Exodus 17.1-7; Romans 5.1-11; John 4.5-12
By next Sunday we will be half way through Lent. I wonder if you are letting the season work its magic on you? I have to confess that in past years I've not given the season really serious thought. I've entered into bible studies and done extra reading and tried to treat it as a season of reflection. But I think this year is the first time I've taken it seriously from the point of view of using one of the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving and looking at how that challenges me.
Before Lent began I read quite a bit about the Christian understanding of fasting and listened, by way of the internet, to a number of clergy speaking on the subject. From that I began to understand in a better way how we depend for everything upon God, for our food and everything else that we need to sustain a healthy body, mind and spirit. And so I decided that this Lent I would fast from meat. Not that I've been a huge meat eater. But it seemed to me that if we are going to understand what fasting is all about for a Christian then it would be a good idea to do it in the way that the ancient Church did it and still does it in this day and age. Meat is one of the essentials in the not very long list of foods that are fasted from during this season. And the advice is that if you haven't fasted before then you should go easy at first and gradually build up to what is right for you. And what is right for you, you are advised to discuss with a spiritual director or priest, someone who knows you from a spiritual point of view. So, I've given up meat; and through that I'm learning quite a bit, in different ways about my relationship with God and of God's way of doing things. Which brings me to what we've read this morning from His word.
In the Old Testament reading today we meet the Hebrews wandering about in the desert without water. And so in their deprivation they complain to Moses in the strongest terms 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?' Moses, in his usual state of panic when met with a challenge cries out to God 'What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.' Notice he's more concerned with his own safety than with the people's problem. Quite a human response. But, sadly for Moses and sadly for the people in their plight, not a response out of faith. It's a response from faith's opposite - fear, to the situation they both find themselves in. Both Moses and the people are afraid of dying, for different reasons, one from thirst, the other from stoning. In fearing for their lives, they lose their faith in God. And faith in God is the heart, the essential of their relationship with Him, as it is for us. Faith, hope and love are the great trinity of relationship with God. And all three have disappeared from these people as we meet them in the desert.
And the test of their relationship has come through the lack of something essential to their life. And if they'd understood that all their needs come from and are met by God then they would most certainly have responded differently to their deprivation. And that's why the Church, in her wisdom gives us this season of fasting from what we see as staples in our diet, essential foods, to test out our relationship with God; to test our faith and to help us work on that relationship, to find faith, hope and love in God again. And I'd like to skip here to the gospel reading because I think that this faith, this hope and love are the living water that Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman about.
The Hebrews lacked water, the water that gives life to their bodies. The Samaritan woman had lots, buckets full. What she lacked, Jesus told her was the 'water of life', water that was available from and through Him. But the woman misunderstood, as we all do one way or another, because we are all fixated on our own needs, wants and desires; without the satisfaction of which and even with a surfeit of which, we become filled with fear and forget God and faith in Him. 'Give me this water so that I don't need to keep coming back here to fill my bucket' she says to Jesus. Total confusion. But Jesus helps her see, as He helps all of us to see. He talks about her life, past and present and it gets her thinking. The woman probably has lots of questions about her life, whether or not it's a good and right and proper life before God, as we all do. She's probably taken up with rules and regulations about religion; as the disciples are when they meet up with Jesus. He's talking to a Samaritan woman, horror of horrors! But Jesus speaks through and beyond the rules and regulations. The woman recognises that Jesus sees beyond the outward appearance and what impression it gives. Jesus is speaking from faith and hope and love.
Not that the rules of religion aren't important. Remember what Jesus said about coming not to do away with the law but to fulfil it. The law is, if you like, the skeleton, the bones and Jesus is the flesh upon the bones and the breath in the lungs. And this all takes us back to those Old Testament people who had the law, given by God to Moses for himself and the people. But the law wasn't the life. It was the means to life. In that same Old Testament God gave the people a choice - life or death. Go His way and it would lead to life. Go their own way and it would lead to death. And the framework for God's way was the law. The law was the map. But the journey could be made, the life could only be lived through faith, in hope, with love. Lose one of those and you lose the life even though you might keep the law.
