Having lunch, after church, a month ago, Bettyann mentioned that
she thought it would be a wonderful experience for the church body to
experience a sermon series, between Christmas and Easter, focusing, entirely, on
the life of Christ. Each week the theme
song being, "More, More About Jesus. "
Allowing the Gospels to be imbibed by the congregation with nothing but the
life and ministry of Jesus for a quarter of a year. We mussed together as to what might result in
a congregation’s corporate and personal spiritual lives. Just Jesus!
This coming, Wednesday, February 13, Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent. And unlike Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, Lent is going to be a more solemn season for me this year. As part of the Ash Wednesday worship service, ashes are imposed on one's forehead in the pattern of a cross. The imposed ashes are from the previous year’s Palm Sunday fronds—fronds reminiscent of those waved triumphantly as Jesus entered
These ashes are to remind me of my common destiny: “From dust you come and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). After years of not participating in a thoughtful nor practical way, I have realized that the Lenten season is also meant to remind me of my common mission to walk the path with Jesus toward death. It invites me to lose my life in order to find it anew, resurrected with Jesus on Easter morning.
Before I heap guilt on myself, I realize, whether or not I actively observed Lent, in the past, the season somewhat served as an invitation to evaluate my life and to examine the invitation of Jesus to “die” with him. But I don’t think I ever entered this "deathly" contemplation with the anticipation of resurrection on Easter morning, like I intend on doing this year. I am intentionally recognizing Christ’s path to resurrection is the path of laying down my life, the path of relinquishment, and the path of self-denial. This path feels entirely unnatural, for it is taking me in the opposite direction of self-preservation.
I have read Jesus’ words, that if anyone wants to follow him, if anyone really wants the kind of life he offers, the kind of life he modeled for me in his own, then I must “deny myself, take up my cross and follow him” (Mark 8:34). Following Jesus will lead me to the Cross, and will lead me to the place of death. For me, as a Christian, that is the downward journey of Lent. "From dust you have come, and to dust you shall return." Of course, regardless of the gods I follow, I share in this destiny; like Jesus, I, too, will die. The pressing question, in light of this common destiny, is how shall I now live? How shall my life today respond to the reality of death and the invitation of life?
The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides an illustration of one answer to this question.(1) Bonhoeffer grew up in a home full of privilege and status. His father, a prominent psychiatrist, provided the best of what life had to offer. Bonhoeffer attended the finest university, and took a year before his ordination to study in the
Yet, this life seemingly marked for success, would be marred by loss and suffering. He lost one brother in World War I and he would lose another in World War II. He eventually would be arrested by the Nazi regime for aiding Jews to safety. And while he embraced the risk of peace and dared to love in the face of one’s enemies, he would be implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler and executed at the age of 38.
In fact, it was not until after his death that Bonhoeffer’s ministry and influence had its most potent force. Many are now familiar with his books The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together. He has been a theologian of immense influence, not just for students of theology, not simply for Christians yearning to grow in their understanding of discipleship, but for a watching a world full of questions. In his letters and papers published posthumously, Bonhoeffer argued that the will of God and the way of discipleship would not always lead to self-preservation or advancement. The will of God involves giving our lives for the sake of others (which Bonhoeffer believed would be the case for his action against Hitler). He wrote, “Christ’s vicarious deeds and particularly his death on our behalf, become in turn the principle and model of the self-sacrifice that makes community possible... [T]he church is the church only when it exists for others.”(1)
Following the downward path of Jesus, I believe, will lead to a renewed, hopeful, and restored vision of life for me. I am going to embrace my inevitable death and declines, as I embrace the downward path, I’m going to intentionally work at taking the opportunity to let go of the false things I think make up my life. Further, I desire to let go of thinking that the accumulation of wealth, power, and resources make up a good life; let go of thinking that busyness makes me important; let go of thinking that my personal safety and security are to be preserved at all cost. Finally, as I let go, I want to embrace those who make life fullest, put others' interests before my own, and exist for the sake of others. And what is done on behalf of others for the sake of Christ will indeed endure beyond my death.
The season of Lent is the season of dust and ashes. It is the journey toward one man’s death on a Cross and toward my own. Bonhoeffer understood this as he wrote from his prison cell, and Jesus understood this as he bore the weight of suffering, misunderstanding, shame, and death at
(1) Biographical information on Dietrich Bonhoeffer excerpted from Martin Doblmeier interviewed on Speaking of Faith, Feb. 2, 2006. Doblmeier produced the 2003 documentary, Bonhoeffer, broadcast on PBS.
(2) Dietrich Bonhoffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson (
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