Easter #1:The Suffering Servant

            “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; by his wounds we are healed.”                        

These words from Isaiah 53 flash across the screen starting Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ. The movie was released in theatres on Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2004. The film portrays Jesus Christ’s last hours of life on earth before his crucifixion.

            The Passion of The Christ was hailed by critics as “a great epic film” and was called “powerfully moving.” It is most definitely moving. It affects you. It touches you. It shakes you. In fact, it’s a hard movie to watch; it’s a very dark film. If you’ve seen it, you know: the filmmakers do not hold back. It’s violent. It’s graphic. It’s horrific. It’s brutally honest in it’s depiction of the Passion of Jesus Christ. We see the crack of the whip, the tearing of flesh, the flowing of blood, and the nails driven into his hands. Jesus is beaten, battered, and broken. He’s crushed, crunched, and crashed. He’s whipped, welted, and wounded. He’s a cut, scarred, bloody mess. He is unrecognizable. The prophet Isaiah wrote: “…his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…”

Isaiah foretold that Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men;” that he would be a “man of sorrows, familiar with suffering.”

Jesus Christ knew suffering well. Christ, through his suffering, cleanses the nations, everyone, not just white heterosexual Christians from North America. The writer of Hebrews tells us that by Christ’s “one sacrifice he has made perfect those who are being made holy,” and that can be anyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…”

Jesus Christ “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

This doesn’t make sense. This doesn’t sound fair. This doesn’t add up.

Jesus took up our sins. Jesus was punished for our sins. His wounds heal us. His suffering brings us peace.

There’s a scene in The Passion of The Christ where Jesus and the two criminals are being given their crosses to carry to Golgotha. Christ drops to his knees, holds the cross close, and says: “I am your servant, father. Your servant, and the son of your handmaid.” One of the criminals scowls at Christ and asks: “Why do you embrace your cross, fool?”

“Why do you embrace your cross, fool?”

Why did Jesus Christ embrace the cross?

Why did Jesus Christ become the suffering servant?

Christ embraced the cross to change the world.

Christ embraced the cross to bring about peace, wholeness, and salvation; and not just in the forgiveness of sins sense, but in the peace and reconciliation among nations sense, in the reconciliation of relationships sense, in the restoration of souls and the world sense.

Christ embraced the cross for the world and every man, woman, and child on it.

Writer: Mark Braye and his wife Nancy are officers in Essex, Ontario, Canada. They have two children, pictured above, Hannah and Micah. The four of them love to play and watch Sesame Street.

Lent Musings (2 of 5)

“I suck at Lent” admits Dion Oxford

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o instantly dispel any myths that I might be creating for myself as a super spiritual person (those of you who know me already know better), I need to confess right off the top that Lent thus far for me has been a miserable failure. On Shrove Tuesday I committed to several Lenten disciplines that I would try to pursue throughout these 40 days and all but one of them has, for the most part, gone by the wayside. (The only one that I haven’t blown yet is my commitment to not shave, which I’ll get into in a later post but I’ll say now that this beard getting out of control…) I promised God that I would or would not do certain things for 40 days out of my love and commitment for Him and my desire to be more like Jesus, but the temptations for the things I promised not to eat or to do have quite pathetically proven to be greater than my promise to God. And it didn’t take long for that to happen. (It’s kind of liberating to get that out there but I feel like a total loser about it all)

So this Lent has reminded me of two very powerful truths about myself;

1. I am miserably prone to slipping over and over again back into sin.
2. I am going to die and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

As I’ve read and reflected on the text of Matthew 6:1-18 and have allowed myself to be challenged to read scripture, the first of four themes of Lent (known in liturgical circles as the four ‘acts of righteousness’), I am made very aware of the deep sin within me and my desperate need to confess and repent of that sin.

There is darkness within me. Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, reminds me of that pervasive darkness and the struggle to keep that darkness in check. Lent reminds me in full force of the battle that rages within me, and the battle that rages within the world, of darkness verses light.

So Ash Wednesday, especially when reading the traditional texts that come with it of Matt. 6:1-18 as well as Joel 2:12-18, acts as a ‘reboot’ of the spiritual journey. I’m not a computer geek by any means but when my computer gets slow and sluggish I am occasionally advised to run the ‘defragment’ software in order to clean up the hard drive and help it not get bogged down in little bits and pieces that get stuck in there which aren’t necessary and only go to slowing down and confusing the computer. Ash Wednesday is God’s way of defragmenting us. It takes us out of our potential complacency and distractions, and brings us back to reality to focus on the truly important things of the Christian walk. It takes our minds off of trivial theological disputes (in the case of some of the recent dialogues on the Rubicon it reminds us that mudslinging over what version of the Bible is best or if or how we participate in sacraments, is out of step with the Christian walk) and refocuses us on things of bigger importance.

Lent brings us back to the basics of the story. And the story reveals that though the darkness is all around us and through us, and though we are born sinful and flawed (Ps. 55:5), the darkness cannot overcome the light. The darkness that followed Jesus every step of the way, and in very real ways came close to tempting Him to sin, did not defeat Him. But He did get murdered for standing firm against the darkness. His witness of light came at great cost. So too, our attempt to stand against the darkness should cost us. In fact, if it doesn’t cost us anything it’s worth absolutely nothing.

