Ideas for Observing Lent

OBSERVING LENT

DURING LENT MANY CHRISTIANS OBSERVE SOME FORM OF FASTING OR SELF-DENIAL. This is not only a way to strengthen our will, but also helps us to simplify our lives. When we eat less, we realize that we normally consume more than we need for health and well-being. This may lead us to consider simplifying our lives in other ways. Here are some possibilities, you can think of many more. Choose those that seem most meaningful and appropriate for you.

• Give up something you value, to remind you of what Jesus gave up for you.
• Try to live more simply in all areas of your life: watch less TV, walk instead of driving, observe a quiet period each day.
• Go through your closets and give away clothes that are still in good condition, but that you could do without.
• Clean your home and use spring cleaning to reflect on your spiritual renewal.
• Cook and eat a dish that you always avoid, not necessarily because it repels you but because it is “foreign” and you tend to limit yourself to the familiar.
• Listen to some music you normally can’t “get into.” Wonder if it resonates with something in you, and might not be so bad after all.
• Treat yourself to a meal of rice and tea once a week as a physical sign of concern with the real majority, the hungry world.
• Give up movies or forego some favorite sports events.
• Choose simpler, more healthful meals: less meat, no dessert.
• Do without between meal snacks.
• Give up desserts.
• Eliminate wasteful and expensive habits.
• Drink only water with your meals for one week.
• Eliminate snacking and junk food.
• Give up an hour of TV each day for scripture reading, prayer and reflection.
• Clean house and give unneeded items to charity.
• Give up one big meal a week and donate the money saved to help feed the hungry.
• Serve meat half as often as usual.
• Once or twice a week serve a simple meal that consists of soup or salad, bread, and a beverage.

LENT IS A TIME FOR PRAYER AND REFLECTION. By setting aside special times for prayer and reflection during Lent we give ourselves the opportunity of learning more about ourselves and our relationship to God.

· Pray the Psalms or use a devotional guide to choose Lenten prayers.

· Think about attitudes and behavior patterns that you need to change. Pray for help in changing them.

· Make prayer a daily habit. Set aside a quiet time when interruptions are unlikely.

· Reflect on the importance of Jesus in your life.

· Accept difficulties patiently. Through reflection, try to understand them. Through prayer, try to accept them.

· Write a short Lenten prayer to add to grace at meals.

· Resolve to work on a virtue or correct a fault.

· Pray for those you know are suffering.

· Spend time alone today reflecting on your need for God’s grace.

· Pray for forgiveness for past judgments of others.

· Make a special effort to practice the Golden Rule.

· Make a special point to attend church services each Sunday during Lent.

· Pray especially that those who have abandoned their faith will experience a renewal of belief.

· Pray for the patience and the courage to develop your gifts.

· Make a cross-shaped collage of scenes of suffering and violence. Resolve to do something to join in Jesus’ work of healing. Save this cross to redecorate for Easter with scenes of life and love.

· Draw a picture of your face and write all the things you do to “save face.” Try a week or a day without any face-saving activities.

· Spend time today reflecting on how Jesus’ love and teachings affect your life.

· Each day for a week pray for a different neighbor or friend.

· Look through the newspaper or listen to the news to identify someone who may be suffering. Pray for that person.

· Plant seeds or bulbs indoors and as they grow think of how you grow in God’s love.

· Give thanks for a talent or skill that you have.

· Pray for world peace.

· Each day for a week pray for a different member of your family.

· Reflect on your faith and trust in God.

· Give thanks for God’s forgiveness and grace.

· Reflect on your baptism and what it means for your life.

· Take 15 minutes and think about a world problem – war, hunger, pollution, drug abuse – until you are ready to “give up.” Read T. S. Elliot’s poem The Hollow Men. Then in faith, pray slowly the Lord’s Prayer.

CHRISTIAN STUDY AND WORSHIP ARE BOTH IMPORTANT LENTEN ACTIVITIES. Christian study will help strengthen our faith and increase our understanding. Attending the special church activities and worship services offered during this season helps to renew our sense of community and deepen our faith.

· Keep a Lenten journal of struggles, successes, feelings and discoveries.

· Make Sunday a special day reserved for the Lord and your family.

· Read the Bible daily, especially the Gospels. Discuss your readings with family and friends.

· Participate in religious education or Bible study classes.

· Read a book that will contribute to your spiritual growth.

· Set aside some time to write each day, focusing on how Jesus’ love and teachings affect your thoughts, feelings and actions.

· Read your favorite story about Jesus and think about what it means for your life.

