Archive for March, 2006

Life That Is Really Life

Sunday, March 19th, 2006

Presented March 19th, 2006, by Chris Douglas

Scott had been looking forward to the opening of the movie, “Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” for months. The movie, based on The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, opened this past December. It happened to be at a time we were on vacation in Florida. But because Scott had waited so long for this movie to come out, on a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon in Florida, we went to a movie theatre. On the big screen, the movie was captivating and I truly felt myself transported into Narnia. In fact, I shivered from the cold as I watched the movie. It all seemed so real, like I was really there. When the movie was over and we stepped outside into the warm sunshine, I had some moments of disorientation. Narnia had seemed so real. Which was really life: my time with the Ice Queen in Narnia, or this sunshine and warmth of central Florida?

What is real life? Our theme during this Lenten season comes from the scripture in I Timothy 6:19, “…take hold of the life that really is life.”

The six weeks of Lent, as we journey toward Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is a good time for us to pause and ask ourselves, “What is the life that really is life?” I’d like for us to reflect on that question this morning in light of two scriptures in our lectionary for today. In Exodus 20 we have the Ten Commandments God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai. Moses and the Hebrew people brought out of slavery in Egypt came to believe that if they followed the Commandments that they would have real life.

In John 2, with Jesus cleansing the Temple, we are reminded the Jewish people believed that “real life” was found in making the ritual sacrifices of a dove, a pigeon, or even a lamb. They believed that by paying money for a burnt offering at the Temple that God would be pleased and bless them, and they would experience real life.

Today in North American, middle class society, we are taught that real life is in buying stuff—big screen TV’s, new cars, fashionable clothes, beautiful houses. Our culture would tell us that the American Dream is “life that is really life.”

What about for you? What is the life “that really is life?” What was the writer of I Timothy talking about when he encouraged Timothy to “take hold of the life that really is life?”

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The Cost of One’s True Self

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

Mark 8:31-38
Presented March 12th, 2006, by Kathy Reid

Did you see Schindler’s List, the Stephen Spielberg movie, more than ten years ago? I would imagine that if those of us who saw it, probably couldn’t watch it twice. I couldn’t. I said that I could not go. But kids have a way of pushing their parents. My son, Jacob, had to see the movie—for extra credit. And he really needed the extra credit. He said that he could not go alone. So I went with him.

I’m sure that even those of you who haven’t seen it, know that it is the story of a man, not a very admirable man, in many ways. Schindler, who partied with the Nazis and won favor with them, used his munitions factories to literally buy the lives of Jewish people.

This story is literally about buying back lives.

Now critics say that the major problem with the movie is that there is little or no motivation for Schindler’s change of heart. What makes someone who from all outward appearances is not an activist, nor a crusader, put himself in such danger. Why would he risk everything for others?

As a Christian, I would say that Schindler finds his true self, a self that is giving, a caring self, that takes risks for the sake of others.

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Holy Water

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15
Presented March 5th, 2006, by Jeanne Davies
The First Sunday in Lent

I first learned to appreciate the holiness of water when living in Oregon almost twenty years ago. I spent time there with Native Americans, and learned from their rituals of suffering, including the inipi, or the sweat lodge. The inipi is a low enclosed space. You must crawl on your hands and knees to enter. Inside it is very hot and steamy. You sit and sing and pray and suffer together; and there is an intensity to the prayer that is not always present in your average Sunday worship service. Now, I always joked that I had an advantage in the inipi coming from the Midwest. Those poor Northwesterners, I’d say. This is just like July in Chicago – unbearably hot and humid. But the truth is that I suffered as well and when I got out, I was grateful for a cool drink and even more grateful for a shower, an abundance of life-giving water flowing from the tap.

My mother used to say, “Why do you do that? You don’t need to go looking for suffering. There’s plenty of suffering in the world. Suffering will find you.” I know that is true. There is no shortage of suffering in the world. But the inipi teaches us to suffer well, which is worth learning. The sweat lodge, they say, is to prepare you for the big sweat lodge, which is out here. In our Christian tradition, we used to have rituals of suffering – fasting and penitence. But these have long gone out of fashion and the goal of our culture and our faith has become avoidance of suffering as much as possible.

There is a clarity that comes from suffering, a stripping away of all that is unnecessary, and we see the life that really is life. It is in our suffering that we understand what is our true joy.

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