Category: Lent

ASH WEDNESDAY 2019

I have preached on Ash Wednesday for 5 of the last eight years. Looking back I see references to acts of kindness, God’s generosity (and ours), relationships, and justice. Today I’m going to look at forgiveness and repentance.

I think most of us know the story of the Prodigal son. The son who claims his inheritance, then leaves home and squanders it, leaving himself destitute. He resolves to go home, to beg his father’s forgiveness, and to offer to work among his father’s servants.  His father sees him coming from far off, and rushes to meet him with an embrace. He throws a huge celebration party for the son he thought lost.

Now, at what point in the story do you think the father forgave his wayward son?

I think forgiveness was in his heart from the very beginning. That is how I see God: forgiveness is in his heart. Today’s words from the Prophet Joel echo some lines from Psalm 103:

The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve,
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is form the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

So far HAS he removed our transgressions from us. Past tense. It is done already. Christ has already paid the price. Through his sacrifice, we are made clean and fit to present to God our Father. What remains is our contrition and resolve to mend our ways.

So how does today’s story of the woman caught in adultery fit in? As we read the story we can see she has been trapped – the charge against her requires two independent witnesses to have observed the act of adultery. This doesn’t happen by accident! These witnesses had the opportunity to prevent the sin, but were more concerned to punish the perpetrator. There is no mention that the witnesses were present. Even if they were, the Law calls for her and her partner in crime to be stoned. But where is her partner in crime? No witnesses, no partner… Too many people are missing. This is a set-up. She is being used to trap Jesus himself. And he knows it.

But I digress, I really want to consider Jesus’s last words to the woman herself. Christ’s act of forgiveness (neither do I condemn you) comes first. The call to repentance and change (go now and leave your life of sin) follows it.

This is the same sequence as the Father’s forgiveness –  a sequence we all too easily lose sight of. We forget that our repentance does not earn us God’s forgiveness. Our repentance is, rather, an entirely appropriate response to God’s grace. We are already forgiven. Christ died for everyone, he’s not waiting for us to repent, although it will gladden his heart if and when we do.

The absolution that follows confession in our services reminds us of God’s generosity and grace. I don’t think the priest is calling down God’s forgiveness – Jesus said on the cross “It is done” – it was all finished a long time ago. We just need reminding that the Lord is gracious and compassionate, so we can find the appropriate response.

That response could be all sorts of things: random acts of kindness, pursuit of justice, prayer, generosity, friendliness. But for each of us it will be the thing God places on our hearts. What do I feel called upon to do in response to God’s fatherly love to me?

Ponder that, and then spend Lent reminding yourself how good God is.

 

Ash Wednesday 2018

In Proverbs we read:
A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

And in Exodus:
Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

There are often two ways of looking at things, and in the Old Testament we find this a great deal – it is called parallelism. A modern example might be asking whether your glass is half empty or half full.

Lent is a time of fasting, of self-denial. It is a time when we remember Christ’s sacrifice, a time of prayer and penance, mirroring His 40 days in the wilderness.

But Isaiah shows us that God wants us to adopt another way of considering fasting: not self-denial but generosity to others. He is suggesting these two form a parallel. Is it a day only to humble yourself, He asks.  Is it just about self-denial?

NO he says. No!- your fast is a time to “loosen the yoke of injustice”, to share with the hungry, the poor, the homeless, the naked. He says there is no point in denying yourself unless the fruit of that self-denial flows generously to others! The fasting and sackcloth and ashes bring no pleasure to God on their own. They must be accompanied by a generosity of spirit that finds its outworking in the lives of other people.

Surely these are actions we should always practise, aren’t they, and attitudes we should always hold dear? So what changes in Lent? If we are to mark it we should be accentuating these things, making them even more a part of our lives, making more of a point of being generous and just.