And that's why St. Paul could say that we are justified, made right with God, through faith and through that comes peace with God. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul talks a lot about the law and sin and their relationship with one another. He struggled very badly with the whole thing about keeping the law and not keeping the law and of falling into sin through not keeping the law. He felt that as soon as we try to keep the law, keep to the rules we are bound to fail because we can't help but fail and therefore in a moral and juridical sense fall into sin. And we can't put ourselves right. The more we try, the more we fail. That was St. Paul's experience. Until he realised that because of God's love for us and through our love for Him, through God's grace and our faith in God, our relationship is put right with God. And all of this is beyond the law.
So what this boils down to is that our religion isn't in the end about keeping to rules, it's about faith. Yes, the rules, the commandments of God are an expression of God's love, they are a way in to a relationship with God but it's only through faith that we can come into the fullest knowledge of and right standing and right relationship with God. When we keep the Lenten fast we keep to the rules and that just for a short time in the year, because the rules help us be more aware of God and our need for faith, so that our relationship with God might blossom. Without faith, we forget God, we fall into fear and we lose the context for and the meaning from which God's laws derive their relevance. That's what happened to the Hebrews in their wandering in the desert. And that's what happens to us as we wander through the deserts of this life.
As we make our way through Lent, there's still time to take the season seriously. There's still at this stage, lots of time for us to look again at our life, our needs in this life and who meets them, through faith; and to let the season work its magic, so that we might come at Easter time with a new faith, new hope and new love for the Christ who raises us from death and gives us streams of living water, the living water of faith, gushing up, as He says, to eternal life.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Saturday, 12 March 2011
First Sunday of Lent
Genesis 2.15-17; Romans 5.12-19; Matthew 4.1-11
The reading about Jesus' time in the wilderness is the one that, more than others seems to set the tone for this season of Lent. Just as Jesus is sent out into the desert to reflect upon His relationship with God for that forty days and nights, so we use this season to reflect upon our relationship with God too.
Much has been made of Jesus' temptation, His time of trial in the desert, in the commentaries that we read. And I've used this in different ways myself over the years as I've spoken about how we can reflect upon our lives during Lent. But when we really look at this passage we can see, I think that above all it's about faith and Jesus' faith in particular, Jesus' own faith in God, His Father. The passage begins something like the way the book of Job begins where we hear God and the devil making a sort of agreement about Job's trial. God says to the devil that he can do anything he likes to Job except take his life. Here in Matthew's gospel, that alliance, if you can call it an alliance between God and the devil isn't so explicit but we read, nevertheless that 'Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.' I expect that we can only get the real sense of what that sentence means if we read it in the original language in which it was written.
But I can't do that, so I'm left with what we have in English. It sounds like an unholy alliance between God and the devil. But if I was to think of a contemporary parallel I'm sure that we've often put out that prayer, 'God, why have you done this to me?' or 'God, why have you let this happen to me?' Because there are those times when even though we firmly believe in God, those times of trial and tribulation come along where it feels like we are in the grip of evil. And isn't this what we are reading about here in Jesus' life? Or at least something like that? In those times of difficulty, our faith is tested and that's what's happening to Jesus here.
Jesus is tempted through his personal need for whatever it is that keeps him alive in very basic ways. Without food, He's thrown back onto His dependance upon God. It's from God that His life comes and it's by God that His life is sustained. So it is with us. We fast in Lent for the sole purpose of bringing that fact home to us. The food we have comes from creation which is sustained by God alone. And so we live not on food alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, as Jesus says. That word is the creative word of God that sustains creation for our benefit. And we live every day in faith that we will be provided for.
How often, when we've been in a sticky situation, have we asked of God, just do this one thing for me and I'll believe in you, or I'll keep my promise to you? So often we live our lives with God on the basis that He's got to prove Himself to us if we are to maintain any sort of belief in Him. Always we are wanting the signs from Him that He's with us, or on our side, or even simply exists at all. And that's not faith. It's an insult to God. And the devil tried that one with Jesus. How much did Jesus believe in God? How could He prove that His belief was sound? But Jesus recognised that to test God is a lack of faith and again He says to the devil 'it is written do not put the Lord your God to the test'.
