Credit to Scot McKnight yet again…

Jeff Cook, author of Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes , has offered some brief meditations for us to ponder during Lent this year.

Greed

During Lent, we will meditate together on the Seven Deadly Sins and use this list as an aid in confession as we prepare ourselves for Holy Week, Good Friday and the Easter announcement of resurrection.

Greed is a misdirected love. Dante depicted the greedy chained to the ground, with their backs turned to heaven and their eyes fixed on the earth. The destructive power of greed was noted by one of those enchained who said, “Greed quenched my love of good, thus all my labors were in vain.”

Notice, greed is not gluttony, which indulges to the point of bursting. Greed in many ways couldn’t care less about enjoying its spoils. Greed pursues accumulation. Greed is the desire to possess more than I need, because of fear or idolatry. A fitting personification of Greed is Ebenezer Scrooge, who sat alone at night with a single candle to light his frigid bedroom. “Darkness is cheap,” wrote Charles Dickens, “and Scrooge liked it.”
Greed does not care about living well in the present for greed is obsessed about the future, and the future is a place of fear—fear that I will not have enough for tomorrow, fear that somehow the God who gives me each breath will stop providing if I do not squirrel away all I can.

Jesus’ brother James called greed the primary obstacle to peace in our world. Paul wrote that monetary greed is “a root of all kinds of evil.” All four gospel writers suggest that Judas betrayed Jesus partially because of greed. At its core, greed prefers wealth to the growth of our souls, to the God who made us, and to peace among people.

To those of us who struggle with greed Jesus says, “Freely you have received, freely give … What good will it be for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?” (Mt 10:8, 16:26)

(Excerpt from Seven: the Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes by Jeff Cook)

Three weeks ago, I had an intention: to blog throughout the Lent season, as as act of reflection, as a possible resource for myself or others. A few days slid by. I hand-wrote a list of post ideas. I would catch up. A few more days, a couple more ideas. Still planning to catch up. A weekend, no ideas at all. A few days sick with a mostly-sick family, not thinking of anything but rest.

Gratefully, Lent is largely about recognition of weakness and expressions of humility.

I can’t even blog well.  And my list of faults descends very sharply from there.

Perhaps my Lent is playing out as-it-should, and perhaps a lack of its documentation is no real loss.

From “The Book of Worship”, here is a prayer for this third Sunday of Lent…

Lord of life and love, help us to worship thee in the holiness of beauty, that some beauty of holiness may appear in us.  Quiet our souls in thy presence with the stillness of a wise trust.  Lift us above dark moods, and the shadow of sin, that we may find thy will for lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Once again, I draw from Scot McKnight’s treasure-of-a-blog:

Jeff Cook, author of Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes , has offered some brief meditations for us to ponder during Lent this year.

Lust

During Lent, we will meditate together on the Seven Deadly Sins and use this list as an aid in confession as we prepare ourselves for Holy Week, Good Friday and the Easter announcement of resurrection.

CS Lewis invites us to imagine that we have visited an alien world where scores of people have assembled to watch a striptease. Imagine, however, that instead of a woman, a small, covered platter is brought out—and with all eyes wide, someone slowly removes the lid, revealing a steaming hamburger. We think the striptease is a joke, but all around us, people begin howling. Others snicker, elbowing their friends. Some just sit quivering in their seats. If such a world did exist, we would not think this display merely odd. We would think something inside the audience was broken. A healthy appetite for food is good, but when appetites turn into manic behavior, something is in a state of disrepair.

Like all extremes, an out-of-control desire for sex is damaging. When our desire for sex takes over—when our appetites demand whatever they wish without commitment or care—our sexual longings step beyond their natural role. We call such rule by our primal urges lust. Lust is handing control of my body and mind over to illicit cravings. Those controlled by lust know something is wrong inside them, for they make their habits private. They hide evidence from those they care about most. Shame often reveals not just where I mess up, but where my life malfunctions.

When I give lust the steering wheel, it will rot my normal desire for sex, making it hollow and unappeasable. We can talk sensibly about brain damage. We may even say that a certain man is a lunatic, that his mind is erratic and unstable. In the same way, lust, if given its way, will make our bodies and minds erratic and unstable. When we give control of our lives over to lust, we lose not only the potential joy of sex but also the enjoyment of so much else. At its core, lust wars against the community we ought to share with one another—distorting duties, confusing friendships, breaking up marriages, betraying children, creating false intimacy, turning us away from the pleasure of another person toward mere self-gratification. As one ancient confession says, “With the lusts of passion I have darkened the beauty of my soul, and turned my whole mind entirely to dust.”

To those of us who struggle with giving the authority of our bodies over to lust, Jesus says, “Gouge out and cut off everything that causes you to stumble with lust. It is better for you to remove even a part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into that valley of flaming waste” (Paraphrase of Mt 5:28-29). Take a moment to let the Spirit expose lust in your life, so you may repent and be free.

(Excerpt from Seven: the Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes by Jeff Cook)