On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, we hosted a dinner event for the leaders in our BVBC Worship Ministry.  With a Mardi Gras theme, we sat around tables filled with Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, and King Cakes, and we fellowshipped and shared, giving our attention to how we can be more effective in leading worship week in and week out.  As a part of the program that evening, I shared a short devotional thought that many have requested I share, so I am choosing to post it to my blog and to Facebook for your use.  The manuscript from which I spoke is printed below:

I know for many of you, Mardi Gras is the LAST thing you would think of celebrating at church!  It’s reputation is one of of debauchery and drunkenness…  excess and indulgence… and rightly so, based on the ways we see it celebrated in our culture and around the world.  Think about the grand parades of Rio de Janeiro or the loud and raucous happenings in New Orleans, and you can see why Mardi Gras isn’t something that we as followers of Jesus routinely give our attention.

What you may not know, however, is that Mardi Gras (also known as Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday) didn’t start as the crazy festival we now know it to be.  It served a distinct purpose.  It’s the last day before that time in the church calendar called Lent, a time of sacrifice, penance and fasting for many Christian religions.  For many, Lent brought strict dietary restrictions that would have eliminated any rich foods for the 40+ days of its observance.  Fat Tuesday was the last chance to use up the sugar, syrup, molasses, eggs and butter in your home before the fasting of Lent.

With all that being said, my purpose in planning tonight’s activities has much less to do with Mardi Gras than it does to do with Lent…  Lent, in the Christian tradition, is the 40 days prior to Easter; a time of sacrifice for Jesus.  For centuries, followers of Jesus would, through prayer, repentance and self denial, prepare themselves for the resurrection celebration of Easter.  It’s not something that has been a part of the Baptist tradition, or of many other evangelical denominations for that matter, because understandably, it might give one the illusion that we are working to earn salvation, which is of course, not something we believe to be scriptural.

Nonetheless, I believe that there might be a purpose in Lent that would be of benefit to each of us as we look forward to the coming celebration of Easter.  After all, who among us isn’t blessed beyond reason?  I heard Derrick say once in a sermon that none of us gets what we deserve... what we deserve is death and hell.  ANYTHING beyond that is blessing.

Knowing the focus I wanted to take for tonight’s event, I had a conversation a while back with a BVBC choir member who was raised in a very strong Catholic background.  She told me that her experience with Lent was that they were always told you were supposed to give up something, but they never really knew what it was for.

I read an interesting article this weekend in the Kansas City Star that reiterated my friend's story; perhaps some of you saw it as well.  It was entitled “Lent Gets a Makeover for the 21st Century.”  It was interesting to see that many mainline denominations of a more liturgical bent are working to revive the season and relevance of Lent, encouraging congregants to find methods of self-denial for the season.  For example:

• More than 1000 Episcopalians will join together this year for the 2011 Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast, a daily regimen for reducing energy consumption and fighting global warming.  It’s that denomination’s contention that such initiatives may serve to reinvigorate Lent  by linking themes of fasting and abstention to wider social causes.  One Episcopal congregant was quoted in that article as saying, “It’s exciting because it’s not just suffering for its own sake.  It’s doing good.”
• Another such example comes from the United Methodist Church.  For the first time ever, this year they are urging their 7.8 million US members to refrain from drinking alcohol during Lent.  According to Cynthia Abrams of the church’s General Board of Church and Society, “To ask Methodists to give up alcohol for Lent is provocative because we like to think that United Methodists don’t drink.  We decided... to confront the elephant in the room by doing something provocative and engaging in conversations about it through Lent.”
• In the United Kingdom, the Christian Vegetarian Association is aiming to revive the ancient Christian practice of forgoing meat during Lent. ...and the list goes on.

Like I said a few moments ago, Lent has never really been a strong tradition among evangelical faiths because, for those who may not understand the redeeming work of Christ as it relates to salvation, people may see in it the appearance of trying to earn God’s favor.  However, more and more protestants are beginning to consider observing Lent as a relevant spiritual exercise rather than an obligation to the church.

Some people decide to give up a favorite food or drink (such as chocolate or coffee) or a favorite activity (like movies, video games, and the like) in deference to taking on a new or perhaps under-exercised spiritual discipline such as prayer, scripture reading or ministry work.

So, maybe by now you’re wondering when the other show is going to drop.  “John brings us in, feeds us all this food, then tells us we have to give up something for Lent.”

I assure you that’s not my purpose.  While I believe there is definitely a time and a place for voluntary self-denial as an act of worship, I also believe that decisions like that are personal and that they are best kept between an individual and the Lord.  So rest easy, I’m not here to have you sign a “Lent Card” and track your progress!

