Lenten Meditation 2016

I feel like I am a jigsaw puzzle – partially assembled but with many pieces missing. There are pieces of me all over the place. Some pieces are lodged in my wife, children and grandchildren, friends, workplace, church, hobbies, and my social tribes. Other pieces are hidden deep inside my inner being. Some pieces are hidden so deep that I am unaware of them. All my life, I have felt a sense of incompleteness, fragmentation and longing. This longing is a siren call for completeness; for the jigsaw to be assembled; for every piece to be in its rightful place. Then I believe I can really know who I am from the picture on the jigsaw. I recognize this feeling as a hunger for shalom; for wholeness and completeness.

Shalom is a beautiful word in Hebrew. Often translated to English as peace, shalom in the Hebrew context has a far deeper meaning. It denotes wholeness, completeness, fulfilment and contentment. Shalom gives the sense of living in the Garden of Eden with God before the Fall. It implies reconciliation of broken relationships. Shalom gives the picture of a soul fully expressed to its full God-given potential, at peace with itself, with God, with other people and with creation. It affirms everything is in its rightful place.

The New Testament describes Jesus as shalom in two ways. Firstly, Jesus is shalom. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace [shalom] (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus is Completeness as God. Secondly, Jesus becomes shalom for us. Paul explains, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace [shalom] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. . . . But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:1–2, 8–10). By his death on the cross, Jesus becomes shalom or the means of reconciliation with God for us. This shalom with God for us is a one-off event. It is a total and complete reconciliation. The broken relationship is fully healed. This happened more than two thousand years ago.

Yet we hunger for shalom. We hunger not because God’s work is not complete but because our healing has not completed. We are in the process of putting the pieces together as we grow towards spiritual maturity. This takes time. We hunger for what we will become when we are fully matured spiritually which is shalom. Hence our continuing hunger. Lent is the season when our hunger intensifies. This is because during Lent, we are reminded anew of the shalom work of Jesus; God incarnate born to die for us. We need this reminder. We need to be reminded that we must discipline our bodies, mortify our unhealthy desires and renew our easily distracted purpose of spiritual growth as we work towards shalom. We look forward to when we no longer hunger, when we finally are one with Christ, who is himself, shalom.

Stop Playing Games: Join God’s Reconciling Work for Lent

Reconciling our Fragmented Selves

Soul care or care of our inner spiritual life is a lifelong process. It is worthwhile during this Lenten season to reexamine it. Procrastination is one of our favorite habits, made worse by social media such as Facebook. Procrastination is what we do to avoid doing what we should be doing. Playing games in soul care is a form of procrastination. Soul care is hard and painful work as we peel away layers of resentment, unforgiveness and bitterness. It also needs us to distinguish and identify who we really are (real self), who we think we should be (duty self), and who we think others think we should be (perceived self). We play games to distract us from the real work of reconciliation of our fragmented selves.

Many of us do not really like our real self. It is sometimes questionable if we really know who our real selves are. Our real self is who God has created us to be. Some of us wonder if people will still like and love us if they know who we really are. This sense of unworthiness poisons our relationships. We sense the darkness inside us, a beast that struggles to be free. We are so afraid and ashamed of our humanity. We listen to inner voices that compare ourselves with other people and tell us that we are not good, beautiful, smart or talented enough to be of any value. Lent reminds us that in spite of all our faults, imperfections and self-delusions, God loves us enough to send his Son to die for us. God knows we are works in progress. We need to stop playing games and start reconciling with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Some of us live life out of a sense of duty. We impose rules and regulations upon ourselves so that we live a life worthy of God. This is especially common in those who seek to grow a deeper relationship in God. These people live out of a duty self. They live austere and sacrificial lives, thinking that is what God wants them to be. This may not be true. Their sacrifices may not be what God wants them to but what they think God wants them to. Jesus enjoys food and festivals as much as other people. Often such lives based on the duty self are deeply steeped in legalism, empty of joy and judgmental of others who do not do as they do. Lenten period is a time to reexamine our lives and stop playing games with our duty self. That is work righteousness. We need to repent and reconcile with our real self in Christ.

What others think of us is very important to many of us. It may not be apparent to us in our perceived self that we are giving others power to control who we are. The truth is that most people are not thinking of us. They are too busy thinking of themselves. The lie of the perceived self comes from our hearts. We are desperate for affirmation, love and company. So we try to be the someone who we think other people want us to be. This is a house of cards which may collapse anytime. Again, there is a need to reconcile our perceived self with our real self and find our affirmation, love and companionship in God.

Lent is a time to meditate and pray about reconciliation. God started this by becoming man and reconciled us to himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. We need reconciliation. Not only reconciliation with God but also reconciliation within ourselves. We need to reconcile our real selves with our duty and perceived selves. Let us stop playing games and get on with the real work of soul care.

