The Value of Lent and Good Friday

The Value of Lent and Good Friday
Don't skip too fast to Easter morning.
Brandon O'Brien | posted 3/01/2011

On the Friday evening before Easter one year during high school, I filed into my friend's church and sat down near the back.

I'd never attended a Good Friday service before, and I was soaking in the details. The sanctuary was fancier than ours; it had stained-glass windows, high ceilings, and beautiful beamed arches. Then the service began, somberly. At set points throughout the service, lights were turned off so that in the final moments a single spotlight illumined a cross on the stage. Everyone sang, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

We sang a couple of verses, each one drearier than the previous, ending with these lines: "Sometimes it causes me to tremble / Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?" The final light was extinguished. Everyone left in silence.

I was disgusted. Where is the joy? I wondered. Easter is not the time to mourn and celebrate the death of Jesus. It's about life. To me, leaving Jesus dead in the tomb was as bad as leaving him dead on the cross.

Nearly a decade later, the observance of Good Friday that I found so offensive then has become deeply meaningful to me.

Following the Church's Calendar

Easter is one of three major celebrations in the liturgical year. The liturgical year, or Christian calendar, is how many Christians have marked the passage of time for centuries. It's a potential antidote to trendiness. Instead of following the "Hallmark calendar" (think Mother's Day, Independence Day and Halloween), the liturgical year is subdivided by major events in the Gospel. It begins with Advent, the month-long preparation before Christmas. A few months later is Easter, which is followed by Pentecost. The remainder of the year is called "ordinary time," the season when the Church reflects on its mission.

I've been marking time by the liturgical calendar for about three years now. It's taken some adjusting. But it forces me to think seriously about the whole Gospel story.

Easter the Old-Fashioned Way

The Easter season begins 40 days before Easter Sunday on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Ash Wednesday is a day of mourning—you know, sackcloth and ashes. In many churches, a pastor will draw a cross with ash on worshipers' foreheads to signify the beginning of Lent.

The 40 days of Lent correspond to the time Jesus spent being tempted in the desert before his public ministry. During Lent, Christians examine their hearts and are particularly diligent about putting away sinful behaviors. People often give something up for Lent. This period is a reminder that following Christ means dying to myself every day.

The final week before Easter is known as Holy Week. Each observation during Holy Week corresponds to an event in the final week of Jesus' life. The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday, a celebration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The remaining observances are clustered around the end of the week and each one is marked by a special service. Maundy Thursday corresponds to the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples—the Last Supper. Appropriately, many churches observe Maundy Thursday with foot-washing and...more>>>

Family Promise Cook-off event held at A&M UMC

Fran and Charles Lamb served as co-chairs of the 1st Church team at the recent
Family Promise Cook-off event held at A&M UMC on Friday evening, February 25.
Other churches participating fielding teams in the cook-off included Peace Lutheran
Church of College Station, First UMC of Bryan, and Our Savior's Lutheran Church of
College Station. More than 100 supporters paid the $20 admission fee to attend.
Winners included Peace Lutheran Church for its meatloaf dish, and Our Savior's
Lutheran Church for its greens and mashed potatoes dishes.

Teams were asked to serve "comfort food" for the event and the attendees raved
about the delicious tastes offered for all to savor. "I have participated in other
types of cook-offs," said Fran Lamb. "This has been my favorite of all.
Supporting Family Promise is an honor for us. We had a great time."

Lenten Prayer & Bible Study

Lenten Prayer & Bible Study - Every Wed. @ 7 pm and Thurs. @ noon in the Sanctuary, and 7: 45 pm on-line is our study called All Things New from the Upper Room.