In the story of the woman caught in adultery from John’s Gospel (John 8:2-11) the evangelist paints a scene consisting almost entirely of men. Yes, there is the eponymous woman in the story, but she is alone. All the others in this scene are men. The teachers of the Law are men. The Pharisees are men. Those being taught in the temple courts are men. The one man who should be there isn’t. Where is her co-accused? Adultery takes two!

But the men aren’t interested in justice, or in the woman herself; they only want to trap Jesus. The woman is being used as a pawn in a bigger game. Everything here is to do with power, consideration for people is irrelevant, especially the least important ones in society, the ones Jesus usually championed. That’s why she is there, and that’s why she is alone. Jesus has to choose between justice and mercy.

We like to think things have completely changed. But it was only 100 years ago that all men over 21 got the vote here, and only 90 years that same right was given to women. My grandmother didn’t have the right to vote at 21 because she was a woman; my mother didn’t receive her degree from Cambridge University when she passed the Tripos Exams because she was a woman. Legal change has come slowly, but the attitudinal and cultural advances have been even slower. Sadly the church has often lagged behind wider society in this respect. Reading the passage from Isaiah alongside this one from John’s Gospel should be a wake-up call. We have no room for complacency.

Christ taught us a radical equality, reflected by Paul’s statement in the letter to the Galatian church:

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Perhaps we should add: neither privileged nor poor; native nor immigrant; home-owner nor homeless; young nor old; black nor white.

Or is that just wishful thinking?

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’”.
Martin Luther King spoke these words on the steps of the Lincoln memorial in 1963. Almost a lifetime ago.

Don’t even think about giving something up for Lent. We are called to do something much more difficult; to offer something more; to go the extra mile. To give, feed, clothe, cherish.

Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

 

“Be the change you want to see in the world”.

 

February 2018

 

 What is Lent?

Isaiah 58: 3-9

The word comes form the Anglo-Saxon, LENT, meaning to lengthen – it was the old name for Spring. These references to Spring are probably ancient, but are admirably suited to the Christian preparation for Easter, the celebration of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection – winning NEW LIFE for us.

Lent lasts 40 days (like Jesus in the wilderness), and starts on Ash Wednesday, ends on Easter Saturday, but doesn’t include Sundays. Why not Sundays? Well, every Sunday is a mini celebration of Easter – the cross and resurrection – so it would be inappropriate to fast!

 Shrove Tuesday

Many countries have celebrations on this day – using up foods inappropriate for use during fasting (eg fat – hence Mardi Gras). Pancakes are often included. In many countries there is a carnival period of celebration from Epiphany to Shrove Tuesday, so Mardi Gras is the final day of the celebrations.

The title “Shrove” refers to shriving, which is the absolution conferred after confession, so Shrove Tuesday heralds the start of a penitential period – LENT.

Mothering Sunday

In the UK this is the 4^th Sunday of Lent, and marks a return to the mother church (often the Cathedral);. Those in service had a day off, originally to visit their Mother church, but later it became traditional to visit family. Simnel cake was baked for the day. It is different from Mother’s Day, which was started in 1912 in the USA, and which happens to be celebrated on the same day in the UK, though not elsewhere (2^nd Sunday in May).

So what is LENT?

Lent is a period of reflection and anticipation – our church year from Christmas to Easter reflects the ministry of Christ leading up to Holy Week. Many churches follow a LENT course of study, perhaps individually, or in small groups, or in Sunday Services. Other choose a book to read, or a set of reflections to read, ponder and pray about. Which is what we have done. Gary has recommended a book to read; but we also have a set of reflections, written by members of the churches in the villages – Staplefield, Slaugham, Handcross, Warninglid, Pease Pottage. There is a reading for each day of Lent, with people telling us about answers to prayer, or about God working in their lives. It’s called “Jesus is Alive” and you can pick up a copy at the back of the church – £2 to cover our printing costs. You can also get it on Kindle.

 What about Isaiah?

