For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14 ESV)

“Unity, not unvarying uniformity, is the law of God in the world of grace” (A.R. Fausset)…sadly, we cannot witness this in the Body of Christ today. We have fractured ourselves into various tenets, doctrines and denominations. While we hold in common the belief of Jesus Christ – his life, death and resurrection – we bicker and divide over most everything else.

If the Body of Christ (the church) is unable to unite under the head of Christ, what impact can we really have this side of heaven? We stand on our soapboxes, firm on our beliefs, holding our preferred Bible versions and tear down everyone who does not walk out their faith like we do. Love is far from our thoughts, our words and our actions  If we argue over tenets and doctrines but cannot with grace and love consider the truth of another Christ follower, we are nothing but a lot of noise.

Consider…

• Are you patient with another? Do you really want to engage and understand their viewpoint? Or is yours the truth?
• Are you kind in how you speak?  Or are your words harsh, critical and judgmental?
• Arrogance can come in many forms, even in “righteous” thinking. The Pharisees and the Sadducees thought they knew how the Messiah would come but what they “knew” left them blinded to his very presence in their midst.
• Are your thoughts, words and actions honoring to others – most especially with those you don’t agree with?
• Are you spending your time trying to convince others your “rightness” by proving someone else’s “wrongness.”
• Does the passion that is driving you often lead you to indignation? Outrage? Anger?
• Are you able to see truth beyond your own or does truth stop with what you believe?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

FOR WE KNOW IN PART AND WE PROPHESY IN PART, BUT WHEN COMPLETENESS COMES, WHAT IS IN PART DISAPPEARS. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. FOR NOW WE SEE ONLY A REFLECTION AS IN A MIRROR; THEN WE SHALL SEE FACE TO FACE. NOW I KNOW IN PART; THEN I SHALL FULLY, EVEN AS I AM FULLY KNOWN.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Here in lies the truth…WE DON’T KNOW IT ALL.

We can’t.

God has given us the gift to walk out our salvation in the love, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. As much as he has given to us, he asks us to give to others. This is what we can stand firm on. This is what we can pontificate. The rest is like straw on the foundation. (1 Corinthians 3:11-13)

It seemed too early in the morning for the sky to be so ominous and yet as I sat in my favorite chair watching the world awaken outside my window, I could not help but notice the warning in the air.  It appeared this first day of March would be roaring in as a lion.  Ready or not a storm was coming and I could not help but think this was a fitting start to the first day of Lent – a season for the soul that holds its own sense of foreboding.

I have had the blessed grace of living in the two worlds of the church – liturgical and not.  Each have beauty and good to give even if they find it difficult to give it to each other.   We, in all our righteous humanity, always seem to get in the way and make the sharing hard.  Having lived in both expressions of faith, I choose to hold tight to the truth from each but struggle not to consider one more holy. 

We always want something to be best, don’t we?  Yet, the problem resides in who is defining what is best – me, you or God.  I bet you can guess which two don’t belong.

Lent is a season that ushers everyone into the holiest day of the Christian calendar – Easter.  It is a season of ashes and fasting – physical reminders that our humanity is broken and wanting.  The wearing of ashes has long been a biblical sign of mourning, repentance and humility.   Lent simply reminds us it is never too late to wear your own ashes.  It is a burden to own what we have long tried to hide and yet in this somber season there is blessedness in the mourning. 

Many think the dark tone of this season is for the death of Christ but I would challenge the mourning is not for the coming cross of Good Friday but for our sin and culpability that nailed Christ on it.  The blessedness comes in the repentance and the forgiveness the cross gave. Yet no matter how freely it gives, a heart must be ready to accept and to change. 

As I watched through the window the sky turn dark and threatening, I could not help but feel a tumult rising within me.  Lent comes, much like a storm, whether we are ready or not.   In its murkiness we are challenged to linger a little longer in our own tempest, in our own mourning.  It seeks to uncover the dark within us and so we can change our direction.  Lent longs to make our hearts ready for the beauty that comes with Easter.

It doesn’t take long for the pounding rain and blowing wind of a storm to wash the dirt from the air and the earth – everything smells and looks cleaner afterwards.  It is a purification of sorts.  We, in our humanity, need a cleansing downpour. Lent can be the storm that purifies us.  We can watch it through the window but in doing so, we will remain dirty.  We have to enter in and stand in the downpour if we want a washing to come.

So here is the question.  How will you enter into Lent this year? Whether you are liturgical or not, it really doesn’t really matter.  The real concern is will you watch from the window or will you stand in the storm? 

Easter is coming – ready or not.