The Discipline of Lent, Part IV

Part IV of the series on Lenten Discipline: "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). The fourth and final installment on Lenten Discipline is on the topic "works of love." Sometimes simply called "alms," this is a critical component of the Christian life. The intention of this part of the Lenten Discipline is to connect our faith in God's love for us with actions that are loving of others in the world.
Works of Love Jesus teaches us that "God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Love is why Christ came. Love is why Christ died. Love is why God raised Him from the dead. Love is the whole purpose and mission of the Church and of every Christian member: to show God's love in the world. Our response to God's loving gift of Jesus Christ is to share that love with others. 1 John 4:19— "We love because He first loved us."
Consider one or more of these suggestions for this portion of your Lenten Discipline:

1. Use Matthew 25:31-40 and Luke 4:18-19 as guides for choosing to do a work of love.
2. Go out of your way to do something nice for somebody at least once a week during Lent.
3. Make a donation for the needy through your church.
4. Volunteer a portion of your time with a local service organization that serves the poor.
5. Ask the congregation's Welfare committee for suggestions of a needy place or person that could use your time, talent or treasure.
6. Contact your local government center and see if you could perform any kind of volunteer service for the community, such as picking up litter.
7. Contact a hospital, nursing home or prison about making visits. Especially see those who otherwise receive no visitors.
8. Talk to the pastor about visiting shut-in members of the church. Perhaps make something and take it as a gift.
9. When doing your work of love, meditate upon Christ's words, "As you do it for the least of these, you do it for me" (Matt.25:40).
10. Don't tell anyone what you're about... just do it. And don't feel proud at having sacrificed your time for Jesus; His sacrifice was far greater. Simply rejoice that God is working through you and share His love.

The Discipline of Lent, Part III

Part III of the this series on Lenten Discipline: "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). When we come to today's topic, prayer, we finally come to one that all Christians can agree on. Not all Christians are united their understanding of such God-given tools as repentance and fasting, but prayer is one of God's gifts that nearly all Christians agree upon.
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love. Today, then, we'll touch base on the third Lenten Discipline: prayer.
Prayer First of all, we need to answer the question of what prayer is. I like to answer it by stating first what prayer is NOT. Prayer is not mysticism. Prayer is not some sort of mystical activity in which we are drawn closer to God in contemplation and communication. If we want to be drawn closer to God, we go to God's Word and God's Sacraments. Prayer, by contrast, is us talking to God. It's a communication with God that naturally finds its anchor and focus in God's Word... and the best prayers are prayed with an open Bible in front of us. But prayer is not listening TO God, it's TALKING to God.
Daily prayer might include these things:

1. Begin by making the sign of the cross upon yourself in remembrance of your baptism as you speak the words of invocation ("in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen").
2. Use a devotional aid such as Portals of Prayer, the Treasury of Prayer, the Lutheran Hour, or CPH as a guide for prayer and meditation.
3. Use one of the Daily Prayer or Responsive Prayer services in the Lutheran Service Book (pages 294-298), following the lessons in the Daily Lectionary (pages 299-304).
4. The Psalms are a wonderful treasury for prayer. Use them. Sing them. Pray them.
5. Luther's Small Catechism is also is a wonderful tool for meditation and prayer. If you'd like, check out this unique resource: the Small Catechism in Prayer Form.
6. Use the Ten Commandments as a tool to examine yourself. Read each commandment one by one and hold yourself up to the mirror of God's Law. As it reveals to you your sins, turn to God in repentance and pray for forgiveness — knowing also that God's absolution certainly comes to you without delay.
7. Close your prayer time with the Lord's Prayer and with this little Lenten prayer: "Lord God heavenly Father, thank you this day and for this time of prayer. Through the Discipline of Lent, help me to grow in my faith in Your works; through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen."

