Lent: Life from Ashes

By Michael Bowman

Our creation story in Genesis tells us that God made man (Hebrew word, adam) out of the dust of the ground (Hebrew word, adamah). God makes woman the same way. And God has a great plan for their lives.

The man and woman, as they walk with God in the cool of the day, learn how to be fully alive, how to tend and care for the garden, as well as how to tend and care for one another. Being fruitful and multiplying, as God had commanded them, became a natural part of what it meant to be alive. All was well.

That is until the man and woman wanted more. There was one forbidden tree that seemed to offer the more that the man and woman were looking for. They wanted to learn good and evil for themselves…they wanted to be like God. As they reached for that forbidden fruit and took turns eating it, they did, in fact, learn new things, but it was not quite what they expected. With each bite from the forbidden fruit, the man and woman learned fear, blame, guilt, and shame. When God comes looking for them, the man and woman now hide.

Then, the man and woman are sent out from the garden by God, and they learned a new reality – death.

“…you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19

Or, as Eugene Peterson translates this verse, “…you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”

These words ring out from sanctuaries and chapels, homes and cathedrals, throughout the world every year on a Wednesday (known as Ash Wednesday) that begins a season known as Lent.

As it goes, people will enter into these sacred spaces and as these words are shared with them, a mixture of oil and ashes will be smeared (the church-y word is “imposed”) on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. This mark is a reminder of our mortality as humans – that one day, we will face the reality of death.

Lent has begun, and the reminder of the reality of death will ring in our ears for the next 40(ish) days.

HOW WE GOT HERE:

Advent begins the Christian year with the pregnant expectation of new life in God. At Christmas, birth has been given to new possibilities of life in God. During Epiphany, we, like naive children, or like the naive magi, dare to dream big and impossible dreams and journey after a seemingly unreachable star not knowing what may be waiting for us when we arrive.

And then we come to Lent. Lent is a season of adolescence. We have spent the last two months as childlike dreamers, but we now recognize our innocence has been lost. At Lent, we come to a full stop and take an account of who we are, or maybe who we have become. We look inward and focus on the difficult realities of ourselves, others, or the world around us. We allow ourselves to ask questions, work through doubt, and even wrestle for our identity and purpose.

Matthew tells a story in his Gospel about a ridiculous looking and sounding man named John. John baptized people, so he was known as John the Baptist…because that’s what he did (kind of like how Big Bird is named Big Bird because he’s a big bird…okay, sorry for that). Jesus, who happens to be John’s cousin, shows up one day to be baptized by John.

As Jesus comes up out of the water, God speaks and shares with everyone present exactly who Jesus is – “my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The Holy Spirit descends and rests on Jesus like a dove. Then, the Holy Spirit immediately sends Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). Notice, Jesus was not led by the Spirit into public ministry – preaching, healing, etc. – but into the wilderness to be tempted.

This is meant to cause the reader to remember the story of God’s people when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The Book of Exodus shares with us how God’s people, the Israelites, spent 40 years in the wilderness (the desert) before God led them into the Promised Land.

In both stories, one may notice how God provides for Jesus and his people. When the devil leaves Jesus, we are told the angels minister to him. Even while the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness, God provided them with “manna” that they may continue to be fed.

LENT FOR YOU AND ME:

During Lent, we not only remember these stories, but we enter into our own wilderness – whatever it may be. Our journey in Lent begins with a reminder that we will die one day – all of us. Throughout Lent, if we allow it, we enter into the wilderness and face head-on our present temptations, the threats of evil in our world today, our biggest questions and doubts, how we may need to die to ourselves to make more room for Christ, and all of the ways in which we have misplaced our loyalties or our desires. In the wilderness, we can see more clearly the places in our lives where we need healing most, the aspects of who we are that need to be made whole, or the dead places in us and around us that need to be restored back to life.

