Uri Brito

On April 22, 2019 By Uri Brito In Politics 1

Five Lessons from Lent

Easter Season is here! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Easter came with all the glory expected. Every year it just seems more and more meaningful. But as I am slowly immersing into the season of abundant joy, I ask myself what to do with the season that is now behind us, namely Lent?

The 40 days of Lent provided some genuine times of reflection, introspection, and renewal. The Season went by faster than I anticipated, but it left a profound mark in my life. There are five lessons I thought I’d share as I enter the Easter Season with a tremendous appetite to see Christ exalted in everything I do.

First, I learned that Lent is needed. We tend to think that we can meditate on everything without any order or sequence. We simply can’t. God loves time. He gave it to us. He knows we need to be structured as human beings, and He gave the Church wisdom to help us structure our meditations and concerns. To do so, He gave us Jesus. Jesus is with us all year long as we live, move, and have our being in Him through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost (Trinity). We need not just Christ, but His entire life lived, crucified, and raised. Consistent meditation on one theme over the others causes misdirection in affection and the Christian experience.

Second, I learned that Lent is for loving. We live for others. We live for the community. We follow the Head, and following Him means serving the body. Lent is for going the extra mile in service and charity.

Third, Lent is for dying. Life is structured as a death/resurrection pattern. We all enjoy the latter motif, but we find the dying part to be a bit outrageous. Perhaps our expectations need to be re-shaped. Lent is for dying to self. It’s for taking up the cross. It’s for weeping with those who weep. Lent is the realization that the joy of living is dying, so that others may live.

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On April 20, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings, Worship 3

Lenten Journey, Day 40, Holy Saturday

On this Saturday, the Church calls this day Blessed Sabbath or more commonly, Holy Saturday. On this day, our Lord reposed (rested) from his accomplishments. Many throughout history also believe that Holy Saturday is a fulfillment of Moses’ words:

God blessed the seventh day. This is the day of rest, on which God rested from all His works . . .(Gen. 2:2)

The Church links this day with the creation account. On day seven Yahweh rested and enjoyed the fruit of his creation. Jesus Christ also rested in the rest given to him by the Father and enjoyed the fruits of the New Creation he began to establish and would be brought to light on the next day.

Holy Saturday is a day of rest for God’s people; a foretaste of the true Rest that comes in the Risen Christ. The calmness of Holy Saturday makes room for the explosion of Easter Sunday. On this day, we remember that the darkness of the grave and the rest of the Son were only temporary for when a New Creation bursts into the scene the risen Lord of glory cannot contain his joy, and so he gives it to us.

On April 19, 2019 By Uri Brito In Politics, Scribblings 1

Lenten Journey, Day 39, The Politics of Good Friday

On the Friday of Holy Week, traditionally known as “Good Friday”, the great question is, “What do we do with this man?” “Do we crucify him; do we let Him go; will He anger Caesar; will He draw to Himself members of our political party?” Good Friday is replete with politics.

Throughout the Gospels, we often hear of the confusion and uncertainty about the nature of Jesus. But by this point, the leaders of the day have realized that Jesus is no ordinary man; that He is not just claiming to be the Messiah, but also a kingly substitute to the current selection. After this realization, their tone changes quite drastically. Their plans of execution and murder suddenly become quite concrete. This is the politics of Good Friday, as one author observes:

God enters His creation, and His creatures concentrate all their ingenuity, passion, piety, and power to destroy Him.

What is distinctive about the politics of Good Friday is not that Jesus despises power; after all, He will receive all power and authority in heaven and earth from the Father, rather the uniqueness of Good Friday is that power comes through death, and the declaration of His kingship does not appear in the splendor of a Roman coronation, but in the horror of a tree.

When Pilate handed over Jesus to the Jews and mockingly stated: “Behold your King!” little did he know that the destruction of his own kingdom now was certain, and the genesis and emergence of an everlasting kingdom were already taking place.

Unlike Adam, Jesus did not fail to crush the Serpent. On a tree, Adam fell, but through a tree, a New Adam and a New Humanity is resurrected. Hail Good Friday! All glory, laud, and honor to the Redeemer King!

On April 18, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings 1

Lenten Journey, Day 38, A New Love

On Thursday of Week, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. It is traditionally known as Maundy Thursday. The word “Maundy” is derived from the Latin “mandatum” which refers to the “commandment” that our Lord gave to His disciples “to love one another.”

