Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth is hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality with millions of copies sold since its original publication in 1978. In Celebration of Discipline, Foster explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith to show how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life.
Walking the Holy Week Walk.
We can't hop in a time machine and zip back to first century Jerusalem. If we could we could walk with Jesus from the triumphant entry to the even more triumphant resurrection. We could see what lengths Christ goes to for us, we could see the look on the disciples faces when Jesus knelt to wash their feet. We could witness the ultimate act of love on the cross. Since we can't do that, one way we can try to walk in those footsteps is by tracing Jesus' path during Holy Week. This week invites us to eat at the table where Jesus says, "my body given for you", it invites us to consider the nails that held Christ to the wood of the cross and see our own hand on the hammer. Holy Week is a deep immersion in that week. When we allow ourselves to sink down into that story, we find ourselves there with Jesus and we realize more deeply that he did it all for us. I hope you take time this upcoming Holy Week to attend all the services of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Morning. Be a disciple...walk the walk.
Observations: The 12th Man At The Table
Jesus sits a table, knowing that he is mere hours from his death, and performs what I think of as his greatest miracle. Sure other miracles were amazing. No one ever forgets the feeding of the hungry throngs, or the walking on water, or the calming of the storm, but for me the greatest miracle happens there at that table. You may think I mean that he forever changed mere bread and wine into his body and his blood, and that certainly is an astounding and lasting gift. But I actually mean something else.For me the most amazing thing about that night is the 12th man at the table: Judas. Think about it, Jesus offers his body and blood, with all that implies to the man he knows will kill him. For me the most miraculous thing Jesus ever did was show that God even loves the worst of all humanity: the man who betrayed to death the son of God.
Matthew 26: 19-3026:19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, "Surely not I, Lord?" He answered, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born." Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so." While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Theme: This is but a fragment of the passion reading from the upcoming Passion Sunday, but it points to an amazing example of the broadness of Jesus's grace.
Main Points:
- Jesus sits down to a typical Seder Meal with his disciples on Passover.
- Jesus reinterprets the meal to be about himself.
- The Meal takes an uncomfortable turn.
- Jesus offers the bread and wine as his body and blood.
- Everyone there takes communion for the first time.
Ezekiel: 37:9-10
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.In this story God shows the prophet Ezekiel a vision of a field of dead dry bones, and then God demonstrates how his love and spirit can overcome our dead-ness even when it seems there is no hope left.Can any of us really say that there is a time when we don't feel a little "Dry-Bones-ish"? What does it mean to have the breath of God breathed into us? And how do we keep breathing that breath in and out? This week I suggested that the breath of God is what keeps our soul and faith alive...and by extension it is what keeps us alive. But us Christians get too busy to breathe and forget that we need it to live. We don't take time to pray, study, worship, or praise and we wonder why we get exhausted and winded by life. It's because we have no breath in our lungs. SO, remember....breathe.