· Start a Lenten prayer and study group with a few friends. Set aside a special time each week to meet together to pray and read and discuss Bible passages.

· Read a book or article about a world problem that you tend to dismiss or that you blame on the media for enlarging beyond proportion.

· Attend the special Lenten church services: Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday communion, and Good Friday service.

· Read a book about Christian meditation.

· Write a statement of your beliefs and think about how these beliefs are reflected in your life.

· Make a Days of Lent Prayer Book – a book with just 40 pages on which you write, or draw, or copy something that has special meaning for you during this season.

· Read a book by an inspirational author such as Thomas Merton or Catherine Marshall.

· Make a special point of attending church services each Sunday during Lent.

· List ten top priorities in your life. Determine the amount of time, energy, money used for each. Can and should there be a shift?

· Plan how you will continue in the spirit of Lent after the season is over.

DURING LENT WE ARE CALLED TO DO WORKS OF CHARITY. What we do will depend on age, situation, and many other factors. But no matter what our circumstances, we can find ways of reaching out to others. Lent is a time to give of our goods and of ourselves. Either way, we are reaching out in charity. It is what Jesus did, and as followers of Christ we are called to do likewise.

• Write a letter to a friend or relative who would enjoy hearing from you.
• Make it a point to spend some time alone with someone who is feeling discouraged or rejected.
• Give a bouquet of flowers to a friend.
• Go out of your way to perform a generous act.
• Join a worthy cause and commit yourself to giving time throughout the year.
• Tithe during the six weeks of Lent and give the money to charity.
• Contribute money or food to a needy family.
• Forgive someone who has hurt you.
• If you have been holding a grudge against anyone, go to that person and seek forgiveness and reconciliation.
• Baby-sit free of charge for someone who doesn’t get out often.
• Do something to make God’s world more beautiful.
• Buy a bag of groceries for CCSA or the Crisis Center.
• Prepare a meal for a person who is a shut-in.
• Buy an Easter lily to decorate the sanctuary and then take it to someone who needs to know you care.
• Give family and friends cards or letters that express your love.
• Make a friendly gesture to an unfriendly neighbor.
• Spend time with an elderly parent, a small child, an ill or lonely person.
• Run an errand for a house-bound neighbor.
• Spend an hour in conversation with someone you long ago decided you had little in common with.
• Write a note to a friend, relative, or neighbor to let them know you remember and care about them.
• Visit someone in a nursing home or convalescent center.
• Invite someone to share a meal in your house.
• Avoid gossiping or being critical of others.
  

Sermon: I Know What I Know

John 9
“I Know What I Know”
Rev. Cynthia O'Brien
February 11, 2007

Discover Your Story.

Can you remember a time in your life when something changed for the better? Maybe it was your job or your family, or maybe it was you who changed. Perhaps you stopped yelling at bad drivers, or you stopped caving in to ethics violations at your work. People noticed the difference in you. When they ask you, “What’s different,” what do you say?

Brian had a younger brother who got himself addicted to meth. He had stolen from several family members and been in and out of trouble for years. Brian came to the realization that this was his only brother and he should reach out to him. He tracked him down and started getting together with him. The rest of the family challenged Brian, saying that the whole family should be unified in shunning his brother to show their disapproval of his lifestyle. What should Brian say to his family?

Ron was getting ready to graduate from law school and was considering a lucrative offer from a downtown firm. But an experience on a short term mission trip made him aware of poor people who needed legal assistance. As he prayed about it, he became strangely drawn to them. It broke his heart to see the problems they had simply because they were not getting good legal advice. He decided to work for a nonprofit organization for a fraction of the salary he would have made at the downtown law firm. This angered his wife, who had put him through law school. She demanded an explanation. What should he say?

Last week, we heard the story of how a Samaritan woman met Jesus by a well. In that one conversation, she had an encounter with God. She told other people what had happened to her. That’s called a testimony. The Bible says, “Because of her testimony, many other people like her, believed.”

In today’s story, Jesus heals a man born blind. Everyone sees the difference in the man, who can now see, and they want to know how it happened.

JN 9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The disciples believed that a disability such as blindness was a punishment for sin, partly because of texts like Exodus 34:7

God was giving the 10 commandments, and he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

While we can understand that God would punish wrongdoing, you can’t look at a disability and say for certain that someone’s wrongdoing was the cause. This is a dangerous line of logic, to say, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Jesus clears it up right away.

JN 9:3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life….I am the light of the world."

There is a reason for this man’s suffering – so that God will be glorified, and so that the world would know through this story that Jesus was the light of the world. There’s no reason to think God struck the man, but more likely God let nature run its course so that this man would receive both miraculous physical vision as well as spiritual vision.

