Lent Midweek Series, Week One

Yes, I'm aware that it's already the fourth week of Lent this year. But I told someone the other day about what I'm doing for midweek reflections with the good people of God at Holy Love, and they suggested that maybe I should post these online someplace. So ... I'll post them here. 

Usually during Lent, I pick a theme of some sort, and each week during midweek Evening Prayer service, I share a reflection on that theme. Some of those reflections are posted on this blog.

This year I break with traditional practice. Because of the juxtaposition of Ash Wednesday with Valentine's Day, and of Easter with April Fool's Day, I started thinking about unusual juxtapositions.

So this year, instead of writing a reflection that I read, I've chosen to sing a song each week during Evening Prayer - songs that are not traditionally church songs, thereby juxtaposing popular culture with church. I print the lyrics of the song on one side of a piece of paper, my reflection on the other side, and provide enough copies for each person to have one.

So on this blog, I'll tell you what song I sing, post a link to the original artist/band playing the song, the section of scripture that was read that night, and then my reflection.

I'll post reflections from the other weeks over the next few days, or whenever I get around to it.

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Week One (February 21) the song I sang was Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
         * Skip to about 2:10 in the video if you want to miss the conversation and just hear the song

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When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always. ”Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

    - John 6:25-40

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There’s a saying that floats around. It goes something like, “Each one of us is searching for something that will fill the God-shaped hole in our soul.”

While there’s nothing in scripture to support the concept of a God-shaped hole in our soul, this idea seems fairly popular. Because the thing is, it seems like each one of is looking for something, searching for something, something to will take up whatever space might feel empty in our life - whatever space might feel like it needs to be filled.

That saying may be based on something from 17^th century thinker Blaise Pascal. In his posthumously-published book Pensées, Pascal wrote,

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.

Centuries prior, in the Confessions, Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”, which for some people speaks to the same yearning for something to fill what feels like a void somewhere in our individual life.

And this sentiment - that something is missing from our life, that we long for something we can’t find, that we yearn for but most often don’t reach fulfilment - isn’t just restricted to Christian apologists or theologians. The rock band U2, as you can see on the other side of this page, sang about the same yearning - looking for but not finding that which is fulfilling.

I don’t know whether there’s a God-shaped hole in our soul, or whether there’s an abyss in each of us that can only be filled with God.

I do know, though, that many of us resonate with the lyrics of this U2 song because many of us find that all of the things we search for, that we hope will satisfy the longing we feel at our center, tend to leave us feeling empty. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty …”

It’s only in God, revealed in Jesus Christ, that we have any hope of having whatever void we feel in our being filled. And, like the song points out by omission, that abyss will never be filled when we focus only on ourselves. To turn our focus to our self, says Martin Luther, is the beginning of all sin.

Instead, the love of God in Christ Jesus calls us beyond ourselves to pay attention to, and to love, our neighbor. Surprisingly, it is in giving ourselves away that we receive fulfillment.