This Week's Lectionary Passage: Romans 8b-13
“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);9because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.11The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.13For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Word is near you. It is already there. You know the answer. Just listen. It's there; hidden deep within your being. Just believe. Just confess. Or is it confess and then believe? If you notice, the order gets reversed either in the writing or in the translation. Either way...does it matter? Do we confess and then believe or do we believe and then confess? Do we believe what we confess or do we confess what we believe? Oh, I'm so confused...
I know. They are just words. But really, does it matter? I'm thinking there are a whole lot of rules to this belief thing. Do we confess? Do we believe? Do we confess our beliefs or believe our confessions? Oh, good grief! I don't care. I'm pretty convinced God doesn't care. God just desires that we be with God, that we walk through that threshold where the invitation to "come and see this thing that has happened" is hanging, waiting for each of us. And the truth is that the invitation is open to all. As the passsage says, there is no distinction.
So, what came first--the chicken or the egg? The confession or the belief? I don't know. I don't think it matters. God so desires to be with each of us--so much so that God came to this earth as Emmanuel, God With Us. Call it belief. God so desires that we realize how much we need God--so much so that God came to show us the way. Call it confession. But Paul left it open: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Everyone? No rules? No prescribed order of how things happen? Nope. Just call. That's all it takes. Call. That's all God wants. And the door will open and you will be welcomed in. (So what happened to all those rules?)
So as we journey to the Cross, let us stop, step back, let go of the rules and come and see this thing that has happened. And then, even in the shadows, let us open our eyes and our heart to doing the same thing that God has done. Invite your neighbor to come and see this thing that has happened. (Rules? Nope. A Profile of who is accepted? Nope. An invitation to all? Yep, that's the way it works! Amazing, isn't it?)
Grace and Peace,
Shelli
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23: 34)
Fat Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday--there are a plethora names for this day. Most of us understand it as an eat-all-you-can, party-till-you-drop day before we enter our Lenten fast. So, don your Mardi Gras beads and stuff yourself with rich syruppy pancakes and get it all out of your system. Right?
Well, at the risk of interrupting your partying, I think it's about something more. (Don't you hate that?) The word "shrove" (as in "Shrove Tuesday") comes, sadly, not from the word for over-the-top entertaining but from the English verb "shrive", meaning confess. (Oh, shoot, you say!) I know, it's a hard word for us, particularly when we're drowning ourselves in pancakes. But, yes, it is a day of preparation, a day when we leave behind what we know, those things to which we are accustomed, and begin the journey to the Cross.
It is sad that in our world, there are many of us (Christians, that is) that have equated confession with judgment. And we want to run from it. After all, sin is somewhat subjective when you think about it. Try as we might, there are few "black and whites" when it comes to sin and history has shown that when a culture inflicts that notion, oppression of some type usually results. So confession becomes a somewhat shaky ground on which we tread.
In Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Speaking of Sin, she says that "sin is our only hope, because the recognition that something is wrong is the first step toward setting it right again." That is what this day represents--the invitation to set things right, to confess, to shrive. It is the day to prepare, to begin that long and arduous turn away from who we have made ourselves to be and toward God and God's vision for what we could become. Forgiveness is not the thing that we are trying to attain. It is the starting point, a gift from God for those who want to begin again.
So, in the midst of your Mardi Gras wildness and your pancake extravaganzas, as you don your masks for one more hidden transgression, remember to stop, to shrive, to begin the turn. Lent begins tomorrow.
For this season, I will try (yes I will try!) to post at least a short devotional every day on this blog. Many of you are part of the email group that gets it every time I post. (For those who have signed up through this blog, you will get it but for some reason known only to Google, you will get it 12-18 hours later. Go figure!) So if there are others that would like to be part of the email group that gets it right away, just email me through the St. Paul's website at stpaulshouston.org. (Go to "About St. Paul's", then "staff").
Additionally, I am reposting my "Bread and Wine" Lenten blog from several years ago. It is located at http://breadandwine-lentenstudy.blogspot.com/ or you can let me know if you would like to be added to that email group.
AND another opportunity...I have been posting my Lectionary notes that many of you get emailed each Thursday on http://journeytopenuel.blogspot.com/ It's a once-a-week post but if you're interested, take a look.
Thanks for being a part of my Lenten journey!
Grace and Peace,
Shelli