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

We see the tenderness of Jesus displayed as He addresses His disciples as “Little Children.” For Jesus, they were His own. They belonged in His kingdom. And because they were His He had to protect them from what was ahead. What was ahead was something only He could undergo. “Where I am going, you cannot come,” Jesus said.

But though you cannot go with me, I will give you this new commandment that you are to cling to in life, and as you continue to spread my message: that you love one another. But if know your Pentateuch well, you will note that in Leviticus 19:18 our Lord had already said that you are “to love your neighbor as yourself.” So why is this a new commandment? This is a new commandment because unlike Leviticus, here Jesus says “love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The difference is God became flesh and literally loved His disciples in word and deed. The disciples now have the example of God in the flesh of what love truly looks like. Yes, it is a new commandment: Love one another. But when Jesus says “Do this,” it is because He has already demonstrated for us what it looks like.

Love is the center of Christian discipleship. How will the world know who we are? It should not be because of our intellectual expertise, or our professional accomplishments, but rather by the love we have for one another at our tables, living rooms, workplaces, and in the place of worship.

The Christian history has only triumphed because God has loved us in His Son, and Christians have reacted to that love by loving one another. Without love there is no Christian faith; without love we are noise-makers, clanging cymbals, self-delusional religionists, but when we obey this new commandment, the world sees us and they will know that we are disciples of the Crucified King, Jesus Christ.

On April 17, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings, Wisdom 2

Lenten Journey, Day 37, True Worship

Some refer to the Wednesday of Holy Week as a “Silent Day” or “Holy Wednesday.” Much of it depends on how one puts together the Gospel chronology. Still, it appears that after Judas decided to betray Jesus, Wednesday is spent conspiring for how this would occur. Jesus is in Bethany throughout the day and stays there during the night.

There is one remarkable scene that takes place in Bethany:

One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment (Lk. 7:36ff).

On Thursday, at the Last Supper, there is another table set. But on Wednesday Jesus receives one of the most splendid displays of worship in his earthly ministry. A woman, of immoral reputation, anoints our Lord. Kings are anointed. Unlike the traitorous leaders of the day, this woman wasted no time in submitting to the Lord of Glory.

She wet his feet with tears–a symbol of casting her cares on him. She wiped her tears with her hair–a symbol of casting her sins on him for hair in the Bible is often associated with weakness and uncleanness (Lev. 13:40). She kisses his feet–a symbol of loyalty. Unlike Judas whose kiss meant death, this woman’s kiss meant allegiance.

On this Holy Wednesday, while Jesus’ ministry may be relatively silent, the angels in heaven are not; the Father and the Spirit are not, and this true worshipper in a Pharisees’ home is loudly worshipping the Second Adam.

On April 16, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings 2

Lenten Journey, Day 36, The Judas Plot to Kill Jesus

On Tuesday of Holy Week, there was a plot which involved money, power, religious leaders, a famous festival and the devil himself. The religious leaders were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. But they needed an insider; someone who knew the game plan of the inner circle; someone who knew the inside jokes; someone who knew their bank account. His name was Judas.

Satan enters Judas and attempts to replicate the wilderness temptations, and so he offers Jesus an easy way out of his course to the cross. If only Jesus is arrested, then he will precipitate a war with the Romans; then he will show himself to be the Messiah. If Jesus is arrested by the religious leaders, perhaps there will be an inevitable war where Jesus will be forced to forego his mission and God will intervene and defeat the Roman powers and establish a fleshly kingdom. And perhaps Judas will be a powerful leader in this newly established messianic reign.

But Judas’ dream of an earthly kingdom without the cross and the resurrection would not be. In a fascinating turn of events, when Jesus is handed over to the religious leaders, what did the disciples want to do? They wanted to take up the sword and begin a war. They even cut off the ear of one of the servants. Is Judas’ dream being fulfilled before his very eyes? “My plan has worked. Jesus is going to cast himself from the temple; he is going to take the bread, break the fast and show his authority.”

Jesus, however, does not follow the script as Judas imagined. He immediately turns the table, heals the man’s right ear and he says “None of this. This is not the will of my Father.” Almost immediately, Judas’ vision for what he believed would happen after the arrest of Jesus is shattered. Jesus’ triumphal entry was not a declaration of physical warfare against the Romans, it was a declaration that his kingdom would be a different kind of kingdom. The kingdom of Jesus would never come through the sword, but salvation; not through war but worship. Come, let us worship and bow down to the One who overcomes the Devil.

