Brennan Manning

A Little MCC on a Rainy Tuesday

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The latest musical offering in the Red Sled is Mary Chapin Carpenter’s most recent album, Sometimes Just the Sky.

I added it to the rotation in advance of seeing her live at the CMA Theater inside the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s a semi-bucket list goal, meaning I never officially added it to the bucket list but it might as well have been there.

As usual, it’s fantastic. Her music lifts me out of a dreary afternoon commute on the interstate and her songs paint tranquil pictures in my mind. Good music always takes me out of the ordinary and to a place where anything, including the extraordinary, can happen.

I’m looking forward to seeing her in concert Friday at 8 pm. It will be well worth the time and money spent, I’m sure.

As usual, here’s the link if you want to sample and/or buy this instant classic.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B078KG7DZ2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522889699&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=mary+chapin+carpenter+sometimes+just+the+sky

Some Days

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I feel like this is a typical Monday for most. I doubt anyone actually put literal keys into any refrigerators, but I think this little meme captures the essence of why most people loathe and despise Mondays.

For me, they come way too early in the week and last much too long. Mondays at 5 am are just rude, plain and simple. Especially when it’s still dark outside.

But Mondays are still just 24 hours long, no matter how unwelcome or unruly they are. Even the worst of days still only lasts 1,440 minutes (or 86,400 seconds if you really want to impress your friends).

The trick to getting through Mondays, whether actual calendar days or proverbial ones, is to learn to laugh at yourself, forgive yourself, and move on.

Take everyone else more seriously and take yourself way less seriously. After all, it could be you finding your car keys in the fridge one day.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

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“O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

It’s officially Easter. It also happens to be April Fools’ Day. It seems fitting when most of the world looks at Christians as fools for believing and living as they do.

It does seem foolish to strive for greatness by becoming the servant of all.

It does seem foolish to turn the other cheek instead of striking back.

It does seem foolish to seek to gain your life by losing it and to pick up your cross daily to die to sin and to follow Jesus.

It does seem foolish to proclaim Jesus words that He is the way, the truth, and the life in the face of so many others who would tell you that there are many paths to God.

It does seem foolish to follow a carpenter’s son who wrote no books and led no great revolts. His ministry lasted barely three years and He died as a criminal in the worst way possible.

Yet what seems like foolishness to most is the wisdom of God.

That same carpenter’s son lived sinlessly, and after dying on the cross, defeated sin, death, and hell forever by raising from the grave after three short days.

We now mark history by His life and there are billions who profess to follow this Jesus, who is both Lord and God.

So once again, happy Easter. May both your words and your actions testify to this foolishness that is wiser than the wisdom of men.

 

Holy Saturday

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“O God, Creator of heaven and earth:  Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the  coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

According to weather reports, tomorrow will be a wet soggy mess. And it’s also Easter Sunday. Too bad the weather couldn’t have carried over from today with its perfect temperatures and blue skies.

Still, the point of Sunday isn’t the weather but an empty tomb. Jesus may well be the only figure in history to have borrowed a tomb. He really only needed it for Saturday.

It’s true that Jesus is alive and it’s also true that He’s coming back to take His followers with Him and to rescue and redeem a fallen creation.

That Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is a sort of in-between day, coming in between the crucifixion and the resurrection. Right now, it feels a lot like living in the in-between, looking back on the incarnation and eagerly awaiting the Second Coming.

The hope is that just as surely as Jesus walked out of the tomb on that Sunday morning, He will return, just as real and just as alive.

Sure, there will be easter bunnies and chocolate and easter egg hunts. I don’t have a problem with all that. I only need to remember that above all that reigns the living and breathing Jesus. And that makes even a wet and rainy mess of a day better.

 

 

 

Good Friday

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My church had its annual Good Friday service. It was another quiet meditative service where you could come and go at your own pace. There were seven stations with depictions of moments during Christ’s journey to Calvary.

Again, it was quite the moving experience. It’s easy looking back on the event through the eyes of the Resurrection to call it a good Friday, but I’m certain that it didn’t seem like a good day at the time.

The disciples were watching the one they had pinned all their hopes and dreams on being murdered in the most horrific way possible. They had seen Him carried away to be buried in a tomb.

Probably one of the worst moments in anyone’s life is when something they hoped for doesn’t come through. The Bible talks about hope deferred making the spirit sick.

True, the disciples had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. They had witnessed Him bringing others back to life. But they had never seen someone raise himself from the dead. And according to Isaiah 53, He was a mangled, bloody mess. How could He come back to life from that?

I’m thankful this Easter season that such speculation is just that– theoretical and nothing more. We who are on this side of that first Resurrection Sunday know that Jesus did indeed rise from that grave.

My favorite quote from Peter Marshall is that the stone at the tomb wasn’t rolled away so that Jesus could get out but so that the disciples could get in and see for themselves that He was no longer there.

My goal this year is to not gloss over what Easter Sunday means. I want it to sink in deep to the very core of my being. Let it start now.

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song” (Pope John Paul II).

Hurry Up and Slow Down

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“Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

I attended my church’s annual Maundy Thursday service. As usual, it was a small and quiet affair with only the music from a string quartet to break the silence. There was no preaching, no singing, but only the taking of the elements.

