FOOD FOR THOUGHT
(03/15/2009)
Reflection
David Carter
I caught
a part of The Simpsons this past Sunday. Homer threw a
huge Mardi Gras party where everyone was free to indulge their (almost)
every Mardi Gras passion. The scene cuts to a few hours later and
Ned Flanders, the show's moral compass and token Christian, is counting
down the minutes to midnight. “3…2…1. It's Ash Wednesday,
everybody. Set down your gin and confess your sins.” To
which, of course, everyone boos. This struck a chord in me as I
reflected on who we are as a people and who we are as Christians.
As a society, we love the party and the indulgence. The idea of
fasting or repenting goes against everything we live for and this seems
to have filtered into our Christian faith as well. When's the last
time you talked about, or practiced, fasting? When was the last
time you thought about your need to repent of some things in your life?
For a lot of Christians these are outdated ideas; they don't have much
place in a faith where “Jesus saves.” I'd say that without repentance
there's no point to Jesus saving any of us because repentance requires
us to be honest with who we are and to deny those things that are not
Christ-like. We're ok with feasting, but not fasting. We love
the Jesus who heals and saves, who died for our sins, but we're not always
willing to love and follow the Jesus who tells us to deny ourselves, carry
our cross, and sacrifice for others. As we walk through the season
of Lent, are we preparing our hearts for the resurrection through fasting,
confession, and repentance or are we content to sit by and indulge ourselves?
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