Catalyst Question

How do you identify the heroes in your life?

Joy Amidst the Sorrow

We’re at a turning point in the season. The long journeys we’ve been on are finally coming to a conclusion, identifying the heroes and champions, as well as the wannabes and villains. Though the wait has been long, we can finally see the finish lines.

This could be about sports. After all, we just wrapped up both the Men’s and Women’s NCAA tournaments, crowning two champions (Florida and UConn, respectively). With few cinderella stories and the top-8 seeds in both Final Fours, these playoffs felt like money and pedigree were the most important factors to victory. Whether you consider the final victors heroes or villains likely depended on your rooting interest before the tournament began.

Of course, that’s not the only season that’s wrapping up. We’re headed through the final days of Lent, into Holy Week, and culminating with Easter. This Sunday’s reading from Luke 19:28-40 shows a different approach to recognizing heroes. Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem as a top seed, but as a backwater preacher. Yet, peopled hailed his entry. His arrival didn’t require fine chariots pulled by thoroughbred horses, but just a donkey. The crowds didn’t cheer for him because he was the odds-on favorite. These everyday people cheered him because he, too, was an underdog, and they were looking for liberation from oppressive influence of Rome’s money and pedigree.

You see, while we hail Jesus as King on Palm Sunday, we do so in the shadow of Holy Week. Even that first Palm Sunday was a revolutionary moment, because Pontius Pilate was likely arriving to Jerusalem on the other side of town. The simplicity of Jesus entry was a counterbalance to the extravagance of Rome’s arrival. What power do palm fronds have over spears, or peasants over centurions? Yet, in Jesus, the people found the hero they needed, however unlikely he was.

There’s still much more to the story, with a last meal with friends on Maundy Thursday, followed by abandonment by those very same friends before his death on Good Friday. For now, though, take note of how people in real need identify their heroes. Rather than the ones that have all the money to buy allegiance and all the power to force submission, they cheer a man who healed their illnesses and fed their hungry bellies, all while forgiving their faults. That’s the hero that we welcome on Palm Sunday. That is Jesus Christ.

Ask Yourself

It’s fun to root for underdogs, though we often don’t expect them to win. How does the unlikely nature of Jesus’ ultimate victory make you think differently about Palm Sunday?

Ask a Friend

Who are the people in our lives that we’ve written off because they didn’t seem like they had a chance to succeed? How might we reconsider their role given Jesus’ cinderella story?

Catalyst Question

What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken? Share about what you did to occupy yourself during the journey.

Joy Amidst the Sorrow

Believe it or not, we’re in the last few weeks of Lent. After this Sunday, it’s Palm Sunday, then Holy Week, with Easter just around the corner. It’s not the longest season of the church year; that honor belongs to ordinary time. Yet, it’s perhaps the most intentional season for many Christians. As we take on new devotional practices or give up certain privileges, these 40 days can feel much longer.

This long slog of progress toward new life isn’t restricted only to Lent. Think, for instance, of the communities in California still recovering from wildfires or North Carolina rebuilding after floods. Globally, consider the recent earthquake in Myanmar. Natural disasters, and the destruction that follow, require long journeys of intentional activity to restore life to something like normal. Lent can teach us this intentionality so that, when we encounter our own struggles, we too can take specific steps toward new life. Lent can also help us sympathize with those whose seasons toward new life take much longer than 40 days.

In many other ways, Lent is a lesson in life. One of the key reminders in Lent is this: find time to celebrate. In areas of the world that face disaster, both home and abroad, there are still birthdays and anniversaries, holidays and festivals. They are not the same as in normal times, not at all. Yet, many people find solace in reclaiming a moment of joy in the midst of a sorrowful season.

John 12:1-8 depicts a woman anointing Jesus with perfume on his journey toward the cross. It seems a weird thing, to interrupt dinner so she could douse Jesus in Axe body spray. But rather than cheap aerosols, this nard was an expensive rarity, meant to prepare a body for burial. The pungent aroma flowing from a vase would hold the scent of death at bay. For Jesus, who we know is preparing to die, this expensive gift both acknowledges the seriousness of the season and takes a moment to celebrate something sacred in the midst of the struggle.

That’s why Sundays aren’t properly a part of Lent. After all, there are more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. The Sundays aren’t counted in the season because they are mini celebrations of Easter. On those days, we don’t ignore Lent. Yet, we find a reason to pull out the stops and find joy amidst a sorrowful journey. In doing so, we follow this woman’s lead, for she too sought to celebrate Jesus even as he undertook the most grievous journey toward the cross.

As you journey throughout the rest of Lent, consider the following questions:

Ask Yourself

What are the things that I want to celebrate even when I am in a sad or difficult season of life? Why is that?

Ask a Friend

How do you like to celebrate special moments in your life? How does that change in a time of sadness, if at all?

Catalyst Question

What was the last trip that you went on? How did it feel to come home after being away?

A Surprising Homecoming

After nine months, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are home. These two are the astronauts who were originally supposed to spend a week at the International Space Station. What was meant to be a short, joyous journey toward the stars became a months-long stay in the vacuum of space. They returned to great fanfare and, of course, to some well-deserved time off.

This week’s Gospel tells of another homecoming. Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 includes the parable we often call The Prodigal Son. It’s a story of another trip that was meant to be lots of fun but turned into a torturous tail of woe. Unlike the astronauts above, however, the son at the center of the story departed with more selfish intents. He demanded his inheritance early, then went off to some far flung region to party. It’s the biblical equivalent of taking your parent’s savings and running off to Las Vegas. After a series of unfortunate events, this son ended up poor and doing hard labor. Eventually, he remembered the lifestyle of his father’s laborers, which was much better than his current lifestyle. So, he went home in hopes of taking a job just to survive. Yet, upon his return, the father welcomed this son back like an astronaut returning from an extended stay in the cosmos.

