Giving Up

I did not grow up in a faith tradition that observes the Lenten season. For the past several years, I've dabbled around the edges of observing Lent. I feel like the truly "spiritual" people observe Lent - so naturally - I should...

I feel like a faker. I am a faker. I really don't understand any of it. I want to, but I don't. I am a liturgical wanna-be. So, I'm giving up Lent - for Lent.

I'm giving up trying to be one of the cool kids. I'm giving up cheap imitation. I'm giving up the need to look like I understand the mystery of redemption. I'm giving up pretending that anything I could give up would come remotely close to what Jesus gave up for me.

If Jesus calls you to it, please do give up chocolate, meat, Facebook, texting. Do it. But please tell me how you were changed because of it. Tell me what Jesus revealed to you. Tell me what you were able to embrace because you let go. Tell me how you apprehended the GRACE of God in a new way. Tell me how much joy you found in knowing how much the Father loves you. Tell me of the freedom you found in letting go of some simple thing. Tell me that you are SO free, you're going to keep on giving up that thing. Tell me that the Holy Spirit filled you and sent you out for ministry in power. Please, please tell me that it is more than something you do every year because you are supposed to do it or because everyone else is doing it.

I don't know what the next weeks are going to look like for me. Maybe I will give something up for Lent. But if I do, I hope in its place, I embrace the scandalous love, mercy and grace of Jesus. I hope on Easter Sunday that I am weeping for joy, dancing on the grave of the old me, and overwhelmed with gratitude that God did what I could not do by being good enough, spiritual enough, following enough rules, giving up enough.

Here they are again - the verses God is making real to me through memory and meditation. Romans 8:1-4 NLT.

So now, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the body we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by sending His Son to be a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit. 

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”(Matthew 22:35-40)

Scot McKnight calls this, The Jesus Creed.
Creed is defined:

1. A formal statement of religious belief; a confession of faith.

2. A system of belief, principles, or opinions.

We Christians are so good at fooling ourselves into thinking that we are living The Jesus Creed. After all - we do love the Lord. We sing it and we say it, but I submit that we - none of us - are very good at living it.

We could do it if it wasn't for that pesky little phrase Jesus added at the end - the part about loving your neighbor. See, John the Apostle clarified it for us. He says if you don't do the latter, you are never able to do the former.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-10)

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.1 Peter 3:7-9

So I ask along with the religious rulers of the day, "Who is my neighbor?" Nope.  On second thought, I'm not really asking the "who" question. I think Jesus explained that pretty well. I want to know how - not who. I want to know what - not who. I want to know when - not who.
How do I love when I just plain don't feel like it - when my neighbor is not a "despised Samaritan", but someone that I am ambivalent towards? Maybe ambivalence is hatred after all.
What does that love really look like in practical terms? Mostly it seems like it looks like TIME. Oh. I hoard my time like a miser hoards pennies.
When does love step in and when does it stand back? Sometimes love propels me right into the middle of something I'd rather stay out of. I have valued safety and security above sacrificial love.

Father - help me love sacrificially, courageously, boldly, no holding back, no more excuses. Help me live The Jesus Creed.