Preferring Nothing to Christ

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Matthew 5:20-26

The picture that I have used today is of our chapel at Turvey. The place in front of the altar is of huge monastic significance. It is there that you stand as a postulant and ask to begin your monastic journey and then some months later you will stand there as you receive your habit. You will stand there at First Profession and make your profession of vows. At Solemn Profession you will prostrate while the community sings the Litany of Saints. As you reach your various Jubilees you will renew your vows on that same spot. And then, when your life has run its course, your coffin will be placed on that same place in front of the altar. Your life has come full circle in front of the altar.

Liturgy and life are intimately connected. What happens in our sacred spaces in symbol and ritual gives us a pattern for our daily lives. In our worship and our daily lives we are called to be upright before God, true to ourselves and reconciled with our neighbour. It’s all of a piece.

Jesus sets us a very high standard today in the Gospel. Our hearts are to be in harmony with our actions.

Is Jesus calling you to reconcile with someone this Lent?

Esther 4:1-7
Matt 7:7-12

ASK
SEARCH
KNOCK

These are all aspects of our life of prayer. Asking God for our own needs and the needs of others is something we learn from an early age. It is, of course, not without its problems. We don’t always get what we ask for. Later in life we learn that our prayer may be answered in a way that we haven’t anticipated.

The searching element of prayer is something which unfolds and deepens throughout our lives. We might find ourselves searching for a way through a difficult situation, or searching for our path in life. The search never ends.

And sometimes our prayer takes us to a place where we arrive at a door and we need to knock. It’s all relational. We reach out and knock and trust that a door will be opened.

Are there doors that you would like to be opened to you this Lent?

Jonah 3:1-10
Luke 11:29-32

‘The people of Nineveh believed in God:
they proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth,
from the greatest to the least.‘

I am very fond of the Book of Jonah. Jonah is a bit grumpy and doesn’t quite trust that his preaching mission will take off. But it does. There is no subtlety in Jonah’s message. The people have 40 days to get back on track or everything will be destroyed.

Sometimes we need a wake up call. Sometimes that call can be subtle. Sometimes it is very loud and obvious.

It is striking that all the inhabitants of Nineveh, cattle included, take part in this solemn fast. It is worth reflecting on how much the support of a group can carry us along when we feel the journey is long and hard.

Are you called to a change of heart this Lent?

Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15

The words of the Our Father are so familiar to us. Sometimes they can lose their impact and we miss the fact that the prayer is revolutionary. We are praying that God’s kingdom might come. That’s every value turned on its head. There can be no ifs, no buts. Are we ready for this?

When I think of a place that embodies the kingdom for me, Lourdes always come to mind. Here you’ll see inclusion, deep faith and singing and dancing in the streets!

Where are your kingdom places?

How can you be the love that builds for the kingdom?

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Matthew 25:31-46

For I was hungry and you gave me food;
I was thirsty and you gave me drink…

There are times and seasons when the Scripture we hear is vivid and is played out right before our eyes.  The desperate needs of the people in the war-torn places in our world, the plight of those caught in the cost of living crisis, all cry out to us from this Gospel text. Take a walk in any town centre or turn on your tv or computer and you will see this text made flesh. There are some images which you simply cannot unsee. It’s Christ’s face that we see.

Matthew’s picture of judgement can startle us with its directness. The idea of standing before Christ and having him show me the times that I didn’t recognise his face is very sobering. For me the text is as much about withholding as it is about giving.

Where have I hardened my heart, held on to what I had and not allowed myself to recognise Christ? When have I walked on by because it seemed like too much effort? 

Let’s pray for the grace this Lent to see Christ in every circumstance of our lives.

Deut 26:4-10
Luke 4:1-13

Our Lenten journey begins with Jesus being filled with the Spirit and led into the wilderness. I always read Luke’s account of the Baptism of Jesus before I read the temptation narrative. Perhaps I am trying to soften things a little, but I like to stay with the words ‘You are my son the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’ Jesus sets out on his wilderness experience safe in the knowledge that he is loved by the Father. It’s in the wilderness that his identity as Son is sealed.

