The seventh day of Lent: Abstinence

It’s been good tonight to lead a Lent group in Bishop Monkton on forsakenness. I’d forgotten, as I haven’t done many groups in recent years due to the blessed Covid, how much I come alive writing and discussing theology. We did some deep stuff tonight.

We got on to times we have felt forsaken by the Church and we joked about abstaining from Church in order to meet Christ again. Radical stuff! But are there times Church is bad for us, and do we need to give up bad habits? It’s sad some Christians only do discussion groups in Lent. 

Giving up things in Lent is meant to clear our minds and hearts to seek the things of above. It’s not about beating yourself up or saying how virtuous you are showing off to others, it is to get rid of all that hinders our discipleship. Maybe we give up in order to take on. What would doing that in your church do to it?

I like what Sarah Brown, the Dean at Hereford Cathedral has to say about abstaining:

“I have every admiration for those who give things up for Lent. Those approaching their second week of Lenten abstinence- particularly if you are fasting or giving up some kind of food or drink- may find strength and encouragement in the words and example of Radbod, Bishop of Utrecht from 899-917. 

From the time of his consecration (and not just in Lent) the bishop never ate meat and frequently fasted for three or four days at a time so he may fairly be viewed as something of an authority on fasting as a spiritual discipline.

“Hunger and thirst O Christ for sight of thee come between me and all the feasts of earth.

Give thou thyself the bread, thyself the wine, thou, sole provision for the unknown way. 

Long hunger wasted the world wanderer, with sight of thee may he be satisfied.”

So next time the fridge door, the cake tin or the wine bottle beckons…”

The sixth day of Lent: Snakes

Monday is my day off and with the week I have ahead I hope my readers won’t mind if I just quote from a sermon today by my contemporary spiritual heroine, Nadia Bolz-Weber. She is contemplating snakes…

“When Adam and Eve were in the garden we are told they were naked and unashamed… until they listened to a snake – until they listened to a voice other than God’s tell them who they were and what they really needed. And then they believed that voice more than they believed God’s voice– and they went for it, they clicked on the link, so to speak - - and as a result, they were filled with shame for the very first time and tried to hide from God, and then God calls out and says maybe you are sitting here today having listened to a voice other than God’s. 

And maybe the story it told you is so familiar that you think it’s the truth.  

But consider that maybe you’ve been listening to the wrong voices all along. Listen and maybe you can hear God saying, Wait. Who told you you were naked? Who told you that you have to lie to be loved? Who told you your body is not beautiful? Who told you that your only value is in your excellence? Who told you that what you have done (good or bad) is actually who you are?  Who told you that?  My money is on the snake. And he’s a damned liar.  Always has been.

Maybe you are sitting here today having listened to a voice other than God’s.  And maybe the story it told you is so familiar that you think it’s the truth. 

So when snakes start talking blasphemy, don’t listen. You don’t have to show up with everything you need. The light of Christ is bright enough. And always has been.”

My question this Monday is who is your snake and will you listen to it? 

The fifth day of Lent: Driven

We had a Lenten Songs of Praise at Bishop Monkton chapel tonight. We didn’t sing this hymn but I used it as a meditation.

Forgive us when our deeds ignore
your righteous rule of all the earth,
when our decisions harm the poor,
denying their eternal worth.

Forgive us when we turn aside
from what is honest, true and fair,
when dreams of pleasure, wealth and pride
supplant your clear commands to care.

Forgive us, Lord, our endless greed
for what was never truly ours,
when, driven more by want than need,
we harness this world's brutal powers.

Forgive us that we change the rules
by which the game of life is played,
and never learn to wield the tools
which could see joy and hope remade.

Forgive us, God! Our lives betray
our shallow, vague response to grace;
so help us walk your holy way,
to make your world a better place.

Martin E. Leckebusch 

Today on the first Sunday of Lent,  I’ve suggested to folk we might need to be driven out to a wilderness place to think about how we act and are as Christ’s people. We spend so much energy on the Church, I worry we are squeezing out Jesus and his example and teaching to us. In order to reject the ways of whatever we believe Satan to be, we need to know what we stand for or we need to be reminded what we stand for.

Lenten time out is a good discipline for us. I said this to my congregation in Ripon, both of my churches together this morning.

“After his baptism Jesus went into the wilderness to prepare for his ministry. He needed to spend time alone with God and he also had to overcome the temptations of Satan. In this Lenten season we too withdraw into the wilderness. We try and spend more time in prayer and maybe fast from something we enjoy. We hope that in this way we will be purified and better fitted to overcome our daily temptations. We come closer to God without distractions.

