August 27, 2009

A brief history of biblical sacrifice

Our planning team has been trying to select an apt quote from Scripture related to fasting.

Sure, we all know the story of Jesus in the desert [if you don't, click here immediately]. But that's, well, overdone. Yet, the bible's replete with references to fasting; it's just a matter of culling.

I mentioned previously that God has desired sacrifice since the time of Cain & Abel. You know-- Cain offered meat, and Abel offered vegan, but God likes vegan better, so Cain flew off the handle...anywho--

That was just for starters. Noah stepped off the Ark and the first thing he did was build an altar. Abraham built an altar. Moses built an altar. For a long while there was a tent. Solomon built a temple of sacrifice. Joseph brought two turtledoves. I could go on, but the title of this post says, "brief".

The story of the People of God (aka Israel, aka the Body of Christ) is a story of people pleading, God asking a sacrifice, then people praising God for satisfying their plea. Inexplicably, God really likes it when an altar is built and something dies a bloody/crispy death. (waitaminute...I thought God was vegan...)

Theological and exegetical profundities aside, we already have our holocaust, our sacrifice of blood. [The various methods of dismemberment of young children are gruesomely catalogued here, if you had any doubt.]

So why does God need our sacrifice of fasting?

As already mentioned in 2Chronicles 7:14, we must humble ourselves. Fasting is humbling.

But Jesus already satisfied this requirement into perpetuity!

The brief, non-exegetical explanation is that anything Jesus did, we must also do. Not because it changes what Jesus did, but because it changes us. As the song goes, "no cross, no crown". The visceral imprint accomplished when we fast makes us take notice, it makes us com+passio="suffer with"=able to appreciate what the Lord has done for us on a whole new level and therefore truly WITH the Jesus who did all of this first so that we could be on His level.

What's the view from His level? It's a view that sees in the "products of conception" a living, delightful human being worthy of every sacrifice we're willing to offer.

Lucifer, the premier angel, couldn't handle this concept: that God, illustrious and mighty, would lavish such gratuity on so mean a creature as fickle human. We all know how that ended [if you don't, honestly, you need to invest in a bible]. Let's not go that route.

Rather, let us conscientiously regard each other as worthy, delightful, precious (vegan or not).

August 26, 2009

Vigilant

Our kickoff takes place Sunday, September 20.

Thus, our vigil will actually begin a few days before the first of our 40 days.

In fact, for those of us on the core team, our vigilance has already begun. In anticipation of the campaign we are working to promote here in GR, our team has resolved to pray & fast every Tuesday (because we have our meetings every other Tuesday). We have attempted to begin each meeting with a visit to 320 Fulton before we do any other action, plan any other step, make any other move.

That's really the point of this campaign in a nutshell. Nothing matters more than prayer: on-site, fully-present, Christ-adoring prayer at the very location where He is needed most...

...in the heart of the person standing on the sidewalk at 320 Fulton.

Yes, the staff at 320 need our vigilance. The motorists cruising by need our vigilance. The pedestrians whose hearts we may touch or encounter need our vigilance.

But God needs our vigilance, our own personal attentiveness to our own hearts, first and foremost. God yearns for and sometimes demands this quality of vigilance on our part. The darkness of sin that has led our society to embrace abortion did not accomplish its goals without a failure on the part of all members of our society to stand vigilant against Evil.

So the cure is not ‘out there’ somewhere. The end of abortion starts with the conversion, the turning, of my heart to Jesus whose Sacred Heart calls to me. The end of abortion starts with the conversion of your heart, dear reader.

Ask God to do some housework. Invite the Lord to sweep through the corners and recesses of your heart and wash away what doesn’t belong to Him. Then, ask the Almighty to send His angels to zealously guard the precious acreage of your heart, the soil of which is now cleansed and fertile and ready for the seed of the Word to be planted deep within. Every human heart is a garden prepared to bear fruit.

When I go back home, I like to visit my old neighbor. He has a lovely garden. He has consistently renovated his square footage of growing space to be increasingly deer-proof. He built a fence. He planted flowers the scent of which irritate deer noses. He made the fence taller. He has applied every measure he hears about in defense of the tender buds waiting for their chance in the sunlight.

Be vigilant, dear reader. Tender buds depend on you.