And then thirdly, there's so much more in the world that we could put in God's place, so many more idols to worship in God's place. And especially idols of power and authority. Always, every day we are tempted to be drawn away from God to put our trust in, to put our faith in anything and anyone other than God. And eventually to forget God altogether as we find our fulfilment, meaning and purpose in worldly things. And we believe the lie that those things are what matter ultimately, the lie that the end of all things and the purpose of all things is this world, when in actual fact it's the kingdom of God that we are to seek first. And we do that only by worshipping the King of kings, and nobody else.
St. Matthew tells us that in all of these ways, during this time, Jesus was tested. He was pushed to put the whole of His trust, the whole of His faith in His Father, in the one God, and in nothing and nobody else. And He passed the test, for the time being. And it was so important that this testing came before His ministry began. Notice that the testing came immediately after His baptism, after the Holy Spirit came upon Him and after God spoke to Him. It was only after those great signs of assurance that God was with Him that His faith in He'd seen and heard was tested. And so it is for us too. People are carried away with the idea that being a follower of Christ is the solution to all one's problems; and in a way it is; but not in the way we might think. If we follow Christ, we tread the path He trod which was one of continual testing of His faith, whether it be in His day to day dealings with the people He met with, or when faced with His own death. And so it is for us too.
The question we have to ask ourselves and we can do especially in Lent is, how does our faith stand up to the test; remembering that Jesus said faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains?
Much has been made of Jesus' temptation, His time of trial in the desert, in the commentaries that we read. And I've used this in different ways myself over the years as I've spoken about how we can reflect upon our lives during Lent. But when we really look at this passage we can see, I think that above all it's about faith and Jesus' faith in particular, Jesus' own faith in God, His Father. The passage begins something like the way the book of Job begins where we hear God and the devil making a sort of agreement about Job's trial. God says to the devil that he can do anything he likes to Job except take his life. Here in Matthew's gospel, that alliance, if you can call it an alliance between God and the devil isn't so explicit but we read, nevertheless that 'Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.' I expect that we can only get the real sense of what that sentence means if we read it in the original language in which it was written.
But I can't do that, so I'm left with what we have in English. It sounds like an unholy alliance between God and the devil. But if I was to think of a contemporary parallel I'm sure that we've often put out that prayer, 'God, why have you done this to me?' or 'God, why have you let this happen to me?' Because there are those times when even though we firmly believe in God, those times of trial and tribulation come along where it feels like we are in the grip of evil. And isn't this what we are reading about here in Jesus' life? Or at least something like that? In those times of difficulty, our faith is tested and that's what's happening to Jesus here.
Jesus is tempted through his personal need for whatever it is that keeps him alive in very basic ways. Without food, He's thrown back onto His dependance upon God. It's from God that His life comes and it's by God that His life is sustained. So it is with us. We fast in Lent for the sole purpose of bringing that fact home to us. The food we have comes from creation which is sustained by God alone. And so we live not on food alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, as Jesus says. That word is the creative word of God that sustains creation for our benefit. And we live every day in faith that we will be provided for.
How often, when we've been in a sticky situation, have we asked of God, just do this one thing for me and I'll believe in you, or I'll keep my promise to you? So often we live our lives with God on the basis that He's got to prove Himself to us if we are to maintain any sort of belief in Him. Always we are wanting the signs from Him that He's with us, or on our side, or even simply exists at all. And that's not faith. It's an insult to God. And the devil tried that one with Jesus. How much did Jesus believe in God? How could He prove that His belief was sound? But Jesus recognised that to test God is a lack of faith and again He says to the devil 'it is written do not put the Lord your God to the test'.
And then thirdly, there's so much more in the world that we could put in God's place, so many more idols to worship in God's place. And especially idols of power and authority. Always, every day we are tempted to be drawn away from God to put our trust in, to put our faith in anything and anyone other than God. And eventually to forget God altogether as we find our fulfilment, meaning and purpose in worldly things. And we believe the lie that those things are what matter ultimately, the lie that the end of all things and the purpose of all things is this world, when in actual fact it's the kingdom of God that we are to seek first. And we do that only by worshipping the King of kings, and nobody else.
