Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Reflection Upon Lent

Today begins Lent. For some this is a religious ritual to be performed every year, for others it means absolutely nothing, and for many others, it is an intentional, heart-felt time of reflection upon the cross of Jesus Christ. As followers of Christ, we do not simply toss out 2000 years of church tradition as meaningless in order to embrace a hipper, more relevant type of Christianity. The history of the Christian church, for better or worse, should be instructive and should lead us more fully to the throne of grace. Our Mediator, the one who bled and died for each one of us, should be honored year round, but the Lenten season offers us a rhythm, an extended period of reflection before the celebration of the Resurrection. Yes, we flow within the rhythms and movements of the Spirit, but the Spirit uses tradition. The Spirit uses the community of the faithful throughout the history of time. When we disdain church history and tradition, we also disdain the community of the faithful not realizing that we are a member of the Church universal throughout time, not just in the present moments of life. Perhaps during this Lenten season, we might realize more deeply what it means to be the timeless, eternal Body of Christ. So that we "may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible [we] may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Phil. 3:10-11).

1 comment:

Sarah Zhang said...

Martin, it's great to see you sharpen your blog pen again :) That was a short but deep reflection. Good job!!

It is interesting that you said "the Spirit uses tradition", and I hope you could further explain that. If you simply meant to observe some valuable spiritual tradition or rituals like giving up something for the Lent, I guess that made sense.

It is not that I disagree, but I need some help to understand what you actually meant. I think tradition and rituals are almost always getting in the way of the movement of the Holy Spirit throughout the Scripture. When the Spirit uses them, does He need to pick them up on the way, instead of sweeping them away??

I could be kinda extreme, but I do not see the grey area between the radical move of the Spirit and the lifeless tradition. Isn't that the reason why Luther wrote "92 Thesis" and posted it on the door of the church?