FROM THE PULPIT: ARE YE A-BULL?

My oldest child did not want to go the Longhorn Rodeo at all. She was just simply cool to be there. She went just the same and spent most of the evening holding her nose and covering her head with the hood of her jacket. We had never been to a rodeo before and I felt it would be a good experience.

One of my kids said after the third cowboy was bucked off of a bronco, "don't you think they should have been able to figure out by now that those horses don't want them on their backs?" I bought a $2 straw cowboy heat because I wanted to get in the mood for the event but my kids convinced me I would embarrass them if I wore it so I left it at home.

Imagine how silly I felt when I was the only one there without a cowboy hat on!

It was good family fun! My son said his favorite part was the clowns. I liked them too, At the end of the show a huge bull was set free in the arena and the clowns jumped up and down and waved their arms to get its attention and then, staring a living and breathing ton of danger in the face, they stuck out their tongues at it and "shook their body."

At first I thought, this is hilarious. then I thought, this is really not funny! Somebody could get hurt. This is really no way to make a living, I thought. It is, however, the way to live I think.

What is it that enables us to stare our fears in the face? I think that the cross of Lent is a good clue. To me the cross represents Jesus' own ability to face down evil and fear and injustice and triumph over all of them even as it appears to us that he has succumbed.

Courage might be the first thing we think of when we look for the resource for facing fear but I think the Gospel has a different starting point.

1 John 4:18 says that it is "perfect love" that casts out fear. The cross represents the perfect love of God in Christ.

The perfect love of God reminds us that we do not face our fears alone. The perfect love of God allays our selfish concerns and removes the barriers that we have built between each other. Facing fear, facing evil, facing injustice with love looks pretty foolish to us.

It doesn't look like courage. It takes courage to face fear with love. God give us courage this Lenten season. "For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God ..." 1 Corinthians 1:18.