Most of God’s creation knows how to rest. Cats catnap. Bears hibernate. Dogs snooze. There are only two exceptions. Working through Psalm 23 we know that one of them is obviously sheep. For sheep to lie down and rest everything must be just right. Four conditions need to be met: They must be free from all fear. Because they are social creatures there must be no friction or aggravation with other sheep. In-fighting keeps them on their feet. Yet sheep struggle every day to set up their pecking order as they butt heads with each other. Butting heads with each other sheep become edgy, tense, restless and irritable.

Popularity is a fragile commodity—but how people crave it! Popularity is so fragile that it often disappears as quickly as it appeared. Perhaps that’s why back in the 1960s Andy Warhol spoke of 15 minutes of fame. Popularity is based upon people’s opinion, and people are oh-so fickle. Popular opinion can be easily swayed. That is no more obvious than from the events that take place during Holy Week. On Sunday the Jewish pilgrims flocked out of the city by the tens of thousands to sing Jesus’ praises: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” But by early Friday morning, four days later, their refrain has changed. Their chorus is now “Crucify him! Crucify him!” When given a choice between releasing Jesus or a violent criminal like Barabbas, everyone cries out, “Give us Barabbas!” That’s a far cry from what they sang on Palm Sunday.

Lent is a special time in the Christian church year. All sorts of things take place with Lent. For the next six weeks there are no alleluias. For the next six weeks the altar colors are purple. For the next six weeks the symbols that are placed before us all find their focus in the cross. Midweek Lenten services. Lenten suppers. At the center of our attention, at the end of the journey is the cross.

There are two sides to the Lenten story. There is this account of the fall of man into sin, and there is the Passion story of our Lord Jesus, suffering the curse of our sin. Jesus is betrayed and abused. Jesus is scorned and beaten. Jesus is crucified. But there is another side of the Passion story. As our Lord’s suffering unfolds, all around him are people living out their lives frustrated by sin.

The story of Jonah is much deeper than merely a prophet being swallowed by a great fish. It is a story that exemplifies our sinful human nature. Sometimes we Christians have been known to suffer from what we might call the “Jonah syndrome.” It’s not caused by a contagious virus, but by sin and sin’s virulent mutation, selfishness. Having experienced God’s love and forgiveness, we become turned in upon ourselves. We see something bad happen and we think that those people deserved it. Sometimes we even wish that God would “get those people for the bad things that they have done.” That’s where Jonah was at.

Our lives are often complicated and busy. Just think for a moment of all that you were involved in this past week. We put in our time at work. There are the daily chores; everything from preparing meals to doing the laundry, from doing the dishes to picking up after the kids, from picking up the mail to paying the bills. If your week was a normal week, there also were runs to the grocery store to pick up the day to day food items that we all need. Then there were special runs to pick up those things that you forgot. If you have kids at home, you went back and forth to school several times this past week. If the kids are involved in sports, there were extra trips. Then there are those other tasks, other involvements that we all have in our individual lives. We are busy in the community, busy at home. By the time that a normal week ends, we are tired.

With all the rush of the 30 or so days between Thanksgiving and Christmas there hardly seems as if there is any time to get into the “Christmas spirit.” But just what exactly is Christmas spirit? When we are younger we become energized by the building excitement that surrounds Christmas. Trees go up. Presents appear under the tree. Homes are decorated. For a child Christmas is the most special of the year. But as we grow older, it often becomes more and more difficult to get excited. We’ve been through it before. It’s a lot of work and more money spent on presents than we want to think about until after the New Year. The excitement is tempered by a growing credit card balance. The wonder of Christmas wanes as weariness sets in.