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Lenten Meditations 2009
Today's Scripture
The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people.
*Mark 10.45 (CEV) (NLT)
An Affirmation
God's Love is flowing through me
everywhere I go.
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We have placed in first place in our society the democratic principle of individual rights. This principle is grounded, principally, in the biblical tradition. Yet, we may forget that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not put in first place individual rights. Even the Constitution is set in the context of a community, implying individual rights are embedded within the equal rights of everyone.
Still, Scripture and reason give a higher principle than either individual or equal rights. We will never go far in Christ as long as we stay in the shallow waters of my rights.
Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (d. 672), was elected and installed Bishop of York. But some persons raised objections. Rather than cause division in the Church, Chad withdrew in favor of the other candidate, Wilfrid.
The objection was that some of the bishops who had consecrated Chad - although not Chad himself - were holdouts who, even after the Synod of Whitby had supposedly settled the question in 663, insisted on keeping Celtic customs on Easter and similar questions. They chose this, instead of conforming to the customs of the remainder of the Western Church.
Chad was soon made Bishop of Lichfield, in Mercia. He travelled about as he had when Archbishop of York, always on foot - until the Archbishop of Canterbury gave him a horse and ordered him to ride it, at least on long journeys - preaching and teaching.
Chad served there for only two and a half years before his death. But he made a deep impression. In the following decades, many chapels and wells were constructed in Mercia and named for him - It was an old custom to dig a well where one was needed and to mark it with either the name of another person or oneself, that persons might drink and remember the name with gratitude.
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Chad reminds us of a humbleness guided by Love, not personal rights alone. He could have demanded his right to honor his consecration to Bishop of York. Yet, he surrendered that right to a larger right: the good of all.
In this Chad practiced a wonderful passage from Scripture...
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
*Phillipians 2.3-4 (CEV)
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How might what we think of as personal rights, or even God leading us, conflict with the principle of Love within our relationships?
How did Jesus model a Love preferring other persons over his own personal rights?
Reflect on a time you surrendered what you had a right to for another person and experienced the joy that comes from such Loving yielding.
Prayerfully explore relationships wherein you have demanded - or are demanding - your way, what you call your rights, rather than seeking how God might have you to act for the better of the other person(s)?
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*This writing ministry is the offering of Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida, a Pastor in the United Methodist Church, and Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda, FL. To contact Brian, write to barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Material about Chad was found at http://satucket.com/lectionary/Chad.htm (Feb 2, 2009).
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