Isaiah the prophet brought God’s truth to a generation in Israel who went through the motions, seeming very religious… BUT … who were selfish, greedy and grasping. God was more interested in seeing them treat their fellow-men generously than in seeing them fasting and making a show of it. He wanted to see people with a heart to help others, to feed and clothe them; and for families, no whole communities,  to be reconciled.

And perhaps this is what we should be reflecting on as we go through Lent – let’s have a fast from selfish greed; let’s keep an eye out for each other; let’s go the extra mile.

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday 2013

Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6; Matthew 6:16-21

Here Isaiah was prophesying to the Israelites after the return from exile. God wasn’t complaining that the Israelites didn’t fast, they most certainly did. No – they fasted, but their lives left much to be desired: Isaiah was describing an empty religiosity – religion for its own sake, or rather as a benefit for those who practised it.

They  sought to manipulate God for their own ends – their religion was selfish and oppressive, rather than being a blessing (as God had promised Abraham).

And in Matthew, Jesus describes those who pray and fast ostentatiously, to impress  their fellow-men. That impression is their whole reward – Christ says so – they have received their reward in full! Jesus describes them as hypocrites – literally “under judgement”, but a word used of play-actors in NT Greek. This is a performance!

Jesus urges his followers to ensure their motives are right – give to the needy, pray, fast by all means; but don’t do it to impress others – do it privately and quietly. Don’t try to build up what you have here – your treasure on earth – which in this case is your reputation among men. Do these things for God – to build up your treasure in heaven.

In both cases, people were doing “religion” as opposed to building a relationship with God and with each other.

I’m going to consider relationship from two angles – first  considering prayer as the central element of our relationship with God, then thinking about how we maintain human relationships.

Jesus and Prayer

On Monday night, at the Following Jesus course, we wondered whether Jesus’s life could be thought of as a prayer. We have examples in the Bible of enacted parables (eg Zaccheus), where the story is lived out rather than told. Now we’re thinking about an enacted prayer, one that is lived out, not merely spoken.

We could see that all the elements of prayer were live out in Jesus’s life, and we realised that what is important is that there are ACTS of love, not just words. And we can use the word ACTS as an acronym reminding us of the essential elements of prayer.

So ACTS:

A is for Adoration – saying “I love you” but not just in words – making it a life of actions, ones that please God. Jesus said that what you did for the least of these you did for me. How would you feel about somebody who treated your children badly? A teacher who picks on your daughter or the playground bully who intimidates your son? They’d find it hard to build a relationship with you. And you will find it hard to build up your relationship with God if you neglect or mistreat his children.

C is for Confession – realising that God is perfect and we are far from it – humbly baring our souls and admitting our faults, desiring to turn away from them.

T is for Thanksgiving – accepting how much we depend upon God – for our daily bread, for all good things.

S is for Supplication – asking God to help others as well as ourselves – but letting our actions speak of our desire for good things for other people.

Human Relationships

The Marriage Course includes a section about the languages of love.  Only one of them is words! The others are all ACTS. Acts of service, giving gifts, spending quality time together, physical touch. They all require us to DO something.

Most of us use one or two of these languages. If we want to please someone, we need to use a language they appreciate – I know my daughter Kate needs quality time, and if I can’t give her my whole attention, she doesn’t really feel loved.

Just as we must take the trouble to find out how to make someone feel loved, so we need to know how to apply this to our relationship with God. If we pray like the hypocrites, our words are for other people – God doesn’t have our attention. We’re not expressing our love.

We can see a common thread in our readings: it is about the heart that lies behind our worship; it is about whether our words are just empty words; it is about whether our lives reflect the desires we speak of when we worship or pray.

So if we are to fast, or read, or study, or make a resolution, then it needs to be building up our relationship with God and his creation. And that includes other people!

Every relationship depends on communication. Whether it is saying “I love you” or reminiscing together about holidays, children, good times. It might be offering to help with the cooking, the dishes, the housework. But saying “I love you” and offering to help, mean nothing if we don’t live it out. Love is action, and attitude, not mere words, and it means an attitude of genuine concern, not an attempt to manipulate someone’s favour.

