We have set up a mobile food pantry on the east side of UBC under the drive-thru canopy. If you or anyone you know needs food, please feel free to take as needed. If you would like to donate food, please contact Pastor Justin by phone (405-765-3542) or email (jdunnok@gmail.com).
Another Resource for Families
Greg Cullison sent over a resource for Children’s activities you can find them here.
Lenten Reading Day 28
Today’s reading comes from an interesting source. Dag Hammarskjold served as the UN Secretary General in the 1960s. He died under suspicious conditions in a plane crash. You can read a little more about him here.
Rather poignantly his essay is entitled “For the Sacrificed.” In it, he details in a fresh, captivating way the final hours before Christ’s crucifixion and the indispensable nature of faith for all who would follow the path of Christ toward selfless obedience to God. Though Hammarskjold never uses the word, I was drawn to the word “resolve” as it defines Christ’s journey to Calvary and our journey to follow to Him. I distinguish between “resigned” and “resolved” because Christ was not resigned to the cross. In the sense that resigned means he sacrificed because it was His fixed fate of which he had no choice nor real passion. He resolved to follow. Paul picked up on this when he “resolved to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2) The hymn writer understood this when penned, “ I am resolved not longer to linger……. I will hasten to Him.” In following the journey of Jesus there is a daily call to the conviction that the path of obedience to God is right and worthy, because He is both of those things. May we “hasten so glad and free.” Hammarskjold ends with this, “ Would the Crucifixion have had any sublimity or meaning if Jesus had seen himself crowned with halo of martyrdom? What we have later added was not there for him. And we must forget all about it if we are to hear his commands.” Sacrifice means following Jesus wherever He leads. “Hasten so glad and free!!”
Lenten reading Day 27
The essay today from “Bread and Wine” is written by Peter Kreeft and entitled “Shared Hells.” A rather abrasive title but a powerful thought about the depth of Christ’s incarnation and crucifixion. The best way to get to Kreeft’s point is through this quote, “Does he (Christ) descend into all our hells? Yes. In the unforgettable line of Corrie ten Booom (google her kids) from the depths of a Nazi death camp, ‘No matter how deep our darkness, he (Christ) is deeper still.’” In the past when I have thought about “how deep and how wide and how long” (Ephesians 3:18) the love of Christ is, I haven’t considered how His incarnation and death embodied this. I know I was supposed to, but I hadn’t really until know. In this journey of Lent 2020 may the depth of change and weirdness be gloriously exceeded by the depth of Christ. May we be Christ and descend with others as He as descended with us.
Grace and Peace.
Lenten Reading
So, with our new normal I wanted to maintain the Lenten emphasis we have been making during our Sunday worship gatherings.
A great resource for Lent is “Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter” by Plough Publishing. It includes an essay from an established author for each day of Lent. I will be using this resource for my daily Lenten thoughts. Today is the 26th day of Lent and the reading is “ A Father’s Grief” by Martin Luther. In it, Luther explores God’s deep anguish over the sin of creation and created people. Luther maintains that God’s anguish drove Him to experience death in the God- Man (Jesus) for the purposes of defeating sin. A pretty straightforward theological line of events, sin is devastating, it is defeated by a perfect sacrifice, Christ is the only perfection and so His sacrifice overcomes the devastation of sin. But oh the deep implications of that . We are over-comers and should live and act accordingly.
Also, what brings us great anguish as followers us God should drive us to Godly action. In this 2020 Lenten season many our giving up more than they could have ever imagined. There is great anguish over what is really going on, what to do, and what not to. May our anguish prompt us to sacrificial love that looks deep within our hearts and allows the space for Christ in us the hope of glory.
Grace and Peace