Photo by Alex Tang

Stations of the Cross @HLCE

Stations of the Cross@ HLCE 2015

Date: Saturday 4-6pm 4 April (Holy Saturday) 2015                                      

between Good Friday and Easter Sunday

Place: Faith Hall, Jalan Persiaran Pendorasa Utama, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Fees: Free

Register with Sis. Grace Soon at berea@hlce.org.my or Tel: 07-2243285 or our website www.spiritualformationinstitute.org

All are welcome

The Stations of the Cross is a traditional Christian meditation and prayer practice to remember the Passion of the Christ. There will be 14 stations placed inside Faith Hall. Participants are invited to follow the stations. There is no specific time at each station. People may spend a much or as little time at each station as desired. A prayer and reflection guide will be provided.

Stations:

1. Jesus on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39-46)

2. Jesus, betrayed by Judas, is arrested (Luke 22:47-48)

3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)

4. Peter denies Jesus (Luke 22:54-62)

5. Jesus is judged by Pilate (Luke 23:13-25)

6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns (Luke 22:63-65; John 19:2-3)

7. Jesus takes up the cross (Mark 15:20)

8. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross (Luke 23:26)

9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)

10. Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33, 47)

11. Jesus promises his Kingdom to the good thief (Luke 23:33-34, 39-43)

12. Jesus on the cross, his mother and his disciple (John 19:25-27)

13. Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-46)

14. Jesus is placed in the tomb (Luke 23:50-54)

.

Ashes to Ashes. Ash Wednesday 2015

Ashes to Ashes

Ash Wednesday 18 Feb 2015

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a 6-weeks period that ends with Easter Sunday. Why start with ashes? In churches that celebrate this tradition, the ashes are obtained by burning the palm leaves used for the previous Palm Sunday event. Ashes in the Lenten period reminds us of four important points.

Firstly, ashes reminds us of our humanity. In Genesis 2:7, man were created out of the dust of the earth. The Hebrew word for dust may also be translated as ashes. Normally we will avoid getting our hands and bodies dirty by dust and ashes. This ceremonial act of having ashes applied to our foreheads is to accept that we are created beings and our need to relate to our Creator in a meaningful way. In our hurried consumer driven society, we often lose our humanity. We use people and forget about God. Ashes brings us back to the basics. For all our power, wealth, fame and abilities, we are but ashes and dust. We need to recover our role to love one another and to love God.

Secondly, ashes reminds us of our mortality. We die and our bodies decompose into ashes. Adam and Eve were told that “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19 NRSV). In the eastern traditions, ashes and sackcloth were used as signs of mourning. We live in a society in denial of death and dying. Marketing and the technologies of modern medicine gives us the illusion that we will live forever. Ashes reminds us that we are mortal. Our time on earth is limited. It forces us to reevaluate how we are to spend our remaining years so as to make them meaningful.

Thirdly, ashes reminds us of the call to repentance. When the reluctant prophet Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, the King and his people put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. God saw this act of repentance and spared the people (Jonah 3:1-10). Sometimes, our theology has so much Triumphalism that we forget we are sinners by nature and need forgiveness and mercy. Many of us are in bondage to fear, addictions and unbelief. Lent is a period to face, confess, repent and break our bondage.

Finally, ashes which begins the Lenten period ends in the resurrection on Easter Morning. This is the Gospel that offers hope to our humanity, mortality and sinful nature. Christ, God incarnate, by his suffering has delivered us. We, who were captives and in bondage in the ashes, have been set free. From the dust and ashes of death and suffering arose in Easter new hope and new life.

May this Lenten period be a meaningful period for meditation and reflection for you.

Photo by Alex Tang

JESUS IS RISEN

Stations of the Cross (15)

JESUS IS RISEN

Where is my Lord?
They have taken Him away.
All I see is a tomb, a place that is empty.
And just when I need Him,
and long for His voice,
even His body would not wait for my tears.

Shut away in a box, He has occupied their coffin.
Shut away in a book, He fulfils, Living Word.
Shut away in our concepts, He shatters such shackles.
No prison can hold Him; no tomb thwart the miracle.
His life is our liberty; His love changed my life.
No dying can rob me of what He has given:
once blind, now I see.
Hallelujah! His promise:
‘In the day when the hearts of men
fail them for fear, then look up, little flock,
your redemption draws near.’

Let all creation
give thanks to the Risen Lord.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises,
give thanks to the Risen Lord.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord!

He is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord!

Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord.
Give thanks to the Risen Lord!

 

.