St. Matthew tells us that in all of these ways, during this time, Jesus was tested. He was pushed to put the whole of His trust, the whole of His faith in His Father, in the one God, and in nothing and nobody else. And He passed the test, for the time being. And it was so important that this testing came before His ministry began. Notice that the testing came immediately after His baptism, after the Holy Spirit came upon Him and after God spoke to Him. It was only after those great signs of assurance that God was with Him that His faith in He'd seen and heard was tested. And so it is for us too. People are carried away with the idea that being a follower of Christ is the solution to all one's problems; and in a way it is; but not in the way we might think. If we follow Christ, we tread the path He trod which was one of continual testing of His faith, whether it be in His day to day dealings with the people He met with, or when faced with His own death. And so it is for us too.
The question we have to ask ourselves and we can do especially in Lent is, how does our faith stand up to the test; remembering that Jesus said faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains?
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Ash Wednesday
Joel 2.1-2, 12-17; 2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10; Matthew6.1-6, 16-21
"Let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence; and let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments of Christ our God, with the brightness of love and the splendour of prayer, with the purity ofholiness and the strength of good courage. So, clothed in raiment of light, let us hasten to the Holy Resurrection on the third day, that shines upon the world with the glory of eternal life."
These are the words of one of the hymns at Mattins on the first day of Lent in the Orthodox Church, which was actually, Monday just gone. Notice how it sets the tone of the season. Read through the many hymns of the Orthodox Lent service book and you'll be struck by the sense of deep, deep repentance that the words draw forth. It's a 'no holds barred' challenge to our relationship with God, to it's shallowness and the depths of sin in which we live. But having recognised that and the need for repentance, the words I quoted describe the frame of mind and heart in which we should meet the challenge. Because Lent is a journey to Easter, the Feast of Feasts and the joyful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, as the quote says 'let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence and let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments of Christ our God, with the brightness of love and the splendour of prayer, with the purity of holiness and the strength of good courage.'
Our Western Church is in a more solemn mood as shown by the lack of flowers and the colour purple. But Jesus tells us to go about the discipline and days of this season as if, at least on the outside, nothing was happening - when you pray go into your room, when you fast, do it with a smile, when you give alms, do it in secret. And this tells us right away that Lent is not about what goes on around us, outside of us, but about what goes on in the heart and mind. The Church, in her wisdom has given us this once a year opportunity to make a determined effort to get right with God; to repent, and return, just as the prodigal son repented and returned to his loving father. And just as the prodigal returned to an unexpected encounter with unconditional love, so, even in our sin and in the difficulty of our repentance we can look forward to travelling the road of return with joy.
And so there are two sentiments going on here. There's our sadness as we recognise and admit our sinful state and our separation from God and also the joy that we feel knowing that we are returning, during this season to God; returning, as the prodigal son, to our home. The theologian Fr. Alexander Schmemann calls this a 'bright sadness', which I think describes the 'atmosphere' and the state of heart and mind of the season very well. But how do we find the way home? How do we get there? What can we do to make our way back to God?
The Church in her wisdom follows what Jesus Himself taught us. She tells us that we repent and return to God during this season through the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This is what we need the Church says. Now, these aren't works which in themselves restore our lost relationship with God because the lost relationship has already been restored in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These works aren't a penalty we have to pay because we 'broke the rules', because we disobeyed the commandments. I like to think of this in the way that the ancient Church thinks of these things. Our sinful state isn't merely a breaking of the commandments of God, it is spiritual sickness. Our lost relationship with God, our estrangement and forgetting of God is spiritual disease; and prayer, fasting and almsgiving is the medicine that the Church prescribes for us so that we can return to spiritual health. These things also have physical and psychological benefits too because God has created us mind, body, soul and spirit. We are a whole being, our body is the temple of the spirit and we are only a whole body when each part is functioning as it's created to be. This time of Lent is designed first for the spirit but as I said, has other benefits too.
These spriritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are disciplines that we are expected to live by every day as Christ's disciples. We can infer that from our reading of the gospel. But the season of Lent is the one time in the year when we are expected to pay particular attention to them. And we need to do it seriously if they are to be of any benefit at all. Most people simply pay lip service to these things. They treat them as some sort of curiosity that it's a bit of fun keeping, whatever is left of them which is usually the idea that we have to 'give something up for Lent.' Pancakes and giving something up have nowadays, with the secularisation of society and Church, become things right out of context and therefore ultimately meaningless and without any benefit whatsoever in the long term.
But put back into the rightful context of the Church and our lives as members of the Body of Christ these disciplines find their home and their value. During Lent we are encouraged to pray more, not only our own prayers but to enter into the prayers of the Church more, the prayers that have been prayed together for almost 2,000 years. This is prayer which leaves no stone unturned, prayer that is itself whole and leaves nothing out and lacks nothing. We are asked to immerse ourselves in the Church's prayer as much as we can, so more frequent attendance at church is called for.
And then there is fasting. The Church prescribes particular food from which to fast. Chocolate and cakes aren't in the list. And the Church doesn't give us a choice. If we treat fasting seriously as the Church has received it and fasting which benefits us most then we don't have a choice. Choice is one of the evils pervading society today. Choice is heresy. And it infects the Church as well. Choosing what I should fast from defeats the object because I'm bound to fast from something that in the end doesn't really matter. I'll fast from a luxury when I need to fast from something that is essential. Only then, when I fast from something that is essential to my well being will I begin to latch on to the fact that it is God who, in the end, provides for me, gives me all I need. And that it is on Him that I depend, ultimatley. Then those words become real 'man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And then finally, almsgiving. We don't live our lives alone. We are dependent upon God and upon one another for a full and meaningful life, a life that is real and full life. The journey we travel through life we travel accompanied by others and we sustain one another as we journey along. Our almsgiving reminds us of our need for one another and that just as God gives Himself in love for us so we give to others out of our love for others. And then we remember what St. John said, that 'we love only because God loved us first'.
So these three disciplines are our way back to God, our way back to others and our way back to ourselves also. Because when we are estranged from God through sin we are estranged from ourselves as well. That most telling moment in the parable of the prodigal son, that moment of self realisation is the turning point, the point of repentance; the words 'and when he came to himself'.
Lent says to us and Ash Wednesday in particular, now is the time to 'come to yourself', it's time to come to your senses and return to God, return home; return home to the love from which you've been estranged, to the joy and peace of your home and to the feast that will take place there when you do return. And we celebrate that return at Easter. And so today we can set out, yes with that long journey in front of us, a journey that will be far from easy, a journey that in part will make us sad as we remember how far we've come from God and as we have to sometimes push ourselves to observe this prayer and fasting and almsgiving; but a journey with a more deep seated joy that at last we are on our way home.
"Let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence; and let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments of Christ our God, with the brightness of love and the splendour of prayer, with the purity ofholiness and the strength of good courage. So, clothed in raiment of light, let us hasten to the Holy Resurrection on the third day, that shines upon the world with the glory of eternal life."
These are the words of one of the hymns at Mattins on the first day of Lent in the Orthodox Church, which was actually, Monday just gone. Notice how it sets the tone of the season. Read through the many hymns of the Orthodox Lent service book and you'll be struck by the sense of deep, deep repentance that the words draw forth. It's a 'no holds barred' challenge to our relationship with God, to it's shallowness and the depths of sin in which we live. But having recognised that and the need for repentance, the words I quoted describe the frame of mind and heart in which we should meet the challenge. Because Lent is a journey to Easter, the Feast of Feasts and the joyful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, as the quote says 'let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence and let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments of Christ our God, with the brightness of love and the splendour of prayer, with the purity of holiness and the strength of good courage.'
Our Western Church is in a more solemn mood as shown by the lack of flowers and the colour purple. But Jesus tells us to go about the discipline and days of this season as if, at least on the outside, nothing was happening - when you pray go into your room, when you fast, do it with a smile, when you give alms, do it in secret. And this tells us right away that Lent is not about what goes on around us, outside of us, but about what goes on in the heart and mind. The Church, in her wisdom has given us this once a year opportunity to make a determined effort to get right with God; to repent, and return, just as the prodigal son repented and returned to his loving father. And just as the prodigal returned to an unexpected encounter with unconditional love, so, even in our sin and in the difficulty of our repentance we can look forward to travelling the road of return with joy.
