Calling on Christ

You may notice I posted a couple of links there on the right side.  One is the link for the Daily Lectionary Readings from the Revised Common Lectionary as posted on the PCUSA website.  The other two are sites for daily prayer that I have found helpful in my journey of faith over the last year.  One is an audio feed and the other you read through as you sit at your computer (or print it out and read it that way).  Anyway, I hope that you find one, two or even all three of those links helpful as you journey with Christ and we journey together in this Lenten season.


Tonight, as I sat down at my computer, I was feeling guilty #1 - that I have not posted nor encouraged anyone else to post since Ash Wednesday, which now is officially a week ago and #2 - that, even though I kept myself from giving in to temptation and rescinding my Lenten discipline of fasting from TV programs during the week, it's still after midnight and I'm just sitting down to read and pray and listen and blog.  Now, when I'm about two seconds from falling asleep and kicking myself for having to get up in 5 hours.  (Yes, pastors are people too!  In fact, many times, we're all TOO human.)  So, as I sat down to the computer and pulled up sacredspace.ie, the prayer opened with the words: At any time of the day or night we can call on Jesus.  He is always waiting, listening for our call.  What a wonderful blessing.  No phone needed, no e-mails, just a whisper.  Amen to that!  A blessing indeed.


Sometimes I think we are too hard on ourselves, and then there's times when we let ourselves off way too easy.  There's a balance, or at least there needs to be.  On the one hand, we should not (as the Apostle Paul says) go on sinning so that grace may abound.  It was tempting tonight to hop online and see what happened with Chuck this last week, or to find out what the Bachelorettes really had to say about Jake.  I was working on cleaning the kitchen anyway, and that's my routine, after all (TV programs online while I clean or fold laundry), and surely God would forgive me for making that choice this once... It would have been really easy to excuse myself from my own self-imposed Lenten discipline, but I didn't.  I put on some worship music and cleaned away.  And truth be told, if you know me at all, you know it wouldn't ultimately have been that easy for me to excuse myself.  I'm good at guilt; I hang on to it like a security blanket sometimes.  More often than not, I'm pretty hard on myself.


Tonight, Emilie Griffin asks the question (Small Surrenders, p.32) whether or not we accept the idea of a God who is incredibly gracious and merciful and comments on letting go of all judgmentalism, even of judging ourselves.  I think it's hard.  Some of us are critical in general - of others, of ourselves.  Some of us can be gracious and loving to those we know and love, or even to others who are like us, but can be really critical of others who aren't like us.  And some of us are nice, are gracious and compassionate to everyone else, except to ourselves.  As we continue our journey toward the cross of Christ, on which we see Jesus embodying the fullness of God's love and grace for each and everyone one of us, let us surrender both our critical judgments of others and our harsh critiques of ourselves and let us recognize that no one is beyond the boundaries of God's grace. 

Ash Wednesday

Since we are already behind by a day, I thought I would give you the gospel text for yesterday and then add my two cents for whatever that's worth.  

Emilie Griffin (Small Surrenders, p. 4) quotes Thomas Merton today (and admittedly, I am quite partial to Thomas Merton to begin with). "We are not converted only once in our lives but many times, and this endless series of large and small conversion, inner revolutions, leads to our transformation in Christ."  The fact is they're right.  We may (or may not) have that one BIG moment where we can say "that's when Christ captured my heart" or "that's the moment I gave my life to Christ."  But becoming a disciple is a process, it is a journey.  We turn again and again to follow Christ.  If we ever get to the place where we think we've got it all figured out, we are getting it all right and we are done growing in our faith, then that is the place in which we really have a looooong way to go!

So what do we do; how do we make these small surrenders and take these steps of faith that grow us as disciples?  Is it really about giving up our favorite crutch for awhile, like chocolate, or social networking sites that otherwise occupy hours of our time?  Is it committing to daily prayer and Scripture?  Is it the giving up or giving in that makes us better disciples and more faithful Christians?

Perhaps Merton and Griffin are right... it is not so much the practice we choose or the discipline we adhere to (at least until we miss a day or two, get frustrated and give it up altogether...) It is not those things in and of themselves that transform us.  Rather it is the journey, the willingness to change and to be changed, it is the humility of realizing that it is as much about the journey as it is the destination.  After all, early Christians were not called Christians, but followers of The Way.  And so we are...

Luke 18:9-14

9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Getting Started

So, admittedly, while blogging is not new to me, a blog attached to a website with a RSS feeds and other confusing things is all brand new and we are still working out the kinks.  You want pictures, you've got it, but ask me to do much more than that...  

We will, I promise, figure out how to get the Daily Scripture Readings (i.e. Lectionary Texts) back on the blog within this first week of Lent.  In the mean time if you go to the PCUSA's website for the Lectionary and click on the picture that says "read today's Lectionary" (like the one below), you will be able to, well... read today's Lectionary.  You will notice a whole list of Scriptures for each day.  I encourage you to read at least the gospel text for each day of Lent and as time allows, read some of the Psalms and other texts, as well.

For those who are new to blogs in general, the basic idea is that the author, or in this case authors, will share their thoughts about life, faith, and all kinds of other random things.  The purpose of this blog is, at least during this Lenten season, to allow anyone from the Front Royal Presbyterian Church congregation, and perhaps even other interested people, to read, discuss, reflect and comment on the Daily Scripture Readings for Lent and the Lenten devotional we are journeying through together during this Lenten Season: Emilie Griffin's Small Surrenders.

To all who journey with us in faith - Welcome!