“Lent invites us to risk the journey through death to life, to enter a wilderness filled with danger, to enter the desert where both God and the evil one dwell.” – John H. Westerhoff III
(I can’t get through one of these without quoting this guy…)

If you are like me, you may want to skip Lent completely. It might sound because Lent, as a whole, sounds too sad. Maybe, all you know about Lent is that we are supposed to give up sugar or Facebook, and you don’t want to give up either. Or, maybe, you would rather skip Lent and get to Easter, because Easter means feasts, time with family, pastel colors, and smiling faces.

The good news for us is that Lent is a season devoted to giving us room to remember just how easy it is for us to forget that we are totally dependent on God and his grace for life, itself.

Lent is not a season to be skipped over. The season is set aside to allow followers of Jesus to form new habits rooted in spiritual disciplines. It is a time where God’s people rid themselves of comforts or things of this world, to create more room for God in their lives. Really, Lent can be thought of as a time where we open our broken selves to God to allow him to make us whole.

Though Lent is 40-plus days long and can feel long, the wait is worth it. Lent ends with perhaps the biggest and greatest celebration of the entire Christian year…

Easter is coming.

Yet, to skip over Lent would be to miss the point of Easter.

Without death, there is no resurrection.

The apostle Paul said it another way – “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies…What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 15:36,42)

We begin Lent with ashes being smeared onto our foreheads and being told that we will die. We are adolescents searching for our identity in the dark. Yet, we end Lent with an acknowledgment of who we are and what we live for, on the cusp of our new story – we are to become witnesses and recipients of God bringing the dead back to life.

HELPFUL PRACTICES:

Again, most people think Lent is a time where we are supposed to give up stuff we like – social media, sugar, fatty foods, laughter, or fun (just kidding about those last two). But this would be missing the point.

This Lent, try something different.

First, go to an Ash Wednesday service and be reminded of your mortality. Then, give yourself time and space each day going forward to look inward. Enter into the wilderness, knowing that you are not going alone – the Spirit is with you. Search for how you have been trying to define yourself, for the ways in which you have done wrong, for the questions and doubts that you may have, for the areas in your life that need healing, or for the dead parts of your life that need to be brought back to life. Ask God to help you. Fast. Give yourself time for silence. Read the Scripture. Listen.

As you do this, you may begin to find broken areas of your life. Offer these areas of brokenness to God. Allow him to make these places whole.

Dare to remember that God made life from ashes, and he is going to do it again.

Don’t Miss Christmas

Don’t Miss Christmas

By Michael Bowman

 

After All

 

O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the
brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known
the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him
perfectly in heaven; wherewith you and the Holy Spirit he
lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
 
 
Here we are at the culmination of the chaotic and craziness that is our consumeristic holiday season as we know it. We have come to the day that we have been anticipating and singing about. The day that we have been frantically buying gifts and wrapping them so that they can be torn into this morning and possibly even forgotten about this afternoon. It is Christmas.
 
In the midst of the cultural craziness, we chose throughout Advent to slow down and to pay attention to all that was happening around us and within us. We stopped “doing” and we began “waiting.” We were, of course, eagerly anticipating Christ’s coming, remembering he has already come and that he is coming again. And after all our waiting, Christ has come.
 

So, pause. Do not miss it.

 

 

The Birth, According to…

 

In our Bibles, we are fortunate to have four different Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. That is, four different narratives telling us about Jesus and the life he lived– all that he did and said. It is interesting, however, that only two of them actually give us an account of Jesus’ birth: Matthew and Luke. And even in these two gospel accounts, the birth narrative focuses more on those who actually took notice of the birth rather than the birth itself. 
 
This is significant. The authors want us to take notice of who it was that actually recognized that the Christ had come. Because it may not be exactly who we might have guessed. So who was it? Who were the ones who actually took notice that the Savior of the World had been born?
 
According to Luke, the only people who noticed were some shepherds sitting out in a field watching sheep do sheep things when an angel of the Lord showed up out of nowhere and began talking to them. Even if it was good news, this had to at least startle the shepherds. But then, as the angel told them about this baby that has been born, an entire angelic army appeared suddenly, shouting out, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14 NRSV)
So the shepherds looked at one another (probably picking their jaws up off the ground) and said together, “We got to go to Bethlehem and see what this is all about.” (My translation of Luke 2:15-16.)
 