This was a surprising homecoming because, unlike the astronauts, the son left with no gratitude with his family and no intent to return. Yet, he was celebrated like a returning hero rather than a greedy child. Why?

Grace. Grace is more powerful than even the son’s most significant failures.

The great grace of the father in the story reflects the great grace of God for us all. We are, in many ways, prodigal children. We turn away from our home in God and try to find satisfaction elsewhere. Yet, when we come home, God receives us not with judgement, but jubilance. God celebrates everyone who comes home, no matter how long it takes. This Lent, remember that the journey we walk toward Good Friday and Easter Sunday is the culmination of grace. There is nothing that God won’t do in order to welcome us home.

Ask Yourself

Have you ever been afraid of admitting you’ve made a mistake? Why was that?

Ask a Friend

Have you ever been given grace after doing something you knew was wrong? What did receiving that grace feel like?

Catalyst Question

Share about a time when, even after you made a mistake, someone gave you a second chance.

Repentance as the Fertilizer of Faith 

This week, the annual NCAA basketball tournaments begin. Dubbed “March Madness,” two tournaments seek to crown the respective men’s and women’s team champion for Division 1 basketball. While there’s plenty of controversy coming for missed foul calls questionable decisions from coaches and players alike, controversy always begins with Selection Sunday. On this day, when the teams are chosen to participate in the tournament, there’s always someone left out. This year, both West Virginia and Indiana had men’s teams miss out, while North Carolina barely snuck in. On the women’s side, Virginia had two teams feeling snubbed in Virginia Tech and James Madison. Though it’s too late for these teams to compete for a national championship this year, hope springs eternal for next year’s tournament.

Luke 13:1-9 doesn’t address basketball, but it does address questions like “How late is too late?” and “Who is in and out?” Jesus speaks both of the importance of repentance as well as the possibility of grace. It’s a lot of theology packed into just a few verses. Though a tournament selection process is not a matter of salvation, despite the passion of certain fanbases, it does ultimately ask similar questions. Who is in and who is out of the field is based on many factors, including the performance of more than three hundred basketball teams per bracket, as well as how those teams fared in their own conference play. In other words, the fruit that they bore led to their inclusion–or exclusion–in the tournament. Those teams that are left out, though? It’s not the end of their story. There’s another tournament next year and, depending on how they perform, they could possibly find themselves on the inside next year.

That’s why this language of fertilizing a barren fig tree is so important in Lent. Just because a tree doesn’t bear fruit today doesn’t mean it’s dead. Just because a team didn’t make the tournament this year doesn’t mean they won’t next year. And just because we fell short in our faith life today doesn’t mean we can repent in ways that open up life tomorrow.

In a way, repentance is the fertilizer of our faith, kickstarting our growth after a dormant season. Fertilizer doesn’t bear fruit for a plant, but it does spark its growth. Similarly, repentance isn’t doing better, but it does acknowledge a shortcoming and embrace the opportunity to practice in the offseason rather than just wait for next year.

Ask Yourself

Take some time to reread Luke 13:1-19. Have you ever felt as though you couldn’t do good enough? Imagine that someone defended you, like the gardener defended the fig tree, and asked to spend extra effort preparing you to do better the next time you tried?

Ask a Friend

After reading Luke 13:1-9, write (in a journal or in the notes app on your phone) at least three things that you’d like to know more about in this short scripture passage. Then, ask three different friends what they know about one of these places, people, or practices that you’d like to learn more about.

Catalyst Question

What words come to mind when you think of Lent?

Confession and Protest

In Luke 13:31-35, we hear Jesus lament about Jerusalem. It’s quite an odd thing for the Messiah of Israel to lament about Israel’s capital. How strange for the Son of God to weep over the city of God. Yet, it’s Jesus’ love for Jerusalem, for God, and for God’s people that leads him to cry out. Simply put, Jesus is saying that Jerusalem is not living up to its promises. Rather than be a city where the voice of God is welcome, the religious leaders oppress the prophets that speak God’s word. Instead of celebrating God’s presence, the political elite fear it. When Jesus laments over Jerusalem, it comes from a place of love–even of hope–rather than a place of hatred.

Another way to think about this passage is a protest. By naming the difference between Jerusalem’s ideals and Jerusalem’s actions, Jesus protests the difference between the two. Since our primary practice in Lent is to confess sin, it’s not common to consider protest as a practice of the season. Yet, consider that the goal of protest and the goal of confession are both to seek reconciliation. They seek to restore the ideals of life for all people. Confession primarily calls for personal accountability and behavior change, while protest primarily calls for social accountability and behavior change.

Consider the recent marches on International Women’s Day. The goal of these demonstrations was to confront the injustices of things like violence against and exploitation of women, as well as our cultural acceptance of these sins. Similar protests have arisen to defend justice for immigrants in countries across the globe, to name the injustices of war, and more. Such confrontations seek to end the negative behaviors and restore healthy relationships. Like Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, these cries come from a place of love, even hope, that this confrontation will one day end with restored relationships.

To be clear, protest and confession aren’t the same thing. Instead, this Lent, we should consider what kind of sins protests seek to expose, because Lent is a time of confrontation. We’re confronted by sin, both our own and others. We’re confronted with ruptured relationships. We’re confronted the need for change. Fortunately, in Jesus, God confronts us with both justice and love. Not only do we come face to face with sin, but in Jesus, we also come face to face with forgiveness and a path to reconciliation. Throughout Lent, we will journey further along that path that leads us through death and into the abundant life of Christ.

Ask Yourself

What kinds of sin are keeping you separated from God and from other people? This Lent, consider how confronting those sins can lead to restored relationships.

Ask a Friend

What are the similarities and differences you notice between confession and protest?