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Tuesday, February 16, 2010 CW Weekly Devotional - "The 40 Days of Lent" By laneglaze @ 9:38 PM :: 116 Views :: 0 Comments :: :: Weekly Devotional   When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. - Exodus 24:15-18, NIV   Note: Thanks to all of the students who fasted for Haiti over the last few weeks.  The offering that we collected on Sunday night was nearly $500. This will be combined with a $200 contribution from CW (the amount that we saved by eating beans and rice). All proceeds will go to support relief efforts in Haiti. If you were not able to be there on Sunday and would like to contribute, stop by my office later this week. CLG Tonight many Christians around the world will begin preparing for the Lenten season at a Shrove Tuesday supper where pancakes, crepes or other pastries will be the main dish. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the past tense of the English "shrive" which means to receive absolution of one's sins by confession and doing penance. Historically, priests would shrove their flocks prior to Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten Season. The celebration of Mardi Gras (“fat Tuesday” in the French) grew out of the need to empty the cupboards before the fasting season of Lent began. Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday, where ashes from the burned palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday are imposed on the foreheads of Christians accompanied by the following words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Ash Wednesday is a time when we remember our mortality, our sinfulness and, ultimately, our need for God. Throughout the next Forty Days (excluding Sundays, which are always feast days), Christians typically focus on three spiritual disciplines designed to lead us to a deeper love for God and neighbor: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Forty Days of Lent are viewed as a sufficient or complete length of time of spiritual preparation, mirroring the time of preparation for Moses on Sinai and later Jesus in the wilderness. Through disciplined prayer, fasting and almsgiving, Christians seek to become more God- or Christ-like, and more grateful for what God has done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the week before Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday marks the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowds while palm branches were waved or spread on the road for the triumphal entry. Several days later Christians gather for Maundy Thursday, with "maundy" coming from the Latin for "mandate" in John's Gospel. In the upper room the night before Jesus died, he says to his disciples, "I give you a new commandment (mandate), that you should love another, just as I have loved you." Maundy Thursday services are usually times when Christians celebrate Holy Communion, a rite instituted by Jesus on the night before he died. Many communities of faith also perform footwashing on this night, remembering that Jesus washed his disciples' feet as they entered for the celebration of the Passover meal for the last time together. The day that Jesus was crucified, Good Friday, is more aptly called "Mourning Friday" in Germany. Some believe that the word "Good" at one time was "God's", while others understand "Good" to mean "Holy." Remembering the events of Good Friday through a reenactment of the Stations of the Cross is popular in certain traditions. The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is known by many different names around the world. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the day is often referred to as Holy or Great Saturday or the Great Sabbath, as a reminder of Jesus resting in the tomb. The day is also known as Black Saturday (Philippines), White Saturday (Czech Republic) or Silent Saturday (Netherlands). As noted in the Apostles' Creed, many believe that Jesus descended into hell on this day to share the Good News with all who had died before him (I Peter 3:18-20, 4:6). Of course, Lent ends with the celebration of Easter, the day in which the women discovered that the tomb has been rolled away and that God had raised Jesus, the one who was faithful until the end, from the dead. Early on, Christians began to gather on Sundays in recognition of this great event and in anticipation of Christ's return. Before long, Sunday, the "Lord's" day, replaced Saturday as the day for worship, the day for Sabbath. This Lent, I hope that you will seek to use the next 40 days as a time to grow deeper in your love for God and neighbor. As with all things, we can receive Lent as a great gift from God and the Church and treat it as such, or we can take what was intended for good and turn into something that is another work or law to be performed. As you contemplate the possibility of giving up some things for this season, I encourage to reflect on what things or activities to which you most quickly turn when you are seeking to fill that void or ache deep inside, a void or ache that we know can only be satisfied fully by the presence of God. I found the following list of possible fasting items that a sister church in Seneca is using especially helpful as I contemplate the ways in which I need to fast this season:   Junk food, alcohol, television, texting, arguing, car radio, movies, adding salt, fast food, buying new clothes, coffee, internet, gossip, chat rooms, lottery tickets, smoking, criticizing, desserts, cell phone, meat, sodas, noise, judgmentalism, video games, magazines, IPods, soap operas, Blackberry, parties, bridge club, emails, candy, parking close to the store, gambling, novels, news shows (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc.), whining, eating out computer, clutter, second helpings, Facebook, pleasure trips, gossip magazines, wearing jewelry, favorite TV show, gourmet food (eat simply)   (Note: The only thing that I felt the need to add given my context here in Tigertown - Clemson sporting events!)   I pray that throughout these next 40 days you may experience “the glory of the LORD” in visceral, palpable ways. Looking for clouds, lane PS – There will be an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service tomorrow on campus at 12:30 pm in McKissick Theater (in Hendrix) along with a service at 6:30 pm at Clemson UMC. Rev. C. Lane Glaze Director, Clemson Wesley Campus Minister, Clemson UMC PO Box 1703 Clemson SC 29633 864-654-5547 (o) and 864-207-9135 (cell) www.clemsonwesley.com   Feel free to forward this email to a friend. The Clemson Wesley Weekly Devotional is a ministry of the Clemson Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Church’s ministry to students on the campus of Clemson University. The purpose of this email is to look at issues relevant to the life of Clemson students through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like your name added to this list, email Rev. Lane Glaze at glaze@clemson.edu.

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