The purpose of tonight’s gathering is to consider what it is that we do together each week in the BVBC Worship Ministry.  You’ve all heard me say that I don’t want you here solely for a musical experience, though I do hope you enjoy the music we make together.  And while I count you all as friends, I don’t want you here just because of your loyalty to me or to Janae... If your motivation to this ministry is anything less than obedience to God’s call, it will be all too easy for you to let it go when you get a better offer that doesn’t require so much time and energy.

I believe each one of you is here because of God’s call to serve.  I told someone from our congregation just this past week that I’ve never felt so surrounded by folks in the worship team who truly “GET” what it is that we are about!  I believe you take seriously our challenge each week to consider how you can bring integrity to the messages you share in worship.  And that’s the spirit in which I wanted to approach this idea of Lent and preparation:  Whether you sing or play or ring, what I want to ask you to consider is how you might best be prepared for leading our congregation in worship not only as we approach the Easter Season, but also each week.

One of my more enjoyable moments each week is when I stop to read a blog by Dr. David Manner entitled Worship Renewal.  In a recent entry, he posed this question:

If your congregation affirms Easter as the most important celebration of the church year AND THE BASIS FOR OUR HOPE, why limit its observance to one Sunday a year?  Has our concern with appearing too “liturgical” caused us to miss an entire season of remembrance, celebration and worship?”

At BVBC we have, in recent years, added thematically appropriate worship activities to our Passion Week calendar, seeking to give proper attention to preparing for our resurrection celebration.  We will do so again in 2011.  We’ll have our standard complement of activities during Passion Week; our Children’s ministry Walk Through the Bible Family Event; a Maundy Thursday Silent Lord’s Supper; and Tenebrae on Good Friday.  We’ll even give a stronger emphasis on Palm Sunday this year than we have in the years I’ve been here with you.  But, based on the ministry we share and the things I see God doing each week as we serve together, I genuinely believe that we are at a point where we can take a step upward in the personal investment we make in preparing to lead worship at BVBC.  As good as it is right now, I think it can continue to get better.

I’m reading a book right now called Worship Matters, by Bob Kauflin.  I’e barely started it, but am already finding myself engaged in its words and challenged by its content.  In the third chapter, the writer contends that worship based on a misunderstanding of God is not worship at all.  “In fact,” he says, “it’s more akin to idolatry than it is to worship.  The better (i.e., more accurately) we know God through His Word, the more genuine our worship will be.”  That’s the goal I want us to reach for...  Worship in Spirit and Truth.

That’s why we are here tonight...

I want to ask you to consider what you might do for the next 40 or so days to invest time and attention to preparing for the celebration of Easter.

I issued a similar challenge at Advent this year.  And then, to put my proverbial money where my mouth was, I facilitated that challenge by sharing scripture readings and online devotionals each day via my blog and Facebook.  Many people, a number of you among them, shared how they were blessed by going through a structured time of preparation for Christmas.  I want us to have another great preparatory experience for Easter.

Now, this is where I might seem un-intentionally ambiguous...  I can’t, in good conscience,  presume to tell you what this looks like for you.  That would have to be between you and your Father in heaven... But I’d like you to consider what it is that you have to offer the Lord as you prepare for Easter in the next 7 weeks.

Maybe your commitment is a traditional Lenten fast, one where you willingly forego something from your daily life as an offering to God... voluntary self denial, as we talked about a moment ago.  If you feel that’s something that would draw you closer to God, then by all means, do it.  But don’t do it just for the sake of saying you did.  Invest your sacrifice into your journey with God.

Perhaps for you it’s something totally different.  Maybe it’s not something you “give up” for Lent, but rather it’s something you “take on” for the season...

• a commitment to read all 4 gospels between now and Easter
• a choice to journal your daily prayers
• the decision to engage in focused times of self-examination and prayers of confession on a specific day of the week for the next seven weeks in order to have a deeper sense of what the freedom the resurrection brings to your life
• something else entirely that the Lord lays on your heart.

One of the things I will be doing in my own life is using as a part of my private worship time a Devotional Guide entitled Ashes to Fire which goes from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost (which is another part of the church calendar, 50 days after Easter; but that’s another Fellowship entirely!).  I’m hoping these scripture collections will give me the opportunity to journal online via Facebook and Twitter as well as on my BVBC blog, much the same way I did for Advent, and that my doing so might provide you with other resources that make your preparation more meaningful throughout the Lenten season.  Whatever it looks like for you, I want you to make a commitment that you intend to keep, and let it be a part of your Easter celebration, starting tonight.

In closing, I want to ask you to look around and see all the colors tonight.  We think of these as traditional Mardi Gras decorations, but let me share this with you.  In the church calendar, colors have meanings.

Gold represents heavenly things... a revealed God.

Purple is the color of royalty... a present King.

Green is always a sign of new life... a risen Savior.

May the colors around us remind us of all the ways God wishes to show Himself in the coming days.