Good Friday

 

God will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. – Psalm 91:4

 

God’s faithful promises are your armor and protection. Even today, Good Friday.

There is absolutely nothing to fear about tomorrow; for God is already there.

 

Review of the Day  from, Handbook for Spiritual Directees

    http://shalomplace.com/view/hndbk-lite.pdf

 

Here is a practice used by many at the end of the day to see what

lessons can be learned and how God was present and active through

the day. Set aside fifteen to twenty minutes at the end of the

day for prayer and review of your day. A suggested format is

described below:

 

1. Take a few moments of quiet. Breathe deeply. Ask God to help you

see yourself as you truly were during the day.

 

2. Look back over your day – not to see what you did wrong but to

honestly acknowledge what was going on with you and others.

 

    * What happened? What did I do today?

    * How did I feel? Why did I feel that way?

    * Were my expectations and beliefs reasonable?

 

3. Affirm the healthy things you recognize.

 

4. Admit to yourself and God the unhealthy things. Ask God’s

forgiveness, believe it is yours, then decide if you need to

apologize or make amends.

 

5. Use creative visualization to grow stronger. Honestly

acknowledge the troubling situations of the day. See and feel

yourself acting honestly and lovingly in these situations. Ask God

for the grace to help you act in this new way.

 

6. Close with simple awareness of the sights and sounds around you,

grateful for the good things in your life.

 

This process can be undertaken as a daily journal exercise or by

prayerfully reviewing your day in your own mind. I like to take a

walk before bedtime for examenation. The important thing is to do it. It

is a discipline, to be sure, but can be a very important one.

 

 

Matthew 21:1-11

One Palm Sunday early in my ministry, the children were all at the front of the church for a children’s sermon being given by my colleague. His words were thoughtful and well-planned. There was only one, small problem. The children had all been given their palms before coming forward. So no matter what the minister talked about, they had something much more interesting in their hands: a sword.

First one little boy thrust his palm frond into the head of another, who cried out with a loud, “Ouch, what was that?” Then he decided to try out his palm frond on the girl next to him. She shrieked, at first in shock and then in delight. Why didn’t they get these neat swords every Sunday?

Soon, every kid seemed to be either dodging or stabbing a palm into another kid’s eye, all while the pastor spoke to them about Christ’s never-ending love and kindness.

It was a microcosm of the real Palm Sunday story. A leader enters in triumph but the people are fickle. They turn on him, and then upon one another. One minute Jesus is the object of their cries of admiration, the next they are crying “Crucify him.”

Children poking each other with palms in church are kind of funny. Especially when you’re not the pastor giving the children’s sermon that day.

But grown-ups who turn on each other without a second thought are scary. Beware of the crowds that get whipped up in praise and adoration, for they could just as quickly get whipped up in hatred and cruelty. That’s what happened on Palm Sunday to Jesus, and it could happen anywhere on earth today.

There’s a neat trick to folding the palm fronds in just the right way so that they become crosses. Let’s turn our palms into crosses so we won’t be tempted to use them as swords.

Prayer: Hosanna in the highest heaven. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.

 

 

Less is More

This Lent, I am particularly aware of the habits of technological distraction that are so pervasive today. I am always connected to something or someone. Being plugged in, literally and figuratively, is a defining characteristic of my life now.

 

I pastor a young congregation, and much of our common life takes place or is facilitated through social media via a host of devices – smartphones, laptops and tablets. As much as these technologies can help people connect, they can also become ends in themselves, sinkholes into which we pour our time and attention. The constant stream of texts and tweets, the status updates and checks on the “likes” of some random “friend” are distractions that lead to self-absorption. They shorten my attention span and make trivia the stuff of my daily life.

 

It all keeps the here and now from ever being present, and for people who follow Jesus, that is a problem. In the incarnation, Jesus manifests the full presence of God. He is imminent. Here. Now. But if we are never fully here and now, then we will miss out on what God is up to — in us, our families, our neighborhood, in the many people and places who don’t text or tweet us but who only wait patiently to be seen and heard.

 

Yet despite the sheen of novelty, the temptations these new technologies present are not new. Every age has its distractions and temptations. Ministry itself can become a distraction, a way of not being present by constantly focusing on the needs around us.

Look at Jesus’ life and ministry. Confronted by needy crowds, Jesus made a habit of disconnecting so that he might reconnect with his Father and to the work before him.

 

Time and again, Jesus retreated to a solitary place to fast and pray and be in fellowship with God. Jesus practiced subtraction because he understood that taking things away does not mean less life but more. He knew that subtractive spiritual disciplines like silence and solitude are critical if we want to experience a good life.

~Tim Keel