So in this period you might like to subscribe to my blog or my Facebook page and read a nightly reflection, or you might like to ask me to send you a weekly thought by e mail on a Saturday night which some people get and enjoy, or you might like to join my Lent group which begins on 16 March for four weeks on a Thursday evening looking at the cross, or you might like to do a quiet day with me on 25 March in Grewelthorpe, or you might just commit to doing Holy Week well when we get there. There are services around my churches (and by then Sarah’s churches) on the Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week, or you might like to ring me up and ask me to chat to you about your prayer life or your Bible reading or your spiritual life. As churches maybe we need a wilderness time to seriously think about what God is saying to us and to seriously think about our priorities.”

Do we need time driven by God away just to think? I wonder…

It was a thing the early Christians did thinking about Jesus’ example.  St Cuthbert when Bishop of Lindisfarne  often withdrew to Hobthrush, the small tidal island off Lindisfarne, and for more extreme isolation and self-denial went to Farne; others, such as St Guthlac, withdrew to the wilderness of the Fens, not then drained and so notably inhospitable. And today going on retreat does some of that inner working for people.”

People have said to me this going away, this driven place is a waste of time. I just say to you on this first Sunday of Lent, we cannot possibly keep going and doing if we don’t take in and stop and reassess. Jesus had forty days. Can we spare forty days too??

The Fourth Day of Lent: Failure

There was a classic Some Mothers Do Ave Em episode with Frank Spencer at the psychiatrist after losing yet another job. “I am a failure!” he cried. No convincing by the psychiatrist would convince him otherwise. 

To be labelled a failure can scar you for ever. To be bottom of the class wasn’t easy if we ever were. To have the headmistress write “see me” in red pen on the maths homework meant you were in trouble. To be set a test and fail it can be upsetting. Remember your driving test? I failed my first one spectacularly. I stalled the car at the traffic lights at the end of the road yards from where we started; my three point turn was ten points and the examiner after I answered a question on the Highway Code said “would you really?” I’d made a right mess of it!! 

To leave people in a state of failure is cruel. We need to help people succeed next time. The Old Testament lectionary at the beginning of Lent reminds us of the Fall. 

To quote today’s C of E reflection on their Dust and Glory app:

“From Adam and Eve – two “failures” – spring countless more stories of failure and hope, relationships and life: stories that are made possible through the lives and legacies of other imperfect, flawed and fractured people.

Failure is inevitable, but isn’t the end of the story.

All of us live with failure. But throughout the Bible there is a persistent understanding that failure doesn’t have the final word. From Noah to Moses, to Jacob, to David, God’s grace means human failure doesn’t prevent us from being part of God’s people and doing God’s work.

All of these characters in our Bibles we look up to and learn from today have their failures, yes. But they also become part of a much larger and longer story of God’s people.” 

We are not perfect. We fail. But we meet in worship the perfection of God and the grace of God which helps us begin again. We need not be labelled and dumped or remain unconvinced we might do better next time. We are created to flourish! Desmond Tutu once said about our potential that God has amnesia when it comes to our mistakes. He doesn’t look at the caterpillar we are now but the dazzling butterfly we have it in us to become. We needn’t wallow in failure. We can begin again. After all, remember how this journey to passion and a cross ends. Not in failure but in triumph.

Last Sunday at West Tanfield church I was told I pick good old hymns. Well here’s one… 

In wonder lost, with trembling joy,
We take the pardon of our God:
Pardon for crimes of deepest dye,
A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood,
A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood.

O may this strange, this matchless grace,
This godlike miracle of love,
Fill the whole earth with grateful praise,
And all th’angelic choirs above,
And all th’angelic choirs above.

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

The third day of Lent: facing up to change

Some people just can’t do change. When something that’s been a certainty suddenly is no more, what follows it can be a challenge. I’m a Radio 2 listener and no more Ken Bruce after next Friday will be hard. I might listen to Popmaster on Greatest Hits Radio maybe. It’s been announced today that Vernon Kay has the 9.30 slot from May. Already the nastiness on social media has started. Some people just can’t do change. 

Life never stands still. Some of us met earlier tonight to continue to prepare for our new colleague arriving with us next Thursday. We will face changes as things won’t be as they were. She may well get “but Ian didn’t do it that way.” Local folk if you are reading this please don’t say that to her. She isn’t me and brings a unique ministry to you. Change can be exciting. I’ve just read that the Rev Claire Renshaw is to be the new canon pastor at the cathedral. This is fabulous news as I know Claire as she has been my spiritual director for the last few years and so we might work well together here ecumenically.