JN 9:6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.

Based on Jesus’ other miracles, he didn’t need to make mud in order to heal. Why does he do it now? Maybe he was giving the man the opportunity to participate in the healing, to respond in faith – the man would have to go wash off the mud. Not only that, when Jesus kneaded the mud with his hands, that constituted working on the Sabbath, and that was designed to challenge the Pharisees who said that one should not heal on the Sabbath.

So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

There were various reactions to his healing. People wanted to know who healed him, and where the healer had gone. They brought him, this “seeing man,” to the Pharisees. Each time, the man just said what he knew or didn’t know.

He confirmed he had been blind.
He told them what happened.
Where is this healer? I don’t know.

They brought him to the Pharisees, which is like going to small claims court or going to see the school principal. The Pharisees were the super religious people who kept the law of God better than anyone else and and a lot of other laws, too. The people knew the Pharisees would be interested to know that Jesus was doing work on the sabbath. Again, the seeing man simply told what he knew.

How did I receive my sight? "He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I see."
"What do I think about this man? He is a prophet."

The Pharisees were not convinced. Maybe he hadn’t been blind after all. They checked it out with the parents. Then they cross-examined the man again.

“We know this Jesus is a sinner."

If you were that man who was now seeing for the first time, how would you answer that? Would you be capable of entering into a discussion of Jesus’ moral qualifications? Would you defend him?

If your coworker stood with you in the break room and said,
“What has made you so different? How are you getting through the hard things in your life? What made you change your mind on that issue?”
Are you capable of giving a theological or philosophical defense? You might be. Or you might not. We can all learn from the seeing man.

JN 9:25 He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

Throughout the Bible, people who have had an encounter with God tell others about it, not in fancy words, not in theological treatises, not with a pamphlet. They simply say what they know. Here’s what my life was like before that moment. Now here’s what I am like since this has happened.

JN 9:26 Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

The seeing man is not exactly polite in his response. JN 9:27 He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?

and then gives them some old fashioned back talk.

Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

He knows that the Pharisees are not ready to accept Jesus as one who has disciples, and at this point you really can’t blame them. They don’t even know where he comes from.

JN 9:30 The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

Now the seeing man is going to get theological, but it’s not complicated. Here is his argument. in v. 31
God doesn’t listen to sinners. God listens to people who do his will.
This is a miracle that can only be from God.
Therefore, Jesus must be from God.

In the beginning of the story, he had responded with the simplest of answers. “The man put mud on my eyes and now I see.” But as he has to tell the story again and again, and as people press him for an explanation, he begins to have more spiritual sight. He is processing what has happened to him, and he is gaining more understanding.

This did not go over with the religious people. They were unwilling to believe this man, who probably spent his whole life as a beggar at the city gate. What, now you’re a lecturer in theology? Of course they threw him out.

We’re all afraid to some extent that the person listening to our story might reject the story, or reject us. That’s why I love the last part of this text. For all the questioning and rejection that the seeing man has experienced, God rewarded him with a deeper spiritual sight.

Jesus went back to find the seeing man. Jesus heard that he had stood up to the Pharisees, that he had simply told what he knew, that he had plainly said what made sense to him. So Jesus found him, to let the man see God.

JN 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
JN 9:36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."
JN 9:37 Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."
JN 9:38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

In the story of the man born blind, what stands out is his telling the simple truth.

Last week we heard of a Samaritan woman who had an encounter with Jesus. She left her water jar, ran to town and told people to come and see the man who could be the Messiah. This act makes her an evangelist.

The seeing man in today’s story is not as clear in his own mind what’s going on, and he’s not as bold. He is not sure exactly who Jesus is, nor does he pretend to know. But that doesn’t stop him from telling what he does know. What he is does know for sure is that he is healed. It is in the process of having to tell his story and reflect on what has happened to him that the man begins to understand who Jesus was and how Jesus was acting in his life. That’s why later he can suggest that Jesus might be a prophet.

Perhaps to discover our story, we need to make the attempt to tell it to others. When I explain to someone else what is happening in my life, I come to see God working in my life. And over time, I recognize the hand of God in my life all along, even if at the time I missed the signs of God’s love.

When you sit down for lunch or dinner today, or when you talk to your adult son or daughter on the phone tonight, tell a story from your life. It could be something that happened this weekend or something long ago. And as you tell the story, as you processed what happened, see if you can discern how God was at work in your life, how God changed you, or comforted you, or led you in some way. You’ll be on your way to discovering your story.