The Discipline of Lent, Part II

Yesterday's blog post introduced a four-part series on the Discipline of Lent. Lent is our opportunity to answer "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany).
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love. Today, t hen, we'll tackle the second Lenten Discipline: repentance. It's an easy one to tackle because I just blogged on it last week.
Fasting Fasting comes to us from Judaism and was recommended by Jesus both in example and teaching (see Luke 4:2, Matthew 6:16-18, and Mark 2:20). It is a practice that is used to strengthen the spiritual life by weakening one's attractions to pleasures of the senses and redirecting ourselves to the powerful and efficacious Word of God. Fasting, therefore, is not a dietary tool... is a spiritual tool. For this reason, fasting is always coupled with prayer and spiritual preparation.
Fasting, however, does not necessarily mean giving up all food for a day. Oftentimes it is the giving up or limiting of a particular food or food group (sweets, desserts, chocolate, butter, fat, eggs, etc.). Water is never given up in a fast. In addition, children, the elderly, the sick or infirm, and pregnant women should not fast. One practice that you may have heard of is to fast on a particular day, Fridays in Lent are often chosen as a special day of fasting because of it being the day of Christ's death.
By contrast to food, it is possible to fast (abstain) from an activity as well. Fasting from an activity such as watching television, movies, etc. on certain days and/or at certain hours or throughout the season is another way to observe the Lenten fast.
In the end, what you fast from is less important than what you do with the time that you have saved... or what you do with your thoughts when the hunger pangs come on. Fasting, remember, is a spiritual discipline.The idea is to devote ourselves to a time of prayer and the Word.
Many of the following suggestions for fasting have been practiced by Christians for centuries:

1. Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat.
2. Refrain from eating meat (i.e. bloody foods) on all Fridays in Lent, substituting fish for example.
3. Eliminate a food or food group for the entire season. Especially consider saving rich and fatty foods for Easter.
4. Consider not eating before receiving Communion on the Sunday mornings of Lent.
5. Abstain from or limit a favorite activity (television, movies, etc.) for the entire season, and spend the time in prayer, Bible study, and reading devotional material.
6. Don't just give up something that you have to give up for your doctor or diet anyway. Make your fast a voluntary self-denial (i.e., discipline) that you offer to God in prayer.

The Discipline of Lent, Part I

With Lent having begun yesterday, I thought I would begin a series of posts that cover the Discipline of Lent.

What do I mean by discipline? Well, one of the things that is so amazing about Lent is that in this season we hear "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). One of the ways we carry out that struggle against sin death and devil is by exercising the Discipline of Lent.
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love (alms).
These four areas of our Christian Discipleship become the specific occasions and opportunities for spiritual renewal during this season of renewal. Living out a discipline takes our Lord's words about self-denial seriously (Matthew 16:24). Through discipline, we find freedom and grace, just as parental discipline is loving and brings a child to freedom and righteousness (Hebrews 12:3-13). In the Lenten Discipline, we focus our lives on Christ's self-sacrificing passion, death and resurrection, which has brought us forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption by God.
Today we'll tackle the first Lenten Discipline: repentance
Repentance Repentance means turning 180 degrees away from sin to walk toward God. Repentance includes an examination of our lives and our actions in light of God's grace and love, which comes to us free and undeserved through Christ's death and resurrection. St. Paul tells us that we have been joined to Christ's death and resurrection through our dying to sin and rising to new life in Holy Baptism (Romans 6:3-4). Repentance therefore also means returning to our Baptism, remembering our Baptism, and living in that Baptism.
Here are some ways in which we can make that return to our Baptism through the Discipline of Repentance this Lententide:

1. Remember your Baptism each day when you rise and before you retire by placing a small bowl of water in your bedroom, dipping your fingers in it and making the sign of the cross while saying the Invocation: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen."
2. Having attended the Ash Wednesday Liturgy to begin your Lent in repentance, having received the sign of ashes upon your forehead as a sign of repentance and renewal, continue to attend the midweek services as an intentional act of turning away from your sins toward the love of Christ crucified.
3. Attend the Divine Service each Sunday to repent of your signs and receive absolution "from the pastor as from God Himself" (Small Catechism).
4. During your daily prayers, examine your life in light of the Ten Commandments and ask God to forgive you and to lead you into ways of loving him and your neighbor more deeply.
5. Take advantage of private confession with your pastor. If there are not posted hours for private confession, call your pastor to make an appointment with him. In preparation, read Luther's instruction on confession in the Small Catechism.
6. If there is conflict or tension between you and someone else in your life, seek to resolve it so that it does not become a stumbling block to your faith and spiritual growth.
7. Attend the Holy (Maundy) Thursday liturgy to receive a final individual absolution of your sins, in order to close out this season of repentance and renewal.
8. Renew your Baptismal vows at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday as final preparation for the great 50 days of celebrating the Easter victory.