"Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return"
As I write this it is the afternoon of Ash Wednesday. As usual, I attended the noon Ash Wednesday service and then went to lunch and sort of forgot about the cross smudge on my forehead. As I was standing in line at the McDonald's, the worker behind the counter - trying to be helpful - pointed out the smudge of ash on my forehead and offered me a napkin with which to wipe it off.
While I couldn't see the smudge, I can still feel its presence. What does this smudge mean, after all? When the pastor placed it on my head he said the old familiar words, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." Pretty humbling thought - we are dust and to dust we shall return. In other words, we are really pretty worthless. We live, we die, and - with the rare exception - in a thousand years, only a few will remember we lived at all.
But the smudge on our forehead is more than a smudge. It isn't just a non-descript smudge of dirt. It's a cross in the same spot where many years ago another pastor placed a similar cross - a cross of water - at our baptism. Those crosses - one a reminder of our mortality and the other a cross of life - both remind us that someone died for us. Someone - Jesus Christ - gave his life for me, for you, for everyone on this planet. That act, that saving act, is what gives each of us value and worth. You could say it's "value added".
That's a value no one can take away from us. It was given to us as a free gift; a very expensive free gift in that it cost Jesus Christ his life. We wear that cross daily. As the hymn says, "All newborn soldiers of the crucified / bear on their brows the seal of him who died." (Lift High the Cross) Whether or not I see the cross on my brow - it is there. It has marked me as a Christian for all of my life just as it has marked countless others throughout history. The question is, does it make a difference? Can others see the cross as we live our lives? Or do we live our lives as though it is 'just a smudge' that we wipe away before anyone notices? What will we do today? Will we take the napkin offered by the world or will we leave the smudge for all to see? The choice is yours. Which will you choose?
Showing posts with label cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Who me? Not me! Yes, you.
"But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!'.....Then Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.'" (Luke 5:8, 10)
"And I said,'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'.... Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I; send me!" - (Isaiah 6:5, 8)
Trusting God and making coffee means answering his call.
One of the new programs we implemented in our parachial school this year was the idea of "Chapel Buddies". We have paired middle school students with Pre-School-2nd grade students to sit together during Chapel. The idea was three-fold; it would assist the teachers with maintaining discipline in the lower grades, it would give the middle school students a way to be more involved in Chapel - and therefore help keep them out of mischief; and it would provide a connection between the younger children and the older students which would hopefully increase our retention from grade to grade.
While the younger students are thrilled with having a connection to these 'big kids', the middle school students do their fair share of whining about it. They have discovered how difficult it is to get a wiggly pre-schooler to sit still, dealt with kids who don't want to listen to them, and find they aren't able to talk with their own friends as easily. As middle school teachers we find a certain poetic justice in all of that.
Yet, what we try to get through to our students is just how important they are becoming to those younger children. Over the Christmas break, our 2nd grade teacher broke her leg. It was a severe fracture and put her out of the classroom for the entire month of January. Even though we were able to cover the classroom time with substitute teachers, the greatest consistency for those students came from their Chapel Buddies.
The second graders knew that regardless of who was teaching their class that week, they would see their Chapel Buddy every Wednesday morning. It was the consistency of knowing the same person would be there for them that helped keep that 2nd grade classroom on track while their teacher was recovering. Our middle school students may have been reluctantly called - and often question their importance - but they do make the difference for those students.
Sometimes when we are called, we not only question whether or not we are important but also whether or not we can really do the job. Simon Peter, Isaiah, and others throughout history have questioned their worthiness, their abilities and their importance. What we need to remember is that those questions never crossed God's mind. He knew he would take care of the differences. He also knew that the tasks at hand were extremely important in the long run.
When we question our abilities, we need to remember that God does not call the equipped as often as he equips the called. I can remember when I was first asked to lead an adult Bible study. I tried every which way I could to get out of it. In spite of years of teaching Confirmation, I just didn't feel confident in my abilities to lead a group of adults. The same was true the first time I was asked to write a devotion, give a sermon, and lead a worship service. In each case, I never believed I could do it. And in each case, God made up the difference between what I felt were my abilities and what the end result became.