God promises change: a changed human community, changed people. The world becomes God's world, ordered according to God's purposes: peace, righteousness, fairness, generosity, and steadfast love. And each of us becomes more like Christ. All of humanity is brought into God’s presence and made new. In Jesus Christ, God promises change. Lent is a time to prepare not only for the death and resurrection of Christ but also for the new life God promises. Lent, Holy Week, and Easter help us to mark time until the promises of God are fulfilled. They remind us to keep our eyes open for God's grace, alive in our world and our hearts as God changes us and makes us new...more>>>

Transfiguration Sunday

"After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: 'This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!' Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead" (Mark 9:2-9).

The account of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ as recorded here in Mark (parallel passages are found in Matthew 17:1-3 and Luke 9:28-36) is a demonstration to three witnesses that Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be. In all three accounts of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, we are given the names of the three disciples who accompanied Jesus and who stood as human witnesses to the glory that was Christ's. There were also three heavenly witnesses, Moses, Elijah, and the voice of God from heaven. Therefore, the Old Testament law of three witnesses required to attest to any fact (Deuteronomy 19:15) was satisfied both in earth and in heaven.

Why This 'Secret Millionaire' Went Public

Why This 'Secret Millionaire' Went Public
Entrepreneur Dani Johnson on the Bible, giving, and ABC's new reality show

Mark Moring |

When ABC approached Dani Johnson about starring on a new show called Secret Millionaire, she said no. When they tried a second time, she said no. Ditto the third time and the fourth.
Dani Johnson Dani JohnsonNot until ABC asked for a fifth time did Johnson, a self-made millionaire, finally say yes, and the results can be seen on Sunday's primetime premiere (8/7c). The premise is simple: Take a millionaire to "the other side of the tracks" and let them live in poverty for a whole week. Arrange for said millionaire to volunteer in local outreach organizations, places that are usually operating on a limited budget. At the end of the week, reveal the secret identity of the millionaire as he/she writes big checks to these organizations. Cue the violins, and let the tears roll.

It's that last part—writing the checks—that bothered Johnson the most. Not that she can't afford it, and not that she's stingy. Johnson—who earned her millions as a motivational speaker, author, and founder of a financial advising firm —is a devout Christian and quite generous. She and husband Hans run King's Ransom, a non-profit foundation dedicated to giving and serving people in need around the globe.

But Johnson prefers to write her checks in private, based on Matthew 6:1-4, where Jesus says not to do our "acts of righteousness before men," but to do our giving "in secret." So why'd she ultimately say yes? Because Scripture (Matthew 5:14-16) also calls us to "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

For Sunday's episode of Secret Millionaire, Johnson 42, traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., and lived in a scuzzy apartment for a week while doing volunteer work with several charities. We spoke with Johnson about her experience.

So, ABC contacted you, and you said no four times. Why?

We have a personal philosophy. We use our business to generate millions of dollars so we can give to those who are in need, but we give in secret. We also believe we're supposed to be the hands and feet of these organizations, so we're not just ones that cut the check. We go in as volunteers, not as successful millionaires. I've worked with the homeless and with orphans, washed their feet, trimmed their fingernails, served hot meals, spoken into their lives. We've done it in our hometown [Dallas], in Idaho, in San Francisco, in Belize, in India. Why do we need a camera following us around to show that? I told ABC, "I'm not your girl. I could care less about having my face all over television." But quickly we found out that we were fighting God and not man.

How do you figure that?

It was crazy. We said, no, no, no, no, no, and God made it obvious that he had opened up this door. Like Gideon, we laid out a fleece before the Lord—four fleeces, in fact, and asked for the impossible … and he did it.

Did what? What was the fleece?

Without compromising my relationship with ABC, I shouldn't say. I'll just say they were impossible things that had to come together; there was just no way it was going to work. But every single one of those things worked out. It was God, that's the bottom line.

So, how do you reconcile writing these big checks on camera with the Scripture about doing good deeds in private?

The Lord convicted me that it's the heart of the giver that he's after. When you give in public you've received your reward in full; you got what you were after. That's an issue of the heart. But I don't give for recognition. That's what the Lord showed me....more>>>