Each Lent we are invited to accompany Jesus into the wilderness. We make this journey safe in the knowledge that we too are loved by the Father. It’s in the wilderness that we are invited to consider our own identities. How deep is our commitment? Will being hungry weaken our resolve? Will earthly power lure us away from God’s Kingdom? Will we seek a path that tries to avoid suffering?

In the desert Jesus models steadfastness for us. The devil makes three attempts at weakening his resolve. Jesus wields the sword of Scripture and remains unmoved. We are perhaps out of the habit ourselves of turning to Scripture in the face of difficulty or temptation. Our ancestors in the faith, the Desert Fathers and the Desert Mothers, might be of some help to us with this. The memorising and repeating of Scripture was the heartbeat of their strange and counter cultural existence. These desert dwellers were all seeking ‘purity of heart’. At its simplest purity of heart is a life so attuned to God that you ‘want what God wants’. Scripture was the tool that cultivated the soil of their hearts. Repetition and meditation on short pieces of text changed and expanded the inner landscape of their hearts. The goal of the whole desert tradition was tenderness and compassion.

How is God calling you to cultivate tenderness and compassion this Lent?

Isaiah 58:9-14 
Luke 5:27-32

‘The Lord will always guide you, giving you relief in desert places.
He will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water whose waters never run dry.‘

Today’s reading from Isaiah repeats some of yesterday’s text and it too ends on a hopeful note. I hear in Isaiah’s words the motif of the covenantal bond between God and Israel. While the demands are high and far reaching for Israel, God promises to sustain them

Isaiah’s words were originally for a people in exile. He holds out the hope of their triumphant return to their own land. This will need a change in political fortunes and also a change in their hearts and minds. If they can make this change they are promised strength in their bones and relief from what has been the ‘desert’ of their lives in exile.

How do you hear God’s promise today?

Isaiah 58:1-9
Matthew 9:14-15

Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me
 – it is the Lord who speaks –
to break unjust fetters and
  undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
  and break every yoke,
to share your bread with the hungry,
  and shelter the homeless poor,
to clothe the man you see to be naked
  and not turn from your own kin?

Whenever I hear this reading from Isaiah I am struck by the fact that humanity has always struggled to act with integrity. We so easily say one thing and do another. I am pulled up short when I examine my own life and remember the times when things were done for show and my motivations were questionable. Lent gives me the chance to own those times.

Isaiah’s words ring so true today. We don’t have to look far to find ‘unjust fetters’ and ‘the homeless poor.’ In the centuries that have passed since Isaiah preached, the human story has unfolded in triumph and tragedy. Each generation has the chance to take stock and to work for change. We are familiar now with what theologians call ‘structural sin’. There are concrete things that we can do to highlight this. This is important. But of equal importance is our own inner work.

Are there those whom we ‘oppress’ with our attitudes?
Are there those whom we have burdened with a yoke?
Are there people with whom we refuse to share the ‘bread’ of our time, our love?

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Luke 9:22-25

Choose life, then, so that you and
your descendants may live in the love
of the Lord your God,
obeying his voice and clinging to him:
for in this your life consists…

Today’s reading from Deuteronomy offers us a mini framework for our Lenten path:

choosing life,
living in love,
obeying his voice,
clinging to him.

Each day God invites us to choose life. It happens in all the small choices, the things we’d hardly notice. The big things are more obvious. Just as we can choose life, we can also live in a way that gives life to others.

How can you choose life today?
How can you give life today?

Joel 2:1-2. 12-17
Matthew 6:1-6

‘Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with all your heart,
fasting, weeping, mourning.’
Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn,
turn to the Lord your God again,
for he is all tenderness and compassion,
slow to anger, rich in graciousness,
and ready to relent.
Who knows if he will not turn again, will not relent,
will not leave a blessing as he passes,
oblation and libation
for the Lord your God?

To British ears ‘fasting, weeping, mourning’ can sound more than a little dramatic. We prize the understated and controlled response to almost everything in our daily lives. But Lent asks of us something radical and perhaps dramatic. Lent invites us to turn our hearts to God. It is a time for us to take stock and to notice the ways in which we have become lukewarm.

However we make the journey of Lent, God is waiting for us to turn to him. Into our lukewarm hearts God waits to pour tenderness, compassion and graciousness. One of the tasks of Lent is to ensure that our hearts are open. The armour that we often feel need can be laid aside.

How can you open your heart to God this Lent?