A Season for the Spirit: Jesus' Solidarity with the Ordinary

Spirit like a dove descending, in spite of my timidity I am appealing to you to center my heart on this axis of truth in these forty days. Every small step you enable me to take towards a deeper compassion for my fellow human beings will lead me further into the experience of the Father's delight in me and care for me. And vice vesa. Every step I take in mediation to intensify my awareness of the love of God poured into my heart through the gift of your indwelling will take me into a deeper identification with the suffering world, "groaning in labor pains until now."
- Martin L. Smith

The baptism of Jesus was a mass baptism. How often do you imagine Jesus as the only one being baptized by John? Well, it is time for us to all...reimagine the scene.

The baptism of Jesus was a mass baptism. It is recorded in the Scriptures that many had come from the countryside and were being baptized. But we often ignore the references, or just forget, that Jesus' baptism was among the many.

So the question arises, "Are we bothered by an ordinary baptism of Jesus among ordinary people like me and you?"

We use up a lot of energy keeping Jesus at a distance. Although he understands us more than we understand ourselves and although he has kept every promise he has made...we often refuse to recognize his solidarity with us.

"His solidarity with the ordinary."

Jesus did not look down on the ordinary with confident guiltlessness. Rather he plunged, as he would continue to do for years, into the life of the crowd. "He threw away his separateness to take on the identity of struggling men and women who were reaching out in mass for the lifeline of forgiveness."

Here Jesus identifies with us and is seen as "The Human Being." He represents humanity and is given the necessary life-giving Breath for his mission.

"Can you feel and see yourself as part of that crowd of humanity in the muddy water and experience the entry of Jesus into our condition, into our needs?"

It is a valid interpretation if you draw a connection between the moment of Jesus' solidarity with ordinary people and the moment of God's revelation of intimate relationship with Jesus.

So where does this lead us on our journey? God's desire is that we become intimate and personal with him, especially during this season of Lent. But at the same moment it is important that we open ourselves to compassion, understanding, and solidarity with our fellow struggling, anxious, needy human beings.

To be open to the Spirit is to be open to humanity and all its fractured ways.

A Season For the Spirit: The View from Jericho

Spirit of truth, you know me intimately, you alone know what barriers to truth in me are ready to come down now so that i can enter more freely into the reality of God than ever before. Give me perseverence in my prayer and reflection day by day this Lent so that when the time is ready these barriers may give way like the walls of Jericho.
- Martin L. Smith

It is Ash Wednesday. Here we stand at the beginning of another Lent. Each of us are at a certain spiritual point in our life journey. As Martin Smith says, "Perhaps I have made progress since this day last year, wandered, or hung back. But we are invited to make our annual pilgrimage to the same place, a certain common point for starting over again." The common place is found in the New Testament where Jesus is baptized and then driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus' 40 days had begun.

We all are invited to this place. It is the beginning. Join the many who will take it upon themselves to recognize the Spirit driven journey that even Jesus had to endure. Let us get caught up in it. The Spirit desires that each of us be driven into a type of wilderness so that we can see truth for what it really is...an event...not a thing.

But don't try to take on this journey on our own. We will surely get lost in misinterpretation, well-intentioned motives, or pride. The Spirt must not only lead. We need the Spirit to drive us.

So Smith encourages us to lay down our resistance to the one who 'loves me infinitely more than I can guess, the One who is more on my side than I am myself." God truly knows us more than we know ourselves. In fact, the way to discover who we truly are is to discover ourselves in Christ.

Maybe the thing I should be giving up is...control itself. I must find an area in my life where I can lose control. Instead of giving up chocolate, or red meat, or sodas, or TV; maybe I should consider giving up what gives me security in my work day. That is, to sit down immediately and try to get work done efficiently so that can make sure that I am in control of my surroundings.

"Deliberate efforts to impose discipline on our lives often serve only to lead us further away from the freedom that Jesus attained through surrender to the Spirit, and promised to give." Amazing isn't it? It is going to take a lot of discipline to avoid imposing disciplines!!!

So what is the answer if not found in the mere act of giving something up or acquiring a 40 day discipline into our already busy lives?

Lent is about the freedom that is gained only through exposure to the truth.

And truth is not a thing...it is an event. Truth happens to us. Truth takes place. Truth is like a treasure that is found only when all the other junk is stripped away and what is real "emerges into the open."

It is Ash Wednesday and a great journey lay ahead.

Your Journey Through Lent: Going Beyond Mere Ritual

Lent is here. Many of us, nevertheless, may be caught by surprise. Then we play catch-up. As a result we tragically begin a ritualistic approach to the season and forget about the spiritual needs of our soul. We forget that the resurrection of our soul takes time. It may take 40 days or so before we fully appreciate and remember the meaning of the cross. We were once dead and now we are alive. It may take 40 days until we can better appreciate, from a new perspective, that Jesus was resurrected.

My encouragement to you is for you to prepare yourself for the season of Lent. Prepare yourself not for the sake of Lent itself, it doesn't need you. Rather, prepare yourself for the sake of your soul.

Begin your journey on Ash Wednesday knowing that a spiritual awakening for 40 days before Easter will take plenty of effort. A journey of the soul may often take you places that you did not intend to go. The past, the present, and the future are all in play during a sincere walk through Lent.

• So give up something for Lent...but don't do it if you believe it will make your journey into a mere ritual.
• And don't tell anyone what you are giving up. Pride may ruin your good intentions.
• Find a Lenten devotional book. FBC is going through "A Spirit for the Season: Readings for the Days of Lent." Buy it and devote yourself to it.
• Find a friend to talk to and share your discoveries.
• Journal your findings if journaling is your thing. Me...I prefer a blog.

For what it is worth, I will be sharing my daily thoughts of the devotional guide "A Spirit of the Season."
As I share my thoughts, I encourage your comments and dialogue as God brings to all of us an awareness of who we are in him.