In Matthew’s account, we jump from an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph to some “wise men from the East” showing up in Jerusalem asking King Herod where this newborn “king of the Jews” is so that they may “pay him homage.” It needs to be noted that the word used in the Greek here for “homage” is translated throughout the New Testament as meaning to kneel or prostrate oneself in reverence or respect.
 

But who were these “wise men?”

 

 

We Three… Dudes?

 

 

These “wise men” or “magi” as most scholars agree are better referred to as astrologers. They were not kings, and there is no evidence that there were only three of them (don’t believe the Christmas carol.)

These men studied the stars, and in their studies, they had been led to believe that a great new leader had been born in Judea. Being “from the East,” these men were likely Gentiles. Fast forward in the story and we find these “wise men,” following a star (how’s that for a GPS?), arrived to see the newborn king, though he was no longer a newborn but a toddler close to the age of two. And as soon as they step into his presence, the men knelt down and worshipped Jesus, offering him gifts fit for a king. 
 
Now, why is it important we understand that in our two Gospel accounts that include a birth narrative, the only people who took notice of Jesus’ birth were some shepherds who were working a late shift and some Gentile star-gazers? 
 
Because seemingly everyone else missed it. 
 
Where were the priests? Where were the good, highly religious and ritually-pure folks? Where were those who never missed a prayer service? Where were those with “perfect attendance” in Sunday school? Honestly, where were the God-fearers? Where were those who knew their Scriptures, who memorized and followed their Torah? Do you mean to tell me that the ‘religious elite’ missed the birth of Jesus?
 

It can’t be more clear: they all missed it.

 

 

The Free Gift of Christmas

 

 

So, here is my plea for you (and me) this Christmas: let’s not miss it.
 
We know how chaotic this time of the year can be. We know how easy it can be to get swept up in the consumeristic cultural Christmas of our day. It is easy to even believe that Christmas is about gifts, receiving or giving, time with family or friends, or Santa Claus. It is easy to use the nostalgia that Christmas offers to escape the harsh and difficult realities in our daily lives. And all of this muddies the waters of what Christmas truly offers us. 
 
Christmas is a season of possibilities
 
In the middle of our distortions, God comes to us. At Christmas, we retell and remember the story of God coming unexpectedly as a baby born to a poor and lowly family…to a virgin and unwed mother…born homeless and born to die…so that the world might be made whole again. He came quietly, almost unnoticeably as we have seen, showing up in the middle of the everyday jumble and mess of life. His birth was easy to miss, even then.
 
May we not be those who miss it. The Creator of the universe, as Eugene Peterson translates the disciple John’s words, “became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” And with him came new possibilities for the dark world the moment he was born.
 
Christmas reveals that God comes for all people – those who are eagerly looking for him and even those who are not – offering new possibilities…offering new life. Light is now shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not and will not overcome it.
 
Jesus is here. Come now and adore Him.

 

 

Michael Bowman is the Student Minister at Christ Church UMC.  He is the grateful husband of Sara and dad to Grady. Michael earned his B.A. in Religious Studies from UT-Chattanooga, where he met Sara. He also holds a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Church Planting from Asbury Theological Seminary. Michael enjoys spending time with Sara, running, good coffee, reading, playing basketball, and playing with their two dogs, Gus and Lily. As a good Memphis native, Michael is an avid Memphis Grizzlies fan.

Follow him on Twitter: @bichaelmowman

A Closer Look at Advent

By Michael Bowman

ADVENT… 

is the beginning of the Church year. It is our starting point.

Advent begins a six-month period of time where the Church focuses on and relives the story of Jesus.