And so there are two sentiments going on here. There's our sadness as we recognise and admit our sinful state and our separation from God and also the joy that we feel knowing that we are returning, during this season to God; returning, as the prodigal son, to our home. The theologian Fr. Alexander Schmemann calls this a 'bright sadness', which I think describes the 'atmosphere' and the state of heart and mind of the season very well. But how do we find the way home? How do we get there? What can we do to make our way back to God?
The Church in her wisdom follows what Jesus Himself taught us. She tells us that we repent and return to God during this season through the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This is what we need the Church says. Now, these aren't works which in themselves restore our lost relationship with God because the lost relationship has already been restored in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These works aren't a penalty we have to pay because we 'broke the rules', because we disobeyed the commandments. I like to think of this in the way that the ancient Church thinks of these things. Our sinful state isn't merely a breaking of the commandments of God, it is spiritual sickness. Our lost relationship with God, our estrangement and forgetting of God is spiritual disease; and prayer, fasting and almsgiving is the medicine that the Church prescribes for us so that we can return to spiritual health. These things also have physical and psychological benefits too because God has created us mind, body, soul and spirit. We are a whole being, our body is the temple of the spirit and we are only a whole body when each part is functioning as it's created to be. This time of Lent is designed first for the spirit but as I said, has other benefits too.
These spriritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are disciplines that we are expected to live by every day as Christ's disciples. We can infer that from our reading of the gospel. But the season of Lent is the one time in the year when we are expected to pay particular attention to them. And we need to do it seriously if they are to be of any benefit at all. Most people simply pay lip service to these things. They treat them as some sort of curiosity that it's a bit of fun keeping, whatever is left of them which is usually the idea that we have to 'give something up for Lent.' Pancakes and giving something up have nowadays, with the secularisation of society and Church, become things right out of context and therefore ultimately meaningless and without any benefit whatsoever in the long term.
But put back into the rightful context of the Church and our lives as members of the Body of Christ these disciplines find their home and their value. During Lent we are encouraged to pray more, not only our own prayers but to enter into the prayers of the Church more, the prayers that have been prayed together for almost 2,000 years. This is prayer which leaves no stone unturned, prayer that is itself whole and leaves nothing out and lacks nothing. We are asked to immerse ourselves in the Church's prayer as much as we can, so more frequent attendance at church is called for.
And then there is fasting. The Church prescribes particular food from which to fast. Chocolate and cakes aren't in the list. And the Church doesn't give us a choice. If we treat fasting seriously as the Church has received it and fasting which benefits us most then we don't have a choice. Choice is one of the evils pervading society today. Choice is heresy. And it infects the Church as well. Choosing what I should fast from defeats the object because I'm bound to fast from something that in the end doesn't really matter. I'll fast from a luxury when I need to fast from something that is essential. Only then, when I fast from something that is essential to my well being will I begin to latch on to the fact that it is God who, in the end, provides for me, gives me all I need. And that it is on Him that I depend, ultimatley. Then those words become real 'man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And then finally, almsgiving. We don't live our lives alone. We are dependent upon God and upon one another for a full and meaningful life, a life that is real and full life. The journey we travel through life we travel accompanied by others and we sustain one another as we journey along. Our almsgiving reminds us of our need for one another and that just as God gives Himself in love for us so we give to others out of our love for others. And then we remember what St. John said, that 'we love only because God loved us first'.
So these three disciplines are our way back to God, our way back to others and our way back to ourselves also. Because when we are estranged from God through sin we are estranged from ourselves as well. That most telling moment in the parable of the prodigal son, that moment of self realisation is the turning point, the point of repentance; the words 'and when he came to himself'.
