Lent: Give Up More

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. - James 5:1-6

I wish I could give up soda. It would be so good for my health, and while I’d miss the small rush of endorphins every time I sipped, those moments are fleeting, which is why I continue to go back for more and more and more soda. I wish I could stay on a diet. I wish I’d be kinder and gentler. I wish I wasn’t so angry at times.

 

Much about these articles over the last month and a half have been about giving up certain feelings or actions. As much as I may try though, I will never be able to completely rid myself of these things. In moments of exhaustion and frustration, animosity will very likely pop up. When I am overwhelmed, there will be moments of indifference. And when these moments happen, it will be ok, I will still be loved by God, and so will you.

The point of these articles is not to somehow purge ourselves of these very human experiences. Instead, by lifting up the problems with these behaviors, we have been able to look at other choices as possibilities. My behaviors, the ways I respond to situations, the emotions I choose to act upon, these are tools; tools that we use to make our way through our lives. As followers of Christ though, we are called not to just make our way through life, but to live out our faith while journeying together. Yes, we could use any and all tools available to us - animosity, indifference, rage and hate - but our faith calls us to use less of some of these tools. Luxury items like gold and silver, big screen TVs and self driving cars, their use can feel good, but their production hides the suffering of workers who make these things for us, their use allows us to bypass the sufferings of others. They can fill the voids in our souls that normally get filled by our faith but they will only fill those spaces temporarily. Paul says that ““All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Perhaps it is lawful for us to harbor animosity, to be indifferent, to be selfish, to live in fear, to be impatient; but perhaps they are not so beneficial to our faith or to our faith journeys.

As we move into Easter, perhaps we don’t need more tools, more stuff, more time, perhaps we don’t need more. Perhaps we need less, perhaps we need what is beneficial, perhaps we need what is loving. I want to invite us all to seek out what deepens our relationships, what deepens our connections with God and what deepens our faith.  

- Pastor Tim