the moment to raise my sights to higher satisfaction in the cross and resurrection and person of Jesus Christ.  I haven't yet written that sentence or chosen a sentence in Scripture.  I still don't know what good deed or practice I will 'put on' during this season.  I'm assuming that at some point during the 4 Ash Wednesday services I am co-leading with the pastor of Good Shepherd Anglican Church, it will come clear to me - I will have 4 hours to figure that out!

In closing today, I offer you my friend and mentor Leighton Ford's helpful (and crazy-insightful) reflection on Lent this year, published in the Charlotte Observer on March 1:

A LENTEN TRAPEZE

Years ago the Swiss therapist and spiritual guide Paul Tournier caught my attention with  a dramatic image comparing life to a trapeze performance in a circus.

The trapeze artist grasps the bar of a swing, launches out, swings back and forth, higher and higher, until at the farthest point he or she lets go, trusting  their partner to swing out at just the right time to reach out, clasp arms, and swing them to safety on the other side.

Just imagining such a moment makes my stomach clutch, and my breath catch! It also makes me realize how apt Tournier’s image is for this Lenten season, a time to let go, and reach out.

The Bible is filled with stories of this risky movement. Abraham is called to leave the security of his ancestral home, and to go out by faith to a land he did not know. The disciples of Jesus leave the boats and livelihood and families, saying “We have left all to follow you.”

Jesus himself said, “I have power to lay my life down, and to take it up again.” Notice how his letting go is tied to the certainty of resurrection.

Paul’s sees himself not as a trapeze performer but a runner. “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Can you picture yourself, this Lenten season, as the trapeze artist or the runner, “letting go, and reaching out”?

The past year was for me in many ways a year of loss: young leaders I have mentored facing life-threatening illnesses; my brother-in-law Billy reaching his 95^th birthday but growing weaker; the traumatic death of my dog Wrangler, my close companion for nine years.

“I feel that everything is going away,” I told a friend.”  She surprised me by asking, “What time does God’s store close?”

I thought back to my parents’ jewelry store, which closed at 6pm every day except weekends. Then I realized that God’s store does not close! His grace is available 24/7 for every letting go, and every reaching out.

As I look back over my life I remember painful partings, letting go of “attachments” which had seemed absolutely vital, even wondering whether life would be whole again.  But God was calling through loss to gain, letting go of the past to enter into God’s future.

Each of us has certain “attachments”,  habits or people, or even addictions or possessions which we clutch for security. And each of us is again and again called to “detachment” in order to trust God more.

I suggest two questions to ask as you embark on your Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday next week.

What do I need to let go? What unfinished business is there that is holding you back – of hurt, or dreams, or failure, or the normal patterns of the last year? Try holding out your hands, visualize placing those concerns in them, then turn them over and open them, releasing them into God’s care.

To what do I need to reach out? To what new adventure or challenge may God be calling you? Turn your hands upward, open them and lift them, and receive at least a token of God’s grace.

As the Quaker Thomas Kelly wrote,

(God) plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chains of attachment. And (God) hurls the world into our hearts, where we and (God) together carry it in infinitely tender love.

So this Lent – let go – reach out – trust God.

Leighton Ford

(From Charlotte Observer column March 1)

Empty Nesters Unleash Love With an Open Table in this Season of Life

This month I've enjoyed studying the meals of Jesus in preparation for a sermon on "Love...Eats With."  At one point, my investigation with the intentional ways Jesus 'did theology' by 'doing lunch' coincided with a glimpse ahead to my next life stage (next fall) - the empty nest.

One of the books I read in my research was Joanne Thompson's "Table Life: Savoring the Hospitality of Jesus in Your Home."  She writes this tidbit about my next life stage, which may be yours today:

"Jesus calls us to embrace interdependence with other people in all seasons of life (in part through table fellowship with other Christians and those who don't know Jesus). Each season brings new challenges. But one season has a unique opportunity to unleash love using an open table.  Empty nest. Or what one writer prefers to call the rearranged nest.

 Many empty nesters feel the pinch in a new role as the sandwich generation.  Caring for aging parents and making room for possible boomerang adult children is an exhausting stretch that often limits hospitality. 

But this is a season when the opportunity for hospitality knocks at our doors.

We need mature adults in Christian community who use their new time of life to include a passionate commitment to table life.  Where you particularly take risk and invite younger generations to catch the life, love, and wisdom of Jesus around your table."

A Theology of Cooking & Yummy Food

I was overjoyed to trip out with my friends Sunday around this statement of Jesus' METHOD of ministry: “The Son of Man has come (how?) eating and drinking” -Luke 7:34.  I deserved it when Mitch made fun of me (in the 2nd service) for getting weepy as I talked about the brewmeister-like process and quality of my Nana's gravy.  Yet my emotion was due to passion for each of us to receive freedom and joyful command that when done so in the name/power/way/presence of Jesus, meals can be enacted grace, enacted community, and enacted mission.  Especially when we 'eat like Jesus ate,' in a way that we earn the title/insult from religious people as a 'friend of sinners.'  This is LOVE that everyone can DO.

Here are further meditations on Luke 7:34 by Tim Chester, the author whose ideas were the basis for my last two messages (from the book, A Meal with Jesus):

Think of your favorite food.  Steak perhaps.  Or Thai green curry…God could have just made fuel.  He could have made us to be sustained by some kind of savory biscuit.  Instead he gave a vast and wonderful array of foods. (I ate my favorite food of BBQ at the famous Gary's in China Grove last Friday night before football, with some of my favorite Jesus-followers: Angie, Algie Grubbs (friend, elder, dad of son's great friend) and Darrel Lipe (friend, elder, leader of my son's small group for 7 years)

The world is more delicious than it needs to be.  We have a superabundance of divine goodness and generosity.  God went over the top.  We don’t need the variety we enjoy, but he gave it to us out of sheer exuberant joy and grace.  God’s creative joy wasn’t only for the beginning of creation, leaving us ‘eating leftovers.’  God continues to sustain creation out of joy. The bloom of the yeast lies upon the grape skins year after year because He likes it…

Not only did God give us food, he also ordained cooking.  Cooking is a central expression of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1-2. God gave this world to us to care for and cultivate.  But he also gave it to us to explore and develop.  It was God’s intention that we take the raw material of his world and use it to create science, culture, agriculture, music, technology and poetry—all to his glory.  Every time you bake a cake or grill a rib, you’re fulfilling that creation mandate.  Every cake is a reminder of our freedom to create and be creative in the image of the Creator.  Every time you place a meal on the table with quiet satisfaction, you’re sharing the joy of the Creator at the creation of the world when he declared everything good. 

Above all, food expresses our dependence on God.  Only God is self-sufficient.  We are creatures, and every moment we’re sustained by him.  Every time we eat, we celebrate again our dependence on God and his faithfulness to his creation.  Every time.  Food is to be received with gratitude. “Taking the five loaves…he gave thanks” (Luke 9:16).

Mike here again.  The homework I gave the past two weeks was simply to do what Love Incarnated Does through the method of 'eating and drinking':

LOVE DOES EAT WITH…

                If I’m not yet a Christian – I will ‘eat and drink’ with a Christian in the next week, asking how they first came to follow Jesus, and what his grace and salvation means to them.

                If I’m a Christian – I will invite someone to ‘eat and drink’ with me next week who probably thinks there is a boundary between them and God/church/Jesus/etc.