My prayer this year is to not rush through another Easter season. These days, my life already goes by at breakneck speed. I certainly don’t want to hurry it up any further.

So I’m doing my best to savor this season and not let any of its rich meaning be lost. I want to remember how Jesus, sharing God’s very nature, made Himself nothing and took on the form of a slave, becoming obedient even to the point of death.

I remember how Jesus was silent in the face of false accusations against Him. He did not open His mouth to defend Himself, even though He was innocent, choosing the way of crucifixion and death so that I the guilty may go free and be declared innocent in the eyes of God.

Let me take it all in and not lose a single iota of it. Let not one crumb of bread or drop of wine be lost. I want to hurry up and slow down.

“He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, THE VOICE).

 

 

 

A Good Word

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“So, first and foremost, I urge God’s people to pray. They should make their requests, petitions, and thanksgivings on behalf of all humanity. Teach them to pray for kings (or anyone in high places for that matter) so that we can lead quiet, peaceful lives—reverent, godly, and holy— all of which is good and acceptable before the eyes of God our Savior who desires for everyone to be saved and know the truth. Because

There is one God and one Mediator between God and us—
    the man Jesus, God’s Anointed,
Who gave His life as a ransom for all
    so that we might have freedom” (1 Timothy 1:1-6, The Voice).

Did you catch that? It says here that we ought to pray for kings or anyone in high places. That means presidents. That includes the ones you voted for and the ones you didn’t vote for.

Prayer not protest is the ultimate means to effect change. Note that I did not say that protest is not a means to change, but I say that prayer is more powerful to bring about a more permanent change.

Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have, the most effective tool. Most of all, God commands that people everywhere should pray.

Jesus commanded us to pray for our enemies, no matter whether they be neighbors or family members or those on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Why?

God’s desire isn’t just for people like you and me to be saved. God’s grace isn’t just for one ethnicity or gender or economic status or political platform. It’s for all people all over the world for all time.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday in Holy Week

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“O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life. Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (The Book of Common Prayer).

Tonight I participated in the Eucharist at Kairos. I’m coming to appreciate and treasure more and more what taking the elements means. My faith tradition says that the bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus and point to a deeper meaning.

I hope there’s never ever a time when I get over what Jesus did for me. This holy week is all about remembering the tremendous sacrifice Jesus made so that I might know true and abundant life everlasting.

Jesus, You died for me. May I live for You. Amen.

 

Gideons and the Gospel

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I had a random flashback of a memory from me as a child sitting in a church pew with a Gideons Bible in my grubby little hands. I was decked out in my Sunday best, which for an 8-year old means my most uncomfortable clothes. I still recall the look and feel of that Gideons Bible. To this day, I still remember how in the front pages of the Bible in bold letters was John 3:16 translated into all the known languages.

That little memory apparently has stuck with me through a lot of transitions and changes in my life. I think now I understand more of what it means than I did then.

It means that God so loved the world. Not just the people who think and act like me. Not only the people with my skin color and language and ethnicity.

God so loved all the nations and ethnic groups in all the world with all their various languages and dialects that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever from anywhere in the world, no matter how dark or light their skin, who believes in Him should not perish but have full and abundantly everlasting life.

That included 8-year old me with the grubby little hands sitting in that church pew way back when. That includes anyone and everyone ever born into this world. No one is exempt from this saving grace. No one gets left out.

The only prerequisite is faith. Whosoever believes in Him, to use the old King James word, will not perish.

That’s still good news to me 38 years later, with all the knowledge and life lessons I’ve obtained through the years. That simple verse keeps coming back to me, reminding me that I never outgrow my love of and need for the gospel that saved me back in the day.

Covered by Blood

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“Choose a one-year-old male that is intact and free of blemishes; you can take it from the sheep or the goats. Keep this chosen lamb safe until the fourteenth day of the month, then the entire community of Israel will slaughter their lambs together at twilight. They are to take some of its blood and smear it across the top and down the two sides of the doorframe of the houses where they plan to eat” (Exodus 12:5-7, The Voice).

Blood is not a topic for polite dinner conversation. Or any polite conversation. Or any conversation for that matter. Some people get queasy at the sight or even the mention of it.

Lately, any songs about the blood are becoming more and more taboo at many churches. People like to believe that we’re generally not that bad and that our mistakes aren’t that serious.

Any time that I sing about or hear about the blood of Jesus, it’s a stark reminder of the seriousness of my own sin. I’m reminded again that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that I’m okay, you’re okay, so let’s all try to be better people in the future.

The gospel is that we all have sinned and missed God’s mark. That sin always comes at a cost. Romans 3:23 say “The payoff for a life of sin is death.” There’s no loophole or any other way around that. Sin earns spiritual death now and physical death later.

But read the rest of the verse– “but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King.”

Easter is all about how Jesus took the punishment and death that we deserved because of our sin, giving us the free gift of eternal life to all those who repent of their sins and place their faith in the final and finished work of Jesus.

I may not like the sight of blood or always like to talk about it, but I’m thankful for the blood that Jesus shed, not sparingly but freely, for my sake and for the sake of all of us who have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

Here’s how to know for certain if you belong to Jesus:

https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/salvation-through-christ-a-matter-of-faith.html