As we move through Lent, let’s try to make our prayers more than words, our fasting more than self-denial, our love for God and his creation a way of behaving, not a string of words, or an attempt to impress.

Random Acts of Kindness

 Isaiah 58: 1-7  Matthew 5: 17-18;  Matthew 5:43-48

Last night I watched a Daily News Egypt report showing volunteers cleaning the streets of Cairo behind the demonstrators protesting against police brutality under President Mubarak, and other volunteers providing medical care and food for the demonstrators. I saw people wanting to make a difference in a really positive way.

I also visited the Random Acts of Kindness website – encouraging people to do something today – just a small act of kindness – to make a difference to someone else. I can remember my kids doing this for a week with the church youth group that my friends Rick and Sarah used to run. Every day at least one act of kindness to someone they didn’t know.

There’s a story about a man walking the beach with his son, in the early morning after a stormy night. The high tide line was a mass of seaweed and flotsam thrown up by the storm, and everywhere among this seaweed lay thousands of small starfish. The boy picked one up, examined it and said to his father – “its alive!” And he turned and ran to the waters edge and threw the starfish into the waves.  “I’ve got to help”, he shouted to his Dad. “But there’s thousands of them – how could you ever make any difference?” said his Dad.  “I made a difference to that one”, he replied, and picking up another,  he ran down and tossed it into the breakers –  “and that one”.

Both today’s reading are about making a difference.

Isaiah describes God’s reaction to people who fast and pay religious observance, but who ignore the plight of the world around them – and particularly the people around them. God sees the religiosity of these people as hollow and  empty. He wants them to loose the chains of injustice; to feed the hungry; clothe the naked.

Does that ring a bell? “For I was hungry and you fed me; I was naked and you clothed me; “  – These are Christ’s words in  Matthew 25 – “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these my brothers, you did for me.”

Christ echoes the words of God written in Isaiah, so we should not be surprised. He too commented on the hollow emptiness of religious observance – this time his words are directed against the Pharisees.

But then we move on to our reading from Matthew’s gospel. I remember the Authorised Version here, saying not one “jot nor tittle” of the Law shall pass away. Jot or yot is the Greek letter iota – the smallest; or it might be the Hebrew or Aramaic letter yodh – just a little stroke. Tittle is a dot – like the top of the letter i. So not even the dot of an i nor the crossing of a t. All the Law, every last detail. ALL.

What does he mean? Do we have to be like the Pharisees, keeping up every last detail of the Law? Could we even remember it all? I looked it up – Jewish writers suggest there are six hundred and thirteen Mitzvot – rules – in the Torah. Six hundred and thirteen! I struggle to remember the ten that we call the commandments! I bet lots of you can remember them all, but I’m not absolutely sure I’d remember even these ten if I were put on the spot, and certainly not six hundred and thirteen.

If we go to Prayerbook communion services we might hear the ten commandments recited, or quite often we might hear Jesus’s summary of them read from Matthew 22. Here Jesus said the Law could be boiled down to just two things. I like a sermon with just two points – there’s a good chance I might remember at least one of them! Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves – a short list is much more easily remembered!

So what are these two things? Love God. Love your neighbour. And St Paul echoes this again in Galatians “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”.

What does he mean? When he says love the Lord your God, he clearly doesn’t mean lots of religious stuff – conspicuous fasting; loud self-important prayer; because these things are condemned in Isaiah and in the Gospels as hollow and empty. No, now is the time to remember Matthew 25 – “What you did for the least of these… you did for me” –  Jesus wants us to do things for people.

Do you remember the little ‘Love is…’ cartoons. They were drawn by a New Zealand artist, Kim Casali – they were originally drawn for her husband-to-be in the 1960s, but she continued until she died in 1997. Each day a little drawing depicting how we make a difference to someone we love, and almost always by doing something.

