Let's Do Lent Properly! - The Journey Home - Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday and we've been preparing for the past 3 weeks for the season of Lent which starts today. Lent comes around every year giving us the opportunity reconnect with God. The Church gives us this 6 week opportunity to think about our relationship with God and one another and creation and ourselves. As we've discovered over the last 3 weeks it's a time for which it's good to prepare and we've been doing that over the last 3 Sundays by considering different characters we hear of in the Bible.

On the first Sunday we thought about Zacchaeus who had an over-riding desire to see Jesus. He overcame his physical limitations and the thoughts and feelings of others about his being an outcast, with the result that he had a life changing encounter with Jesus. So Zacchaeus shows us the first quality we need to go into Lent well, a real desire to see God.

On the second Sunday we thought about the tax-collector and the Pharisee who come to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee is full of self-righteousness and self-importance, glad that he isn't like other people, proud of his religious observance. The tax-collector, on the other hand daren't lift his head. He knows full well who and what he is and so he simply prays, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner'. Jesus tells us that it's the tax-collector who is right with God after his prayer rather than the Pharisee. It's the tax-collector's humility, humility of heart and mind that is the example to us of how we might approach Lent.

Last Sunday we read the parable of the Prodigal Son, a parable so rich in meaning and teaching. But two statements stand out for me. The first one tells us that the Son goes off into a distant country. Here he is, in fact, in exile, completely cut off from his home and from those he loves. In those days there was no post as we know it, no phone, text messaging or e-mail; no Facebook or Twitter. He's totally cut off from his home and father.

And that's our situation today with respect to God. We spend most of our time far off from God, distanced from Him.

The second statement we read, later in the parable is when the son is at his lowest, his money gone, he's feeding pigs. And it's here that the story says 'But when he came to himself....' That's the turning point. He realises the state he's got himself into and that his only option, to find a life again, is to turn to home and to his father. It's a complete 180 degree turn. And he begins his journey home. This son teaches so much about what it means to turn to God. As we come to Lent, we, like the son, turn again to our Father. And that simple turning is repentance, the necessary quality to take us through Lent, to take us on that journey home, to God.

Over the next six weeks we are going to be making that journey. At various points on the journey we'll stop off to think about what we need to make the most of the journey though Lent.. We'll think about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We won't be doing any heavy theology. Our thinking will be about practical things to help us to get the best our of our journey through Lent, to help us make that journey home to meet with the risen Christ at Easter. So come with us on that journey.