Lent says to us and Ash Wednesday in particular, now is the time to 'come to yourself', it's time to come to your senses and return to God, return home; return home to the love from which you've been estranged, to the joy and peace of your home and to the feast that will take place there when you do return. And we celebrate that return at Easter. And so today we can set out, yes with that long journey in front of us, a journey that will be far from easy, a journey that in part will make us sad as we remember how far we've come from God and as we have to sometimes push ourselves to observe this prayer and fasting and almsgiving; but a journey with a more deep seated joy that at last we are on our way home.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Sunday before Lent
Exodus 24.13-18; 2 Peter 1.16-21; Matthew 17.1-9
Today as we come to the Sunday before Lent our readings take a different turn. It's a pity that we couldn't stay to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. But Lent is at hand now and we need to focus the mind and heart more closely on what is in front of us in this coming season.
We've been listening to Jesus' teaching and thinking about our response to it. The teaching is directed to each and every one of us to help us undertand more fully what is required of us as Jesus' disciples. And it is with this in mind that we enter the Lenten season, a season of reflection. We didn't finish the Sermon; there's the final chapter, chapter 7 of St. Matthew's gospel with the conclusion which is the very well known parable about building on rock and on sand; and that those who hear Jesus' words and act on them are like the man who built his house on rock and nothing could topple it because it's foundation was so strong. When we build our life on Jesus teaching, not only listening to it but living our lives in accordance with it then we build a strong foundation to our life so that the devil and all his works can't, finally, move us.
But we have to act. Just listening is no good. Earlier in that chapter 7 Jesus says that 'not every one who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father'. Coming to church, listening to the Word of God, doing our Bible study isn't enough. We might be intellectually and emotionally convinced and firm believers in Jesus Christ. But that belief is no good if it isn't transformed into action, if it doesn't show forth the Good News in our own lives to others; and if it doesn't build up the Body of Christ, the Church and the Kingdom of God.
And so with this message we look forward now to moving into Lent and beginning to think more seriously still about our relationship with God; what God means to us in our lives and in the world. We are being called in the season of Lent to think about how we as Christians can become more Christ-like and play our part in bringing in the Kingdom of God. And we are called to do that especially through an enhanced spiritual discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We heard about these three disciplines in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and we discovered that Jesus seemed to take it for granted that these were already part of his disciples life. You'll remember that He said 'when you pray....; when you fast....; when you give alms...' And so it must be with us too if we count ourselvs as Christ's disciples. Unfortunately in this day and age, we tend to live our Christian life as though it's simply another aspect of our life; something we do alongside all the other aspects of our life. We forget that our Christian life is meant to fashion and shape and colour all that we do. Our Christian life is meant to be the start, middle and end of the whole of our life, containing everything else that we have, do and are in life. And so when we begin to live our life in this way then these spiritual disciplines become an essential feature of our life, all through the year but especially in this time of Lent. Because it's through this prayer, fasting and almsgiving that we come closer to God, that we become more Christ-like; we begin to put God's will before our own will; and we grow into God and see and know His presence.
But this is a very hard task. Growing into God, becoming Christ-like, putting God's will before our own will means that we have to put to death the 'self', the ego that demands constantly to put itself first, before God. The whole point of prayer, fasting and almsgiving is to turn this around so that we can say along with Christ, 'not my will but thy will be done'. And as I said, it is a difficult task, very difficult indeed. And so the Church gives us this yearly opportunity of 40 days to try again to turn ourselves to God; to repent in the truest sense of the word; to make real what we promised in our baptism, for some of us so long ago, to turn to Christ and submit ourselves to His will.
Knowing that this is a very hard task, the Church, today, in our readings, sets before us the destination towards which Lent is the journey. And the destination of course is Easter and the resurrection and the vision of Christ glorified. There's a very real sense in which as we come to do God's will, as we become more and more Christ-like then we see much more the glory of God, and we see that in Christ Himself. And so we read today of the time when Jesus took His three closest disciples up a mountain and before them He was transfigured. They saw His glory. It's significant that He did this just before He set off on His journey towards His crucifixion. Those disciples needed something to help see them through the ordeal that lay before all of them. Even then, having seen this they in some ways failed to keep up, the task was so difficult. But maybe because they had this foretaste of the fuller glory to come they were able at least to hold out to the conclusion in spite of all the hardship.
And so this is what the message is for us today; for Lent and for the whole of our Christian journey. We see Jesus transfigured and it's a promise if you like of the glory to come; the glory of God we will see in all its fullness if we will hold out until the end. As we come to this season of Lent, let us go into it determined to make the best use of this opportunity to come to know God more and to turn to Christ and submit to Him anew.