Today the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been marked. Consider tonight how that brave nation and their courageous President quickly had to adapt to change. Many lives were suddenly brutally disrupted as they became refugees, while others were called up to serve in the military, many without training. A year on, we cannot see an end to Russian bombs but the Ukrainian people remain resilient and hopeful this might soon pass. 

This Sunday we will remember Jesus driven into the wilderness. He faced brutal change. One minute he is called beloved then he has no choice but to ensure physical and mental anguish. I like to remember in Matthew’s version of the desert experience angels waited on him.

So what changes do you face you are fearful of or you can’t wait to come? Where do you get help to work through them? Jesus came through the desert challenge to minister; President Zelensky continues to inspire his nation; Claire and her family will need support leaving her current parish to move to Ripon and you know what —- we can cope with Vernon Kay! Actually I think he’s a warm and engaging broadcaster. It’s a change but it will be okay. 

And maybe continuing to think about Lenten discipline, we may be the ones who need to change. Remember these words of President Obama:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” 

The second day of Lent: solving impossibilities

I’ve been to a training day today in Nuthall Methodist Church in Nottingham which was good stuff. It was good to not only be at a quality event run by the Church which was worth going to, but also to meet folk I’ve not seen for a while like my friend Chris who was with Fiona whose husband Phil was in college with us; John Ritson who was one of my neighbouring Superintendents in the South East; Lynda Johnson who is from Nottingham but who I knew from when she used to visit friends in Hastings and Adam Stevenson, my Superintendent in the Fens. 

The day began with a puzzle. The Wi-Fi code was written on a flip chart. We all put it into our devices. A room full of ministers and circuit stewards can’t survive without the internet! None of could get on. It turned out the man had written an a in upper case and it should have lower. We needed him to rectify his mistake. We couldn’t look at things we needed to look

at if he hadn’t made it right.

Part of what is wrong with the world is that people don’t put right their mistakes or admit to them. They even sometimes try and make out it wasn’t them who made the mistake. Perhaps part of the Lenten journey needs us to be more accountable to others and fess up when we’ve made a mess of things that stops others flourishing. When we admit to God it’s gone wrong, the grace of God reaches out to us. When we pretend we are blameless then we have it seriously wrong.

Maybe today we take a leave out of G K Chesterton’s book. He answered his own question in a newspaper. “Sir, what is wrong with the world? I am.” 

Ash Wednesday blotting out

I am writing a daily reflection through Lent up to the evening of Easter Sunday. I’ll comment on what I might be thinking about and where God might be.

13 of us shared communion this morning and we shared Psalm 51, the Psalm written by King David seeking forgiveness from God after Nathan the prophet had confronted him about being a very naughty boy, going after someone else’s wife. He asks God to create in him a clean heart. I reminded the folk with me this morning that the word used for create in the plea is the same Hebrew word used to describe God creating the world in Genesis. Only God can create the sort of new beginning David craves in the prayer. 

I was reminded that the prayer asks God to blot out our offences. When we used to use ink at school and the bottle spilt we would use blotting paper to clean up the mess. I had a steward when I was a lay pastor at Markyate chapel in Hertfordshire from 1991 to 1994 called Frank Pearce. Frank had a vestry prayer I remember “Lord, we thank you for your servant, Ian, now blot him out.” 

Not only on Ash Wednesday do we pray for a blotting out of our offences but also a blotting out of our selfish agendas, pride, and ignorance. Lent reminds us of our place. That our life is simply to serve God and follow him faithfully and that we need to return to God urgently. 

I included a prayer time this morning to remember the world in its rawness. I suggest today as you between your Lenten journey you do the same. What needs blotting out? I hope your quiet time is quiet! Ours in a multi use church building had the Postman Pat theme tune blasting out in the hall behind us while we were at prayer. Afterwards I asked “what on earth are they doing in there?” “The Forum are having a talk on Royal Mail!”

May God give us grace to observe Lent faithfully. 

A last sermon for a church I’m handing over…

Passage for reflection: Matthew 6: 25 to end of chapter

 

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear…”

 

Don’t worry! This is a bold message from Jesus in our gospel reading today. And yet, it is easier said than done. 

There seems to be a good deal to worry about in the world today. 

But today Jesus says “Don’t worry.” And immediately we think about the worries of the world that go well beyond Ripon and the UK:  And none of this is to mention any personal anxieties we have. We think today of Turkey and Syria and 24,000 people who have lost their life and others worrying loved ones might not be found under the post earthquake rubble.

 

There was a man who was a chronic worrier. He would worry about anything and everything. Then one day his friends saw him whistling.
"Can that be our friend? No it can’t be. Yes it is."
They asked him, "What’s happened?"
He said, "I’m paying a man to do my worrying for me."
"You mean you aren’t worrying anymore?"
"No whenever I’m inclined to worry, I just let him do it."
"How much do you pay him?"
"Two thousand pounds a week."
"Wow! How can you afford that?"
"I can’t. But that’s his worry."

