We tend to think of Lent as a season in which we give things up, but it can also be a time to intentionally add practices to our spiritual lives. In addition to giving up pretzels (my absolute favorite snack food, and likely the reason I’ve been unable to lose weight 🤣), I’m adding this devotional to my morning Jesus time. •
Your Lenten additive may look like making someone a meal, spending more time in prayer, or reading more Bible passages you find challenging or even frustrating. This is a season of reflection as darkness turns to hope. Be mindful. Be intentional. Look for hope where you ordinarily would not. Or think about how you can renew hope (in humanity, in the future, etc) for somebody else.
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An atheist friend once pointed out to me that it’s pretty senseless to compare 40 days of giving up snack food or alcohol or Netflix to what Jesus endured on the cross- as if my “sacrifice” means anything in comparison. And, okay, I get that. But the sacrifice is only part of it, I think. There’s a key piece of Lenten denial that hints at how we should be living all the time: learning to say no to things that, in excess, are not good for us. Learning that just because you CAN have something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. •
I don’t think my giving up pretzels is comparable to being crucified- obviously it’s not. But for all the times I mindlessly binged on them while watching Netflix, realized too late how much of the box was gone, and my stomach hurting...well, it’s far too easy for me to make a morally neutral activity into something unhealthy. So denying myself something I enjoy for a period of time is teaching me to fill that dependency in another way- a healthier way (my two hedonistic cats have no idea what this means, and never will 😂). •
This is a small but effective way to “pick up your cross” at any point of the year.
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With the Lenten season coming up, it’s time to discuss something that’s been on my mind for a while: Pharisees. To Jewish people, hearing “Pharisee” used as a catch-all phrase to describe religious hypocrites is offensive, if not anti-semitic. Considering I come from a Jewish background, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t aware of this until I started reading The Jewish Annotated New Testament (which I highly recommend). •
But being a critical part of the gospel story, we can’t ignore Pharisees, obviously. We can’t write them out of Scripture. So how do we handle this discussion in our Bible studies? How should pastors use the term “Pharisee” in upcoming sermons about Good Friday? •
One solution is recognizing who the Pharisees were *before* we meet them in the gospels. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg says, "The Pharisees were the ancestors to Rabbinic Judaism...that word has been used to murder & expel us for centuries– Inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the Holocaust, you name it. When people use “Pharisee” to describe what someone horrible is doing, it implies that Jewish law somehow condones that thing... And I will tell you, in the cases I’ve seen it used? Jewish law does NOT." •
Judaism is not a static tradition; it's evolved greatly since the gospels were written. If there's anything consistent about Judaism, from the dawn of Genesis until today, it's this: it's always been nuanced. It's always been rich and complex. It should be a given that the representation we see in the Gospels is only one side -- and far from the only one.
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I tend to avoid using the No True Scotsman fallacy with other Christians- that is, determining who is “in” and who is “out” by arbitrary criteria like how often they use bad words or drink or gossip. Theological points outside of the Nicene/Apostles creeds can be debated for centuries without resolution. So as far as determining “real faith” goes (as much as possible without having the mind of God), my standard is this: •
Does your faith change the way you live? •
Is your reason for getting up in the morning, for pressing on when hope is barely a thread, for how you respond to someone who was cruel to you, for what you choose to do when the wrong moral choice is easier than the right one, for what decisions you make with your money and your time...are those things influenced by the gospel? •
Does your faith influence the way you live, or leave you exactly as you were before?
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I recently saw this tweet from a user called "Atheist Forum": "CHRISTIANITY: Belief that one God created a universe 13.79 billion yrs old, 93 billion light yrs in diameter (1 light yr = approx. 6 trillion miles), consisting of over 200 billion galaxies, each containing ave. of 200 billion stars, only to have a personal relationship with you." •
It was meant to be mocking, but I actually love it. It's as true as it is ludicrous, and that's *exactly the point.* The gospel is scandalous. Grace is scandalous. A Christianity without scandal or the potential to offend is just a very colorful story. •
Even Bible teacher @bethmoorelpm had this to say about it: "Atheist forum don’t know he’s done broke us all out in revival. Somebody get him a parking place of the week this Sunday and feed him a buttermilk fried chicken lunch on the grounds. With biscuits." I completely agree 😂
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