I get so caught up in my causes and concerns that I miss the Christ and how His causes and concerns could, would enfold and uplift mine.

And then when things don’t go the way I believe they should (and I believe that that is also the way God wants them to go), then instead of repenting like Peter did, I go out and hang myself on guilt and embarrassment, and vow to move to a desert island and never speak up again and begin the fasting I never quite get to when I am on a roll. The thirty pieces of my silver idea burn my soul.

O God, you would forgive me and restore me with a real mission as you did Peter. If only I would give up my Judas pride and ask You. May the field of blood in my life become the Field of Blood in Your Life.

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Amen!

This Psalm is used at so many funerals it has taken on an almost hushed tone in many people’s minds. I believe that one way to read it is as a statement of victory in the “war won/battles still happening” reality of the Christian faith. I find that proclaiming it rather than praying it gives me a new perspective on the familiar words.

What do you think?

In reality, we can’t talk realistically about fasting without also understanding feasting. God commanded times of feasting in the Old Testament: the Passover, the Feast of Booths, etc. These were times when all of Israel was to make sure everyone, including the poor, had a feast to celebrate God’s goodness.

So as we are celebrating the Resurrection, let us look at fasting from the angle of feasting. Let us:

fast from complaining and feast on gratitude
fast from bad health choices and feast on healthy food and exercise
fast from gossip and feast on lifting others up
fast from hoarding and feast on generosity
fast from mindless, soul-numbing activities and entertainment and feast on creativity
fast from having to be first and feast on serving others
fast from anger and feast on forgiveness
fast from hatred and feast on love

I look forward to hearing what fast/feast ideas you will add to the list.
Blessed Easter (a seven-week celebration)

I am not saying fast for the week but consider eating half of what you would normally until Easter Vigil/Easter morning.

Do what you have to do but pare down extra entertainment and unnecessary shopping, limit media use (including phone use), and use the time for extra Bible reading and/or prayer.

Also, go to church on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, (Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil) as well as Easter Day itself. If your faith community doesn’t offer services on those days, find one that does.

It is interesting to me that Europe, not considered a bastion of Christianity any more, still shuts down for Good Friday (sometimes closing early on Maundy Thursday) and STAYS CLOSED DOWN through Easter Sunday. (In some countries, Easter Monday is a holiday, too.)

How many people in this country aren’t exactly sure when Easter even is? As a witness to these people and to the children in your circle of influence, make Holy Week a different kind of week. Walk fully with Jesus from Palm Sunday through the Last Supper, and Crucifixion. Sit on Holy Saturday with the distraught disciples, who nevertheless still kept the Law and stayed home rather than running back to the tomb to “finish up–God will understand.” (Think what they might have missed if they had gone back on Saturday, in violation of the Discipline of the Sabbath, and then not needed to go on Sunday!) Rise with anticipation for the Easter Vigil/Easter morning services a new creation in Christ yourself.

Fast from North American culture this week and Feast on the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Tonight, I was thinking about Holy Week and Easter and wondering why so many Christians don’t walk the full-length of Holy Week. Or why some churches have very little to offer their members in terms of Holy Week services. Why is it OK for the church’s softball league to play in a game on Maundy Thursday? Is forfeiting a baseball game a worse thing than being in church remembering the start of the Three Days (or Triduum, as it is officially called)?

Why do we not hear of (many) Ascension Day services? Or of many Christians making a big deal out of Pentecost, the third major Church festival along with Christmas and Easter? And why do so few churches have services on Christmas Day? Since when did Christmas become primarily a “family day”? Often those who scream the loudest about “no Christ in Christmas” are the ones going to churches that have no Christmas Day services and maybe even nothing on Christmas Eve. Since when is the family more important than worshiping Christ?

I am very concerned about the state of Christianity in the USA. (I am concerned about it other places, too, but since I live here, I will focus my remarks on what I know best.) I believe that while we have many people who love the Lord and seek to follow Christ in this country, we have way too many “non-denominational” churches who believe that they are “doing it right” and yet, they have severed most if not all ties with the Church of the New Testament. Oh, they may have their “12 elders” to mimic the apostles (and that makes them “authentic”) but in terms of the way they worship and think, it is so far from the traditions that St. Paul commanded be followed and not let go of (see 1 Corinthians 11:2).

Is our “independent” streak causing us to lose our edge in society? Are we so concerned about being “relevant” that we are ineffective? Why can’t we return to the forms that the Church has used for 2000 years while filling them in with music and language that speaks to North American Christians in the 21st century? Why can’t we learn to “think liturgically” vs. thinking the way the mall and Hallmark does?

I challenge everyone who claims to follow Jesus to seek to do it in a way that testifies to the culture transcending message of the Gospel.