God asks us to consider this for Him and for anyone – not just our beloved! In every situation he asks us to wonder what ‘Love is..’ and act upon it.

Mahatma Ghandi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world”, that is to say – if you want a kinder world – be kinder; a more generous world – be more generous; a more forgiving world – be more forgiving.

So here’s our challenge – every day a Random Act of Kindness.

Wherever we are. To someone God places before us in our daily lives. I’m sure He’ll provide the opportunities!

God asks us to walk along the beach of life, and to care about the people around us – to see the stranded starfish in their lives, and to care enough to put a few starfish back in the sea. We might feel it’s not enough to make a difference – but we can make a difference to this person, and that one… and in doing so, to Christ himself, who really does know what ‘Love is…’.

 

February 2011

Half-empty or half-full?

Isaiah 58:1-9

I look down at my cup of coffee as I write – it’s about half-full; or should that be half-empty? There are often two opposing ways to look at a situation.

In Exodus 20:9   –  it says “6 days you shall labour”, but we are more likely to remember the opposite part of the verse – “but the seventh is the Sabbath”.

Half-empty, half-full; 6 days of work, one of rest.

And when we think about Lent it is no different

Lent is a time when we remember Christ’s sacrifice; it is a time of prayer and penance, and traditionally of fasting, of self-denial, mirroring His 40 days in the wilderness.

But when we read this passage from Isaiah we can see this again is a two-sided issue. In verse 5  God speaks through Isaiah saying – “Is it a day only to humble yourself?” Is it just about self-denial?

No – just look at verse 7 –  it is a time to “loosen the yoke of injustice, to share with the hungry, the poor, the homeless, the naked.”

God looks at the two sides of this situation – self-denial or generosity to others, and says there is no point in denying yourself unless the fruit of that self-denial flows generously to others! The fasting and sackcloth and ashes bring no pleasure to God on their own. They must be accompanied by a generosity of spirit that finds its outworking in the lives of other people.

And this tells us something about God’s nature. God is a very generous god:

Psalm 145:16 “You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” And there are so many wonderful living things…

When we went to Thailand we visited an orchid nursery – fantastic!

Did you know there are over 25,000 species of orchid, and over 200,000 different varieties. That’s just orchids – there are nearly 300,000 species of flowering plants altogether, so probably millions of varieties!

When Jesus fed the 5000, how much was left over?

Matthew 14:20 “They all ate and were satisfied, (so they all had plenty) and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”  A generous provision.

Or the wedding at Cana – how much wine?

John 2:6 Six stone jars each holding about thirty gallons.

That’s about a thousand bottles of wine, a very generous amount, and the very best vintage!

And Jesus himself commended generosity: in Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”

1 Peter 4:10 (NLT) – “God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.”

So if you are planning to go through Lent giving yourself a half-empty measure, in penance and fasting; make sure that you are giving others a cup that is better than half-full!

 

 

 

Lent – the story begins (Mark 1:9-15)

 Today’s life is lived at speed – we expect things to happen quickly: next day delivery, quickfire comedy shows, no need for prolonged concentration on anything. The Reduced Shakespeare Company performs all Shakespeare’s 37 plays in just over two and a half hours. That’s less than three minutes per play.

So they might have this as their plot:

The scene is medieval Italy, and our story concerns two families who are sworn enemies. One has a son, the other a daughter, who  meet, fall in love and are married in secret. The Priest hopes this will reconcile the families, but they continue to feud. Her cousin kills his best friend, he kills her cousin, and the long arm of the law exiles him to another town.

Meanwhile, her father doesn’t know she’s married, and arranges a marriage for her. Now she’s desperate, and visits the priest, who promises to fix everything.

On the eve of her second wedding she takes poison and falls down dead. Her disconsolate family have a funeral instead of a wedding. Fortunately the guests are already invited and the food’s all arranged. She is placed at rest in the family vault, but she’s not really dead.

