by WILSON PRUITT

A month passes, and we are still in Lent. Christians are an odd sort for their seasons and especially for Lent. Christmas slips neatly into Thanksgiving and July 4 and Valentine’s Day as a day of collective and assumed consumption. The financial year is based around the Christmas giving period without which many industries and many thousands of companies would be in the red. The market relies on Christmas, but it does not rely on Lent.

It has been a month, and Lent is still here and will be here for a few weeks more, yet what keeps it here? Can we walk away from Lent? Can I say no to this bitter season with death at its end?

Yes.

I have a friend who told me that the most important thing he learned about supervising people was how to say no. I asked him how he did it. This was his response: “No.”

That freedom is always ours with Lent. We can always say no and most of us spend most of this time saying no to a season that barely affects how we live our lives. Sure, we may not say a certain ‘A’ word and we may sing some somber songs in church, we may keep a discipline a or two, but when I am jogging after work or watching basketball or contemplating a new swimsuit, what season am I living in?

How do we still live in Lent when it’s so easy to say no to the season in just a month? How do we accept the not-so-chipper news about a God who became human to be killed?

We must remember that Lent is not about us and our righteous discipline. It is not about sad songs or not saying words or telling people what to do and how to behave. It is about Jesus. It is about Jesus turning his face toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city that slayed the Prophets. Why does he go there? Why doesn’t he turn around? Why don’t his disciples realize what he is doing? Why don’t they stop him? The disciples didn’t understand which season they were in, just as we think less of facing Jerusalem and more of ascending to heaven.

The last miles are tricky. Holy Week is hard, but it is filled with days of note: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday.  In these last days of Lent, there are no days of note. Lent is like a marathon in that it is not the last miles but the ones before those that are hardest. The ones where we barely remember why we are in this season. The ones where saying no to Lent is easiest because it has been long enough. These miles that we run now are not glorified. Palm Sunday is a celebration. The week before is not. It is still Lent. We can still say no. It is easy. You just say it. No.

Or, as a church, we can with each other learn how to say yes.

by TRAVIS BURDETT

Have you ever tracked how you spend your money?  What do you spend it on?  I am not asking about the big stuff, we all know about the big stuff, but what about the small stuff?  When you go to the grocery store which companies do you support and which do you ignore?  In our capitalistic world companies are trying to capture every single one of our dollars they can.  We rarely take the time to think about the companies we spend money with, but I think Jesus would want us to.  How would the world be different if we did stop to think?

In today’s world most of the goods, food, and supplies we purchase come from overseas because the labor is cheaper there.  The sad truth is that many people in these foreign countries work in deplorable conditions.  These conditions are often made worse because of the insistence of companies on a lower bottom line.  Our brothers and sisters in the third world are seen as expendable assets rather than children of God.

Often I feel powerless to stop this tide of capitalistic oppression, but we still have a choice.  Every dollar we spend is a vote.  It is a vote for some companies and against other companies.  Every week I will highlight a company that deserves your votes.  I want to introduce you to companies that treat their workers like humans of worth rather than merely an asset.  Often these companies cost a little more, but that is because they would rather loose a little money before they sell their hearts.  It is easy to get caught up in a tide of negativity about these issues, but I hope these posts will focus on the amazing things some companies are doing and why you should support them (even if they cost a little more).  The Kingdom of God is about these choices.  It is about choosing to love our neighbors in the way we spend, the way we serve, and the way we think.

It’s difficult to look at the pictures and listen to the accounts of the last several days in Japan. In facing the damage caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, it’s easy to despair of how we could possibly do anything to help repair such widespread destruction. The answer, as with so many questions we face, lies in community. In this case, that means the community of the United Methodist Church in partnership with the wider Christian community.

Servant Church is able to be a part of relief efforts in Japan and elsewhere through the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the global humanitarian aid organization of the United Methodist Church. One reason that’s a good thing is that UMCOR brings us together with churches around the world and lets us work toward a common goal. Another is that UMCOR’s administrative expenses are paid through a special offering taken in churches everywhere, so 100% of donations designated for a particular effort go to that effort. None of those donations go toward overhead costs. If you’re looking for a way to help Japan, consider a donation through UMCOR.

Read about how United Methodists are already responding and the latest relief advisories on Japan. And continue reading below for a message from the president of the Church’s Council of Bishops.

Dear sisters and brothers,

As you know, a series of tragic events has unfolded over the past few days in Japan. The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 and the accompanying tsunami resulted in the death of at least 2,800 people and possibly more than 10,000. Damage to the country’s nuclear power plants jeopardizes the safety of hundreds of thousands more. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the disaster the worst crisis Japan has faced in 65 years.