On April 15, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings 1

Lenten Journey, Day 35; Cleaning Time

On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,

“It is written,
‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’
but you have made it a den of robbers.”

The sin of Israel in part was to see Jesus as a one-dimensional character in the story, but he is multi-dimensional. When Jesus enters the scene he is communicating a lot more than first meets the eye. Zechariah 9 instructs us that he is a King who is finally come home to set things right. The abuse of his home is over and a now a gracious ruler is here to guard the true religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But you know how we are tempted to treat his coming on the Monday of Holy Week–we are tempted to keep business as usual. We are tempted to say: “In my home, there is no corruption. I am the right kind of housekeeper. Jesus, there is no need to change the furniture.” But Jesus comes to teach you that there is always cleaning up that needs to take place. When Jesus comes it’s Spring cleaning time.

It’s time to give your sins over to Jesus so He can carry them to the cross where he bled and died. Or perhaps it’s time to allow Jesus to save you from your current residence? Aren’t you tired of the cycle of sin? Aren’t you tired of apathy? Aren’t you tired of not noticing any spiritual growth in your life in the last 2,5, 10 years? It’s cleaning time! It’s time to allow Jesus to enter and change the make-up of your home as he did in Jerusalem. It’s not going to be comfortable. He’s going to crush some things that you treasure a whole lot, but he’s going to give them back to you in a new way.

On April 14, 2019 By Uri Brito In Counseling/Piety, Politics 2

Palm Sunday Meditation

When Jesus draws near things happen. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, hearts are exposed as the sun into a dark room. Palm Sunday means we are compelled to decide whether this donkey-riding messianic figure is who he claims to be.

When Jesus comes, our hearts are opened. What does he expose in us? Is it our sense of insecurity? “My Lord is coming! What if he sees me for who I really am?” Or perhaps when the Lord comes, we hide in fear like Adam and Eve believing that if we hide just long enough, perhaps our Lord will just keep riding his donkey to another town.

When Jesus comes, as He does this morning, we ought to feel exposed, but we ought not to feel shame. Shame is the exposure of our nakedness. Shame happens when we think that our exposure means our death; when we think that our ugliness has been revealed and there is no reason left to live. Ultimately, shame is rooted in our inherent preference to trust false gods rather than depend on God for each and every moment of our existence. What happens when we are exposed by Jesus’ coming? The answer is, “We lay down palm branches before him.” That is to say, we affirm that he controls everything; that does not come to us to crush our dreams, or to make us miserable, but he rules over us to make us strong in our weakness. In fact, shame happens when we think we are too strong. The message of Palm Sunday is to expose yourself to the king of love. He came to Jerusalem to die for your sin and shame. He came to Jerusalem so you may have life and life more abundantly.

[1] See Alender, Cry of the Soul, 195[2] Alender.

On April 13, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings 1

Lenten Journey, Day 34, Kindness

“But the fruit of the Spirit is kindness…”

It’s possible that you live in fear wondering if Jesus is at the right hand of the Father scheming to make your life miserable. Or it is even possible that somehow you have bought into the thinking that Jesus is ready to crush you like a bug; like he is ready to take away your baptismal rights and give you a bag of filthy rags to carry around for the rest of our life. You may think Jesus is there at the right hand of the father saying: “Yes, I cannot wait to make your life as miserable as possible because you sinned against me or you were seduced by false gods or because of your low self-esteem.” But this is not the case.

Like Pharaoh’s daughter showed kindness to Moses, like Rahab to the spies, like David to Mephibosheth, like Joab to Absalom, like Elisha who restored to life the woman’s son, like Joseph to Mary, the centurion to his servant, John to Mary, Paul to Onesimus, God’s kindness flows to you day after day after day after day. In God’s economy, in Jesus’ kingship, no child of God is damaged goods. None. His hesed, his steadfast love, his kindness endures forever.

On April 12, 2019 By Uri Brito In Scribblings, Wisdom 3

Lenten Journey, Day 33; Patience

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…”

Impatience stems from thinking that everything and everyone needs to follow a great script written by you and when people don’t follow the script as you wrote, then you are justified to show a director’s fury.

But you see, you don’t write the script for your children and friends. God is the director of our lives. His script for our lives is from everlasting. And when we rush to anger with our fellow actors and actresses, we are acting as if we are self-creators of our own stories. We are supplanting God’s function in our stories as the great writer. On the other hand, patience treats others with the dignity of fellow travelers in this great cosmic narrative.