August 25, 2009

Humble thyselves

Fasting can be kind of a pain sometimes. It doesn't hurt, necessarily. It's rather annoying, though.

Take this morning. I had to mentally remind myself not to eat. Then I had to ignore my fatigue when I was moving furniture this evening. Plus, I had to drink almost triple the glasses of water than usual. Unmentionable gastronomic activity will occur at some point in the near future, and that's where I digress.

What does this have to do with small children dying?

For starters: they had to sacrifice much more than a day of minor inconveniences. More importantly, they are my siblings. If I were grieving the death of my biological brother (heaven forbid), I might lose my appetite for a few days. I'd be in a state of bereavement.

Fasting brings us to a sort of bereavement-like state of mind and heart. I didn't have much energy or enthusiasm by the end of the day.

That bereavement state, being quieter, readies us for contemplation. We're more likely to notice how much fasting irritates us...even as we're noticing how much more calm and peaceful we feel. Whatever discomfort we have taken upon ourselves for an afternoon hardly compares to the loss of life taking place every week at 320 Fulton.

Therefore, fasting is its own reward. We stand in solidarity with our neighbors, our loved ones, the children being killed, and we know that in some small fraction we have surrendered our life on behalf of those who have not been given the choice to live.

This pleases God, who has asked for a sacrifice ever since Cain & Abel.

August 24, 2009

320 E. Fulton

We are not praying in the abstract for 40 days.

We are praying at a particular place. 320 is a plot of earth unlike other properties in Grand Rapids. On some property, books are sold; on other properties, children learn to read; still other properties publish books. On church property, the Word of God is read and understood. In that Word, we find the following:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land." 2Chr 7:14

Heal their land...

...not just any land, but a particular and inconspicuous patch of land at 320 E. Fulton Street.

For this inconspicuous place does not go unnoticed by the JUST: those of us who recognize that abortion, though legal, ends a human life, brings untold sorrow upon the mother, and robs us all of our dignity.

This land cries out for healing, even as this nation cries out for healing.

Likewise, our hearts cry out for healing: turn from their wicked ways...

...whose wicked ways, dear readers?

None other than mine and yours. Abortion does not happen in the abstract.

We must humble ourselves and search our hearts:

Have I offended human dignity today?
Have I done less than God asks of me today?
Have I failed to recognize Christ in any other person today?

Ahh, yes, the timber. Pluck it out, dear reader.

Until we have done the hard work of humility, we dare not stand at 320 E. Fulton or any place and claim to be His people.

August 23, 2009

Why the name?

It's a little play on words. Allow me to explain:

In 1969, Alexander Calder built a sculpture that has come to symbolize the city of Grand Rapids. It's used on our city logo, on our streetsigns, and on our sewer caps. He titled his sculpture La Grande Vitesse, which means "the grand swiftness" or, more loosely, "grand rapids". [If you follow the link on the photo of this sculpture in the sidebar, you can learn more about Calder's work.]

In 1995, Pope John Paul the Great published a letter addressed to all people of goodwill titled Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life, in which he calls for the building of a culture of life.

LIFE. We are going to spend 40 days, from Sept.23 thru Nov.2, praying & fasting for an end to abortion in this city. We want this end to come swiftly, yet we know that we must cooperate with God's plan in carrying out this end. We also know that the end of abortion is actually a beginning.

And so we pray, peacefully, silently, trusting that God is at work...even in places like 320 E. Fulton St.

We are called to build the culture of life not with our hands, not with metal, nor by any effort on our part. We are going to build this culture of life one prayer at a time, one person at a time, one life at a time.

My apologies to any linguists who may be reading this blog. I'm melding a French nominative phrase with a Latin genitive (the title technically translates as "the grand...of life"). You'll have to excuse the pun.

Grand Rapids 40 Days for Life simply wants to convey the truth: Life is Grand. Life is Good. Life, in fact, is SACRED.

The mothers who brings their children to 320 E. Fulton need our prayers.
The staff who work at 320 E. Fulton need our prayers.
The children who perish at 320 E. Fulton need our prayers.
The city that ignores 320 E. Fulton needs our prayers.

God bless Grand Rapids: May the end to abortion here come swiftly and rapidly and finally!

God bless you, dear readers of this blog: May the Lord enter your life and reveal something Grand, something Good, something Sacred.

God bless our efforts: May they please the Lord at all times~