Ash Wednesday then is reboot day. It is the beginning of our walk towards Easter Sunday, where Jesus defeated sin and death. It reminds us that we too have sin within us that needs to be overcome. It reminds us that we too are on a journey towards our own death. It reminds us that, with Jesus, we too can overcome the sin and death in our own lives.

But it leaves us with choices to make. How than shall we live? What might we do to stand firm against the darkness? What disciplines might we attempt to embrace in our efforts to stand firm? When the world literally crumbles all around us (Haiti, Chile, Japan), when corrupt governments deal in death and people continue to die in the streets, when death surrounds us everywhere we look, how do we respond? Is our response to death the same as that of the rest of the world’s or are we noticeable in our response to oppression, injustice, and death?

Lent offers suggestions as to where to start with that. The first, as I’ve mentioned, is to read and take seriously the scriptures that have been given to us to reveal something of the nature of God and how we as His created beings are to respond in light of the good news of God’s love for us and for all of creation.

In my next piece I will focus my thoughts on the 2^nd of the 4 acts of righteousness, giving.

Until then I’m still sucking at Lenten disciplines, cursed with sin and longing for Easter,

Dion 

Writer: The Concise Oxford is written by Dion Oxford who, along with his wife, Erinn, and daughter, Cate, live in Toronto, Canada and are committed to journeying alongside people in the margins of society. He and Erinn have spent a combined 30 years working amongst folks who are living on the streets of Toronto. Dion is a recovering Salvationist who currently worships at an evangelical Anglican church but still works for The Salvation Army at the Gateway, a shelter for men experiencing homelessness. He and his wife see the solution to homelessness as the church taking seriously the two great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbour. He likes to read, write, fly kites, cycle long distances, watch TV, play in his band and hang out with his friends.

Lent Musings (1 of 5)

Lent for Dummies - Like Me (by Dion Oxford)

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or those of us who grew up not paying much attention to the Christian calendar, Lent is a season that has often passed us by without even noticing it. Protestant piety made a point of rejecting everything associated with the higher liturgical traditions, for many very good reasons I might add, but sadly threw away a lot of great proven spiritual practices along the way in an effort to purge itself from the many legalistic trappings that can come with liturgical worship.

But in the past few years as I have begun worshipping in a more liturgical tradition, Lent has become of crucial significance to me in my Christian walk. When I started trying to observe the season, I originally needed a “Lent for dummies” lesson. So, as I suspect there are others out there just like me who are interested in Lent but know very little of what it means or where it comes from, here’s my feeble attempt at offering my own flawed version of “Lent for dummies”.

What does the word ‘Lent’ mean?

The word ‘Lent’ has a lengthy evolution. In Latin, the word quadragesima was used to refer to the 40 days leading up to Easter. In the middle ages, the English word ‘Lent’ emerged which means, quite simply, spring. (Which comes from the German word Lenz and the Dutch word lente) This derives from the German root for ‘long’ due to the fact that in springtime the days visibly lengthen. (Notice that ‘Lent’ and ‘Lengthen’ are very similar)

The practice and Purpose of Lent

(This entire section comes from http://www.crivoice.org/cylent.html)

“Originating in the fourth century of the church, the season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before Easter. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.

Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance.

Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Some churches today still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days during Lent, especially the giving up of meat, alcohol, sweets, and other types of food. Other traditions do not place as great an emphasis on fasting, but focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most Christian churches that observe Lent at all focus on it as a time of prayer, especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the need for God’s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God’s marvellous redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as Christians.”

Where do I start if I want to participate in Lent?

As I have attempted over the past few years to go deeper with Lent, I have tried to observe the four emphases of Lent that traditionally are derived from Matthew 6. These are;

1. Scripture (Matthew 6:1-18)
2. Giving (Matthew 6:2-4)
3. Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)
4. Fasting (Matthew 6:16-18)

Hopefully you will find reading the Matthew passage through this lens would be a helpful start if participating in Lent is new to you. And if you think it’s too late to try some of these disciplines this year, hear me plead with you that it is not too late, lest we slip instantly into the legalistic pitfalls that can come with practicing the spiritual disciplines!

So, over the next 4 Lent Musings, I will focus on each of these areas individually as they relate to my own life and my attempt to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.

Longing for Easter,

Dion

Writer: The Concise Oxford is written by Dion Oxford who, along with his wife, Erinn, and daughter, Cate, live in Toronto, Canada and are committed to journeying alongside people in the margins of society. He and Erinn have spent a combined 30 years working amongst folks who are living on the streets of Toronto. Dion is a recovering Salvationist who currently worships at an evangelical Anglican church but still works for The Salvation Army at the Gateway, a shelter for men experiencing homelessness. He and his wife see the solution to homelessness as the church taking seriously the two great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbour. He likes to read, write, fly kites, cycle long distances, watch TV, play in his band and hang out with his friends.

A blessed Easter period for theRubicon community