Thoughts for Lent

Beginning with a prayer for Ash Wednesday, when some Churches have the "Imposition of Ashes":
Ashes
Lord Jesus:  as we begin our pilgrimage towards the remembrance of  the desolation of Your death on the Cross and then the celebration of Your resurrection, we remind ourselves that You said:
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his  cross, and follow me.    (Mark 8 v34)

Gethsemene We confess that our response to that is feeble, because we tremble at the thought of taking it seriously. We like our mainly comfortable lives
We cannot begin to match your prayer at Gethsemane, but like You we force ourselves to say: Our Father, Your will be done, we shall, as Your children should, trust and obey.
We know that, although we may be badly hurt at times, You will not allow us to be destroyed.
We commit ourselves to seeking you during this period of Lent.
Teach us what we need to understand and lead us where You want us to be
and show us how to do what You want us to do.
Feeble as we are, we want to follow Jesus. Amen


The favourite text of many preachers and the one used, a word a night, by Billy Graham in his first UK crusade on the 1950's comes from
the Gospel of John Chapter 3:

16. For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Since such preachers are often very hot on condemning sin, it is good to quote the next verse too

17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved

Which is not to say that sin does not matter, as the subsequent verses show. The point is that Jesus came to include rather than exclude, to love and forgive rather than to judge. For many years my mother would not wear a cross around her neck because she felt she was not good enough. She went to school at a time when schools handed out Good Conduct medals. I persuaded her that the Cross was a sign not of judgement but of forgiveness.

More recently I came upon a Christian song which  refers to God's wrath being satisfied.

This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save, till on that Cross as Jesus died,
the wrath of God was satisfied- for every sin on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live.

Even accepting the theology that Christ died in our place, that wording, to me, is a step too far. Whatever was happening on the Cross, it was an act of love not judgement and most certainly not wrath. John 3 v16 does not say: God was so angry with the world that He sent.........

Indeed if we accept what the Angels said of Jesus at His birth calling Him Christ the Lord and remembering that He himself said if you have seen me you have seen the Father. Then in some mystical way God Himself was taking the blame for the way He has created us.

However we interpret the Cross, there is no doubt that it is the central and most important event not only in the story of Jesus, it is the most important event in the history of the World; yes more important than the Resurrection which the Cross made possible. Therefore Good Friday is the most important day in the Church's calendar and it is towards that day that our Lent thoughts should be directed.

That does not mean unremitting gloom. The forty days of Lent do not include Sundays which should remain a perpetual reminder of Resurrection Sunday. And, in particular, Mothering Sunday, half way through Lent, demands our careful attention. For weekdays though we could pick up the Cross to which we have been called and stumble with it. Here are some suggestions for prayer and perhaps action in the shape of giving or sharing.

Heaven forbid that we should think that by doing this that we can earn extra blessing for ourselves, but it is a simple fact that if we do something like it in the right Spirit, i.e. because it is the least we should do, then unexpected blessing will certainly come.
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