In two weeks, many of us will be forced to make a decision: Is Ash Wednesday or Valentine’s Day more important?
Actually, given that dinner reservations need to be made in advance, many of us need to think about this now! The difficulty is compounded by the fact that shifting your Valentine’s Day plans a day earlier means missing the all-church Shrove Tuesday dinner and shifting them a day later means celebrating in Lent. Neither are optimal solutions, to say the least. (Shifting Valentine’s Day to Monday, on the other hand, makes a great deal of sense!)
It is important to state that our salvation doesn’t depend on observing Ash Wednesday—we are saved by the grace of God because of what Jesus did on the cross. Additionally, Paul explicitly forbids Christians from judging one another on how we keep sacred days (Col. 2:16). In fact, if keeping Ash Wednesday is an attempt to earn favor from God or other people, it would actually be better not to do it.
But assuming that we are entering into the spiritual disciplines of Lent for the right reasons—i.e., we aren’t trying to earn God’s favor or prove ourselves to be super-Christians, but instead seeking humbly to submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives—putting Ash Wednesday before Valentine’s Day makes a great deal of sense.
We need Ash Wednesday. We don’t need it in the sense of our salvation depending on it, but we need it to grow in grace. Growing in grace is like exercise—it won’t happen without concrete practices. Exercise, a good diet, and rest are the ordinary means through which God strengthens our bodies. Similarly, even though we can’t earn Christlikeness through spiritual disciplines (it is a gift of grace!), they are the ordinary means through which the Spirit works in us. God doesn’t “zap” us with Christlikeness in spite of spiritual inactivity; instead, he works through our willing and faithful participation in spiritual disciplines to transform us.
Ash Wednesday offers a critical moment for the disciplines of fasting and repentance. Like all spiritual disciplines, we should do these things regularly, but there are moments when we need to go “all in.” There are times to till the garden up and start over, times to empty the cabinets and clean the kitchen completely, times to hire a trainer and start afresh with diet and physical exercise. There are also moments when we need to spend a day without any distractions—like food and media—so that we can fully expose the dark corners of the closet of our heart. Too much of what needs to be repented of gets missed because we don’t set aside the time for rigorous self-examination.
If possible, set aside February 14 as a time for fasting and confession, and join us as we pray together to our God for mercy.
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
In our Gospel reading on Sunday, Jesus began to preach in Galilee after John the Baptist was arrested, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
We could break apart every phrase: What time? How is it fulfilled? What is the gospel he refers to? When will we see this kingdom that is knocking at the door? Mark packs a ton into one verse; his summary of Jesus’ preaching is just that—a summary.
I am intrigued, though, by what follows. Mark says that Jesus began to preach this message, and then calls Simon and Andrew and James and John to follow him. There is no gap in between these events, and no hesitation on the part of the four men. The leave everything and follow him immediately.
Both John and Luke tell us a bit more of the story. This wasn’t the first time these brothers met Jesus, and this calling wasn’t as abrupt as it seemed. But Mark chooses to leave out those details because he wants us to see something—when Jesus announces the kingdom is ready, the right response is an immediate “about face.” Hesitating, debating, and doubting don’t make any sense, if what Jesus says is true.
How many times do we waver in our willingness to follow? We are torn and pulled and put our energy in all sorts of places. We bet a bit on our career, a bit on our friendships, a bit on pleasure. Diversification is a great investment strategy, but it makes no sense in light of the coming kingdom. If the kingdom is real—if God is showing up, if Jesus is unifying all things under his perfect reign—what do those things matter? They might be good, true gifts that God wants to give us, but they aren’t worth placing in front of devotion to the king of this new kingdom. Only the new kingdom of Jesus offers something solid, something unchanging, something worth betting all our chips on.
It is too easy to see the kingdom of God as one more thing in our portfolio of life. But if it is true, it is the only thing worth going “all in” on.
Steven+
New Year Reflection
The beginning of a new year highlights something significant: We live in two worlds.
From the perspective of the secular world, we just entered a new year. And yet, according to the Church’s calendar, the new year began with the First Sunday of Advent. The two times, or two calendars, reveal that we live our lives in two spheres—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man.
It isn’t that we can divide the two—the modern conception of a sacred-secular divide is a profound mistake, because everything exists under God’s authority and all of our life is within his kingdom. But it is very true that we experience a pretty jarring disconnect between the two, much of the time. What we do at work or in school sometimes doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with the kingdom of God. We inhabit two seemingly disconnected places.
Paul, who openly claimed and used his earthly, Roman citizenship when he thought it strategic, told the Philippian church, “our citizenship is in heaven.” This must have been shocking, because Philippi was a town founded for Roman military veterans. Their patriotism was likely akin to the patriotism our veterans feel—quite strong! He wasn’t criticizing or rebuking them, though. After all, it was in Philippi that he also claimed Roman citizenship after being illegally beaten and jailed. His point was simply that the one world—heaven—was more important than the other world. Our true and eternal citizenship is in heaven, not in Rome or America.
Keeping the two in right priority (i.e., letting the kingdom of God take precedence over earthly kingdoms) is hard, because so much of life is shaped by the earthly kingdom. But we must keep them in right priority if we are to remain true to our higher citizenship. Heaven gets to change how we think about America, but America doesn’t get to change how we think about heaven. We are in both, all the time, but only one gets to be the final answer to the questions of life.
The two mistakes that we easily make are to merge the two or divide the two. Instead, we are called to live as citizens of heaven in the midst of an earthly realm. Heaven sets our priorities, our character, and our hopes, but heaven is not lived in the abstract—it is lived out in the messiness and difficulty of the particular place in which God has planted us. This means feeling out of place, like exiles and strangers. Anyone seeking to live by heaven’s code of ethics (like humility, gentleness, or purity) as a faithful member of an earthly kingdom will experience the disconnect. The two don’t usually agree! And yet, the witness of the Scriptures is that we will be better earthly citizens if we let the code of heaven—such as forgiveness, love, and righteousness—be our standard.
Each time you write the date “2024” over the next few weeks, let it be a reminder to you of your dual citizenship, and let that reminder stir you to live as heaven’s citizen in your earthly home.
Steven+