Love crucified arose

Scribbling in the Sand: The Best of Michael Card (2002)

Long ago He blessed the earth
Born older than the years
And in the stall a cross He saw
Through the first of many tears
A life of homeless wandering
Cast out in sorrow's way
The Shepherd seeking for the lost
His life, the price He paid

Love crucified, arose
The Risen One in splendor
Jehovah soul Defender
Has won the victory
Love crucified, arose
And the grave became a place of hope
For the heart that sin and sorrow broke
Is beating once again

Throughout Your life You felt the weight
Of what You'd come to give
To drink for us that crimson cup
So we might really live
At last the time to love and die
The dark appointed day
That one forsaken moment
When Your Father turned His face away

Love crucified, arose
The One who lived the died for me
Was Satan's nail-pierced casualty
Now He's breathing once again

Love crucified, arose
And the grave became a place of hope
For the heart that sin and sorrow broke
Is beating once again

Love crucified, arose
The Risen One in splendor
Jehovah soul defender
Has won the victory

Love crucified, arose
And the grave became a place of hope
for the heart that sin and sorrow broke
is beating once again

Love crucified, arose
The One who lived and died for me
Was Satan's nail-pierced casualty
Now He's breathing once again

JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE

Stations of the Cross (14)

JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE
Laid in a borrowed tomb, awaiting the sign of Jonah
- the only sign that would be given to His generation
- that after three days and nights in the womb of the earth,
the belly of the fish, the grave and hell,
He would come forth to do His Father’s will
- Jesus the humble Son of God, the exultant Son of Man,
the eternal contradiction, the Blessed One.
The end is not yet. Weeping endures for a night,
but joy comes in the morning.
The good news – ‘He is risen’ –
will burst on the Son-rise.

Therefore with joy shall we draw water
out of the wells of salvation.

When all is dark,
and Hope is buried,
it is hard to trust His words
that promised, before the pain:
He died that I might live.
He died that I might live.

In His death is my birth.
He died that I might live.
He died that I might live.
In His life is my life.
He died that I might live.
He died that I might live.
My Jesus! He died that I might live.
He died that I might live.

 

.

JESUS IS TAKEN FROM THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross (13)

JESUS IS TAKEN FROM THE CROSS
Jesus could now feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. And with a loud voice He cried: ‘It is finished.’ His mission of atonement had been completed. Finally, He could allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He once again pressed His torn feet against the nail, straightened His legs, took a deeper breath, and uttered His seventh and last cry: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.’ A while later, the soldier pierced a long spear into the side of the dead man, to His heart. The watery fluid and blood that flowed out show us He had literally died of a broken heart – not the usual crucifixion death of suffocation. The friends of Jesus were allowed to remove His holy body, and for a moment his mother held Him again upon her lap, cradled in her arms.

Let Him sleep now. It is finished.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?
or thorns compose so rich a crown?
It was for me.
It was for me.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ my God.
All the vain things that charmed me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood:
It was for me.
It was for me.

 

.

Michael Card asks Why

Why did it have to be a friend
Who chose to betray the Lord
Why did he use a kiss to show them
That's not what a kiss is for
Only a friend can betray a friend
A stranger has nothing to gain
And only a friend comes close enough
To ever cause so much pain
And why did there have to be thorny
Crown pressed upon His head
It should have been the royal one
Made of jewels and gold instead
It had to be a crown of thorns
Because in this life that we live
For all who seek to love
A thorn is all the world has to give
And why did it have to be
A heavy cross He was made to bare
And why did they nail His feet and hands
His love would have held Him there
It was a cross for on a cross
A thief was supposed to pay
And Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away
Yes, Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away

.

JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross (12)

JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. As He pushed Himself upwards to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is searing agony as the nail torn through the nerves. As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept though the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. Jesus fought to raise Himself, in order to get even one short breath. ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’

To the thief dying at His side: ‘Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.’

To His mother and His closest friend: ‘Woman, behold thy son’ - ‘Behold thy mother.’

In the words of the psalm foretelling the death of Messiah, He cried: ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’

Father God, You waited
through the long hours of agony,
when He was robbed even
of the sense of Your love, Your presence,
when the sin and disease and hatred
and darkness overwhelmed Him so greatly.
He was wounded for my transgressions.
He was wounded for my transgressions.

Father, what love is this of His?
What love is this of Yours
that His dying love reflects?
Your forgiveness for me,
as we gaze upon His sacrificial death,
is truly an underserved gift
as the pardon He spoke to the dying thief.
It is mine if I will only receive:
He was wounded for my transgressions.
He was wounded for my transgressions.

JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross (11)

JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
The journey was at an end. Jesus was quickly thrown backward with his shoulders against the wood. The soldier felt for the depression at the front of the wrist; he drove a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moved to the other side and repeated the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly. The title ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’ was nailed into place, and the crossbar lifted into position. The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot. With both feet extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed.

The victim was now crucified.
‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’
He is our peace.

Jesus, our sin put the nails in Your hands.
It was love that held You there.
It was love that held You there.

Jesus, our sin put the nails in Your feet.
It was love that held You there.
It was love that held You there.
The soldiers hoisted Your cross on high.
You were their prisoner;
but no one took Your life away from You.
You gave it willingly, freely.
It was love that held You there.
It was love that held You there.

You were lifted high upon that cross,
even as You had prophesied when You promised;
‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to Me.’
It was love that held You there.
It was love that held You there.