The other part we need to remember is that often times we have an impact on others we never see. One of the things I have had to do many times in the past few years, is to explain who have been the most influential people in my life - other than my parents, that is. Once I started listing them, I was amazed at how long that list had become - and I'm also guilty of never having told most of them that they made such a difference in my life. The thing is, the ones I did tell..... were surprised and had pretty much forgotten what they did because what they had done was just a part of who they were. They had taken God's call and it had become their life.
As to our worthiness the Cross has taken care of that. In the cross of Christ and by his atoning sacrifice, we are made right with God. By our faith, we are made worthy of any task God calls us to do.
God calls us every day. We are important to his plan and he needs each and every one of us. Most of the time we don't have a clue what he has planned for our day. But we are called to be "Chapel Buddies" to everyone we meet; in the way we treat others, in the way we live our lives, in our consistency of faith. We may not feel up to the task and we may not feel that what we do is important - but it is. We just need to trust God and make coffee. He'll take care of the rest.
"And I said,'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'.... Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I; send me!" - (Isaiah 6:5, 8)
Trusting God and making coffee means answering his call.
One of the new programs we implemented in our parachial school this year was the idea of "Chapel Buddies". We have paired middle school students with Pre-School-2nd grade students to sit together during Chapel. The idea was three-fold; it would assist the teachers with maintaining discipline in the lower grades, it would give the middle school students a way to be more involved in Chapel - and therefore help keep them out of mischief; and it would provide a connection between the younger children and the older students which would hopefully increase our retention from grade to grade.
While the younger students are thrilled with having a connection to these 'big kids', the middle school students do their fair share of whining about it. They have discovered how difficult it is to get a wiggly pre-schooler to sit still, dealt with kids who don't want to listen to them, and find they aren't able to talk with their own friends as easily. As middle school teachers we find a certain poetic justice in all of that.
Yet, what we try to get through to our students is just how important they are becoming to those younger children. Over the Christmas break, our 2nd grade teacher broke her leg. It was a severe fracture and put her out of the classroom for the entire month of January. Even though we were able to cover the classroom time with substitute teachers, the greatest consistency for those students came from their Chapel Buddies.
The second graders knew that regardless of who was teaching their class that week, they would see their Chapel Buddy every Wednesday morning. It was the consistency of knowing the same person would be there for them that helped keep that 2nd grade classroom on track while their teacher was recovering. Our middle school students may have been reluctantly called - and often question their importance - but they do make the difference for those students.
Sometimes when we are called, we not only question whether or not we are important but also whether or not we can really do the job. Simon Peter, Isaiah, and others throughout history have questioned their worthiness, their abilities and their importance. What we need to remember is that those questions never crossed God's mind. He knew he would take care of the differences. He also knew that the tasks at hand were extremely important in the long run.
When we question our abilities, we need to remember that God does not call the equipped as often as he equips the called. I can remember when I was first asked to lead an adult Bible study. I tried every which way I could to get out of it. In spite of years of teaching Confirmation, I just didn't feel confident in my abilities to lead a group of adults. The same was true the first time I was asked to write a devotion, give a sermon, and lead a worship service. In each case, I never believed I could do it. And in each case, God made up the difference between what I felt were my abilities and what the end result became.
The other part we need to remember is that often times we have an impact on others we never see. One of the things I have had to do many times in the past few years, is to explain who have been the most influential people in my life - other than my parents, that is. Once I started listing them, I was amazed at how long that list had become - and I'm also guilty of never having told most of them that they made such a difference in my life. The thing is, the ones I did tell..... were surprised and had pretty much forgotten what they did because what they had done was just a part of who they were. They had taken God's call and it had become their life.
As to our worthiness the Cross has taken care of that. In the cross of Christ and by his atoning sacrifice, we are made right with God. By our faith, we are made worthy of any task God calls us to do.
God calls us every day. We are important to his plan and he needs each and every one of us. Most of the time we don't have a clue what he has planned for our day. But we are called to be "Chapel Buddies" to everyone we meet; in the way we treat others, in the way we live our lives, in our consistency of faith. We may not feel up to the task and we may not feel that what we do is important - but it is. We just need to trust God and make coffee. He'll take care of the rest.
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