 

Advent is a quiet season that invites every one of us to slow down. It is a season for fasting, for paying attention, for contemplation, and for preparation. It is a place in our American cultural calendars which comes just after Thanksgiving ends, and the world around us begins its frantic decorating, whirlwind of present-purchasing, and calendar-filling amounts of party-going. In the midst of all this, Advent offers us the opportunity to slow down and wait. But wait for what?

 

Each Advent we step back into the story of Jesus. We are reminded that the Savior of the world has come and He is coming again – by the way, Advent literally means “coming” or “arrival.” At Advent we wait with anticipation, with expectation, and we prepare for the coming of Jesus.

 

We remember that the Savior of the world came as a baby to a family that was not perfect, to a family like yours and mine that had its own scars and wounds that needed healing; families that, as my good friend Tom Fuerst once wrote, “only God could love.” (Fuerst, Underdogs and Outsiders)

 

Advent reminds us that our Savior loves being in the middle of all human activity, whether it be good or bad, clean or dirty, put together or falling apart, seeking redemption in each and every aspect of human life.

 

ADVENT IS A PARADOX 

Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “I think the Church is the only thing that can make our terrible world endurable and the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the Body of Christ and on that we feed.” Advent is meant to remind us that this is true, and it is a bit paradoxical. We make up this Body of Christ, yet we also make up this world. We are meant to be lights in a dark world, but often may only make things dimmer. And Advent is a season full of paradoxes.

 

John H. Westerhoff III has noted the paradoxes at play in Advent: “longing anticipation and patient watching; transforming the way we envision life and yet living prepared; waiting for what never seems to come and continuing in hopeful trust; desiring to give up control and opening ourselves to few possibilities for life.”

 

Even further, it offers a contradictory way of being in the midst of possibly our most chaotic and distracting season of life: the holidays.

 

As the world continues in its race of consuming more and doing more, with no end in sight, Advent invites us to try a different way. The holiday season brings with it an ever present reality of chaos and distraction. It brings with it bad memories, and reveals the hurts or wounds within our families or relationships. It throws in our faces false hopes and false joys with propositions of, “If you buy this you’ll be happy… if you get her this she will love you… if you spend time with those you love this holiday season then all the bad things in life will disappear…”

 

Advent reminds us of something more. Advent is a season where doing really isn’t allowed. We are not meant to “do.” During Advent, we are meant to “wait.” We wait and long for the coming of the One who will make all things new, who will wipe away every tear, who offers us real life (and life abundantly), who cares about our hopes and dreams, who truly sees us, truly knows us, and truly loves us simply for who we are. We can’t buy that like a present to fit perfectly under our will-trimmed tree. We can only wait.

 

Think about the paradox of Advent as good news. Jesus, the Savior of the world has come, and He is coming again.

 

THE INVITATION

Let me invite you, this Advent season, to slow down. Don’t give in to the chaos or the distractions. Find moments of silence throughout your day (for those of you like me, this sounds terrifying, so I get it.) Seek out moments of solitude where you can really reflect on what is going on within and around you.

 

I invite you this Advent season to be present – with yourself, with your surroundings, and with others. Pay attention. Pray. Meditate. Be vigilant and actively watch for Jesus. Listen to others around you really well. Be slow to speak. Slow down enough to get in touch with yourself again, with your hopes and dreams, your longings and desires. Take notice of these things.

 

Let us take this time to clean out the chaotic and disorderly parts of our endlessly busy lives and prepare for the coming of our Lord. Decorate. Be hospitable. Prepare for a party! Make way for coming of the Lord. The former things are passing a way, and all things are being made new.

 

Michael Bowman is the Student Minister at Christ Church UMC.  He is the grateful husband to Sara and dad to Grady. Michael earned his B.A. in Religious Studies from UT-Chattanooga, where he met Sara. He also holds a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Church Planting from Asbury Theological Seminary. Michael enjoys spending time with Sara, running, good coffee, reading, playing basketball, and playing with their two dogs, Gus and Lily. As a good Memphis native, Michael is an avid Memphis Grizzlies fan.

Follow him on Twitter: @bichaelmowman