The priest sends the son in exile a message explaining everything. ‘She’ll be right as rain in day or two’. The message goes astray, and when he hears of her death, the young husband arrives in haste, goes to the tomb, takes poison and dies beside her. She wakes and finding him dead, stabs herself. Now they’re both dead.

In their shared grief the families are reconciled.

 

I expect you recognise Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare tells it much better, but he takes two and a half hours. Rushing doesn’t usually improve a story, does it?

As we read Mark’s gospel, he comes across like the Reduced Shakespeare Company – he’s a man in a hurry, inspired and excited by the story he has to tell, and rushing at it at breakneck speed. He knows the ending, he can see the climax of Passion Week ahead and he’s headed towards it like a runaway train. Everything is focused on getting the reader to Easter Sunday as soon as possible.

This, then, is a story reduced to bare essentials, with anything superficial stripped away. Everything we read is important, because everything else is omitted. In this passage, there are just three short episodes: Jesus is baptised, goes into the desert for forty days and is tested, then returns to Galilee to preach the good news.

The first episode is baptism. Nowadays baptism is a rite of passage, joining the church of Christ, turning away from our sin and turning towards Christ, to live a life following him. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance, a cleansing and a new and godly beginning. We might wonder why Jesus chose to be baptised. He was fully human, yet a man without sin; he was fully divine, and therefore without any need to commit himself to God. It appears to be a pointless act, to repent of sin which has never been committed, to commit to a godly life which could hardly have been in question.

The Greek word for repentance means a change of mind or a change of heart. In the baptism service, we speak of turning (I turn to Christ, I reject the devil), and when we turn it is away from something, and towards something else. Away from sin, towards God. For Jesus too this was a rite of passage, a turning towards his destiny. He was aiming himself, like an arrow, towards the cross, and beyond it to Easter Sunday. This marked the beginning of his mission, and if we doubt this, look who turned up at his baptism.  At the baptism of Jesus, God spoke and the Holy Spirit descended, yet Jesus remained firmly at the centre of proceedings. They’re all in this together – it must be something very important.

So this was the time for Jesus to turn and set out purposefully towards Easter Sunday. Strangely, his first move is not towards Jerusalem, the scene of the Passion, but out into the wilderness, the barren place which Jewish history tells us is the place where we meet God.  First, however, we fall into temptation, so it is no surprise that Jesus meets Satan, the master of temptation, in this wilderness. Jesus’s forty days here mirror Israel’s forty years in the desert – where they constantly fell into temptation and failed, but after a difficult journey still reached the promised land. Unlike them, Jesus sets out to the fulfilment of God’s promises without falling prey to temptation. His aim is the defeat of Satan, and in this preliminary skirmish he brushes him aside.

This time of temptation also mirrors our lives. When we stray into life’s wilderness, falling on barren times and struggling to resist the temptations surrounding us, we know that Christ himself was not without temptation, and can identify with us in our human frailty.

In the third episode, Jesus sets out on that journey to Easter Sunday; John the Baptist’s imprisonment reminds him that suffering lies along the way – the only way to Easter Sunday is via Good Friday. His journey involves preaching the good news, announcing that the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus holds out to humanity the promise of entering the kingdom, of taking part in the everlasting life of the coming age. A promise held out, waiting to be seized; not imposed, but offered, obtained by turning to Christ, and still on offer should we refuse, as many did on that first journey to Easter Sunday.

Now, nearly two thousand years later, we set out on our own journey to Easter Sunday, through the forty days of Lent. Lent, which is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Lengten, which meant Spring, the time of lengthening days and new beginnings. So as we journey through these forty days, let’s do what Mark did, and what Jesus did.  Let us turn and focus upon the goal which lies at the end of Lent, and set our faces towards Easter Sunday, knowing that Good Friday lies along the way.

To help capture that excitement, why not set aside an hour – I think that will be enough – to read through Mark’s gospel and feel his excitement as he looks forward to Easter Sunday, through the gateway of Good Friday.

 

March 2009