Today as we come to the Sunday before Lent our readings take a different turn. It's a pity that we couldn't stay to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. But Lent is at hand now and we need to focus the mind and heart more closely on what is in front of us in this coming season.
We've been listening to Jesus' teaching and thinking about our response to it. The teaching is directed to each and every one of us to help us undertand more fully what is required of us as Jesus' disciples. And it is with this in mind that we enter the Lenten season, a season of reflection. We didn't finish the Sermon; there's the final chapter, chapter 7 of St. Matthew's gospel with the conclusion which is the very well known parable about building on rock and on sand; and that those who hear Jesus' words and act on them are like the man who built his house on rock and nothing could topple it because it's foundation was so strong. When we build our life on Jesus teaching, not only listening to it but living our lives in accordance with it then we build a strong foundation to our life so that the devil and all his works can't, finally, move us.
But we have to act. Just listening is no good. Earlier in that chapter 7 Jesus says that 'not every one who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father'. Coming to church, listening to the Word of God, doing our Bible study isn't enough. We might be intellectually and emotionally convinced and firm believers in Jesus Christ. But that belief is no good if it isn't transformed into action, if it doesn't show forth the Good News in our own lives to others; and if it doesn't build up the Body of Christ, the Church and the Kingdom of God.
And so with this message we look forward now to moving into Lent and beginning to think more seriously still about our relationship with God; what God means to us in our lives and in the world. We are being called in the season of Lent to think about how we as Christians can become more Christ-like and play our part in bringing in the Kingdom of God. And we are called to do that especially through an enhanced spiritual discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We heard about these three disciplines in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and we discovered that Jesus seemed to take it for granted that these were already part of his disciples life. You'll remember that He said 'when you pray....; when you fast....; when you give alms...' And so it must be with us too if we count ourselvs as Christ's disciples. Unfortunately in this day and age, we tend to live our Christian life as though it's simply another aspect of our life; something we do alongside all the other aspects of our life. We forget that our Christian life is meant to fashion and shape and colour all that we do. Our Christian life is meant to be the start, middle and end of the whole of our life, containing everything else that we have, do and are in life. And so when we begin to live our life in this way then these spiritual disciplines become an essential feature of our life, all through the year but especially in this time of Lent. Because it's through this prayer, fasting and almsgiving that we come closer to God, that we become more Christ-like; we begin to put God's will before our own will; and we grow into God and see and know His presence.
But this is a very hard task. Growing into God, becoming Christ-like, putting God's will before our own will means that we have to put to death the 'self', the ego that demands constantly to put itself first, before God. The whole point of prayer, fasting and almsgiving is to turn this around so that we can say along with Christ, 'not my will but thy will be done'. And as I said, it is a difficult task, very difficult indeed. And so the Church gives us this yearly opportunity of 40 days to try again to turn ourselves to God; to repent in the truest sense of the word; to make real what we promised in our baptism, for some of us so long ago, to turn to Christ and submit ourselves to His will.
Knowing that this is a very hard task, the Church, today, in our readings, sets before us the destination towards which Lent is the journey. And the destination of course is Easter and the resurrection and the vision of Christ glorified. There's a very real sense in which as we come to do God's will, as we become more and more Christ-like then we see much more the glory of God, and we see that in Christ Himself. And so we read today of the time when Jesus took His three closest disciples up a mountain and before them He was transfigured. They saw His glory. It's significant that He did this just before He set off on His journey towards His crucifixion. Those disciples needed something to help see them through the ordeal that lay before all of them. Even then, having seen this they in some ways failed to keep up, the task was so difficult. But maybe because they had this foretaste of the fuller glory to come they were able at least to hold out to the conclusion in spite of all the hardship.
And so this is what the message is for us today; for Lent and for the whole of our Christian journey. We see Jesus transfigured and it's a promise if you like of the glory to come; the glory of God we will see in all its fullness if we will hold out until the end. As we come to this season of Lent, let us go into it determined to make the best use of this opportunity to come to know God more and to turn to Christ and submit to Him anew.
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