In times of immense loss and grief, we are reminded once again that God’s grace is sufficient. While it does not offer us immunity from tragedy, it sustains us with healing and hope.

At such times, the church is called to be a healing presence among those facing heartbreaking circumstances. I am confident that the people of The United Methodist Church will respond to the call with prayers and generous support for the victims of this catastrophe.

I ask that you join with me in prayer for the deceased and their families; the injured; the search and rescue workers; the survivors who are without water, food or heat; those who have been evacuated from their homes as the nuclear threat worsens; and all who have been affected.

When disaster strikes, we are especially grateful for the valuable ministry that the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) provides with the help and support of United Methodists and others. I hope that all United Methodist churches will consider taking a special offering designated for Pacific Emergency, UMCOR Advance #3021317, to provide financial resources to respond to the needs resulting from the disaster.

Working with its partners, the United Church of Christ in Japan, the Korean Christian Church, Church World Service, Global Medic, the National Christian Council, and the Asian Rural Institute, UMCOR is currently focused on working to assess the damage to determine how best to provide assistance and will then respond accordingly.

May we join together in opening our hearts to those suffering in the midst of devastation.

Yours in Christ,

Larry M. Goodpaster, President
The Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church

Hi, all. Chris here. We had such a good time picking NCAA tournament brackets last year, I thought we should give it another go. I’ve created a group at www.bigshotbracket.com. A friend of mine works at the company that runs it. They’re good folks and won’t spam you. Here is what you need to know:

Group Name: SCAustin

Password: servant

To sign up, go to:

http://www.bigshotbracket.com/signup.asp?id=11984_6718

If you are already signed up, go straight to the Join Group page at:

http://www.bigshotbracket.com/groups.asp

Questions and trash talk in the comments section.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD by WILSON PRUITT

The word Sunday School today connotes images of young boys and girls sitting in straight-backed chairs getting asked questions for which every answer is “Jesus.” It was not always this way. 240 years ago in England when education was only for the rich and the child labor of the industrial revolution just getting started, a few members of the Methodist societies began schooling children on Sundays. At these schools, children were taught arithmetic and reading and writing and religion and were taken off of the streets for a few hours. The cost of these schools was minimal and enrollment enormous in industrial towns like Manchester. The impetus was not indoctrination but a desire to give even the forgotten ones, the children of the poor, an opportunity which had mostly been denied them.

Due to education movements in this country and in England, public schools spread far and wide and Sunday Schools became entirely parochial and in many cases a caricature of themselves. However, that same desire to see to it that those children who are easy to forget are not forgotten must hold strong. When Jesus said let the children come unto me he was saying that children mattered. Children are not the future they are the present. They are the best of us. They are hope and love and energy and snottiness and crassness and disobedience and courtesy and immorality and caring and rebelliousness and humility. They are all these things and more. Jesus recognized in them humanity and we must as well. If we are to be a people capable of love we must at least love the children in our midst, especially those for whom love is distant and hard.

That being said, there are number of justifications for education funding that are harmful and have helped to alter the future direction of education. It is not testing that is ruining kids but the theory of education wherein testing becomes the answer to a problem. To say that children need education because our economy needs them is to turn children into commodities and our schools into factories.  To say that children are the future is to say that we should help them because it will make our lives easier in the future: children are the future, so let’s support them in order to make sure my Social Security check will come in.

Instead of allowing cold pragmatism to reward these colder theories, Christians should embrace public education as a location with good intentions yet still in need of conversion. Not to parochialism, but to the idea of a child and a person far broader than our economies and petty logics allow. What this means is being present in schools, in the hardest schools, in the toughest locations, being present with yourself and with your children. It means saying my children are not better than yours, not more deserving. Jesus did not distinguish between those children who would grow up to be fishers and those who would grow up to be farmers. He did not distinguish between those children aiming for the Ivies and those children hoping for community college.

Even for those of us without children and for those who see letting our children run as too hard a task, standing with teachers seems a place where the church must be. A posture of solidarity for those who care about people we should care about. A posture of solidarity even if the details may complicated and the realities of public education sometimes disturbing. Solidarity means standing with someone and saying “You are not forgotten”. It is what the first Sunday School teachers did to the children of Gloucester and Manchester. It is what Jesus did with the children in the Gospels. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” It is what we today in this age of budget crises and new visions of government must do.