Word of Life Church Podcast

G.K. Chesterton suggested that Saint Francis walked the world like the pardon of God. It’s an apt summary of the saint’s life. Francis embodied the grace of God as he walked the hills of Umbria barefoot in his patched brown habit and simple rope belt, preaching to birds and bishops. His life was a kind of performance art protest against the pervasive sins of thirteenth-century Italy — pride, avarice, corruption, and violence. Yet sinners themselves were drawn to Francis. How else do we explain why, in his lifetime, forty thousand people joined his rigorous order of radical Christianity emphasizing poverty, simplicity and humility? Like Jesus, Francis could uncompromisingly denounce systemic sin, while extending genuine compassion to the people caught in its pernicious web. To be a prophetic witness against systems of sin and a preacher of God’s pardon for sinners at the same time is the peculiar grace at which Francis excelled and to which the church is called.

Perhaps the most misunderstood and misused teaching of Jesus is his Olivet Discourse -- the teaching Jesus gave to his to his disciples on the Mount of Olives regarding the signs of "the end." The end of which Jesus is speaking is not the end of the world, but the the end of the Temple age. While the Temple establishment was plotting the end of Jesus, Jesus was prophesying the end of the Temple, the Temple establishment, and the Temple age. Jesus connected the demise of the Temple with the dawn of the Kingdom of God.

Patience is the heart of wisdom. Impatience is the essence of foolishness. When we demand “results” on our own timetable, we will most likely find ourselves out of step with the patient pace of historic Christianity. Impatient saints don’t exist. The saints have learned the secret of being patient with the world, with themselves, and even with God.

When we trust in Jesus, it does not guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen in our life. Evil, the destroyer of worlds is present in our World, but so is God, the savior of the worlds. In midst of suffering, we often have many questions about the goodness of God and the power of evil. What do we do with Evil? How do we respond when everything comes crashing down. Is there any hope to hold on to?

Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the world, but that we would be set apart while in the world. In answer to Jesus prayer, the tradition of Lent allows us to be present in, but separate from, the world.

We practice traditions like Lent and Ash Wednesday not because we are commanded to by Bible, but because we are invited to by the church. As we practice Lent, we find that it invites us to practice self-denial, gives us space to reflect and rethink, connects us with echoes from the past, creates contrast in our lives to prepare us for Easter, and ultimately it points us to Jesus.