 

The word "worry" comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to strangle or to choke. While we need to be attentive to life's concerns, worrying about them "chokes" the joy out of life.

“Don’t worry!” we hear. Surely, it is hard not to do so. The world has problems and the future is always uncertain. It’s amazing what we worry about in the church. Mostly money or dwindling numbers or petty trifles...  the dominant issue is for one minister I know at the moment this  – it is to chair a debate at Church Council whether to put a lock on the biscuit tin as 28 biscuits have gone missing in a month! 

In his sermon the mount, Jesus tells us not to worry. He reminds us that animals and flowers get along fine without worrying.

 They don't have to worry because God provides for them. Then Jesus goes on to say that since God provides for them, what have we got to worry about? We are worth much more to God than they are, so God will look after us infinitely better. So Jesus concludes: Don't worry!

People will say to us telling us something is afoot : “there’s nothing to worry about.” But our minds race. Gareth our Superintendent calls a Church Council on a Friday night with little notice. He walks in with two Circuit Stewards. We just don’t have Church Councils on Friday nights. Ian was nowhere to be seen! Perhaps there was something to worry about. Some amazing theories why the meeting was called were shared between being invited to it and it happening! I worried I wouldn’t get on with your new minister. I needn’t have. She’s really nice.

 

 I don’t want to hand you over but we have this opportunity and I’m struggling today because although I’ll be here still and your new minister  and I will share a service together here next month, this is my last service as your minister and I thought I had you for some years yet! 

 

It has always been natural to worry – for good reason. This is why the most frequently repeated command in the Bible is “Fear Not. Don’t worry.” In other words, trust in God’s providence, despite everything.

 

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own, today’s troubles are enough for today.

 

There are people who dread tomorrow. Some little children still dread school on Monday morning.  I used to worry enough to make myself physically sick on a Thursday morning at secondary school, because first lesson was swimming and the teacher was a bully. I could never convince my mother I needed the day off, so I’d walk the six miles to school deliberately missing the bus.  

 

 Many people can’t face tomorrow, perhaps they have a hospital appointment or in the world of work, not knowing what the demands of the day will be, they go off work with stress, others face crippling worries over money and relationships. 

To be told “don’t worry” or worse “get over it” can do huge damage. Indeed some Christians can do huge damage. Put “sermons on worry” in Google search and you get all sorts of nonsense especially from America. That worry is a sin.

 

 Worry is part of the human condition. Most of us will have come to church this morning with worries. 

I’m very conscious I’m speaking to a diverse group of people every time I lead worship and I can’t know how you feel this morning, but hopefully we support each other by being here. 

 

When Jesus talks about worry he just doesn’t say "Don’t worry", he tells us how to prevent worry from talking control. "Be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things."

 

That's simply saying: put first things first. What we need to do more than anything else is to realise that God can be trusted, we can depend on him, that he will take care of us, if only we would have faith in him as our loving God. Let God be God, as the saying goes, and let him take charge of your life. First and foremost, as a member of God's Kingdom, realise that you are dearly loved by your heavenly Father who is always watching out for you, as is seen in what he has done for us through his Son Jesus.
Get to know what great things God can and will do for you.

Learn to trust him.
Come to God  and "leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

 

So what’s the pastoral response to Jesus saying worry doesn’t have the last word?

As I’ve said, there is nothing more damaging than glib Christian answers or no answers at all when you are walking in the dark. 

At times of worry in my life I’ve been ministered to by the Psalms. The Psalms allowed me to voice my anxiety and be honest about things and place the hard stuff into the hands of God and at the foot of the cross. The crucified Christ was there for me. I remembered how he was anxious before he died in the garden the night before. He placed his worry before his Father and found peace even in the midst of indescribable suffering.

 

It’s sad then that some Christians walk by when there is honesty or people need help and the person with the worry is left quite alone. If Christianity is real, it enters into the worry. 

 

And let’s remember worry if we believe our faith means anything does not have the last word.

 Gods mercy endures for ever. Do you know that? I love Psalm 136.

 

Do you know about Og? 

The Psalmist in Psalm 136 lists all the things God has done to make the world he made better again. He confronts evil. He subdues the likes of Og, King of Bashan.  He was, along with his army, slain by Moses and his men at the battle of Edrei.

The Jewish Talmud tells us that Og was so large that he sought the destruction of the Israelites by uprooting a mountain so large, that it would have crushed the entire Israelite encampment.

 

The Lord caused a swarm of ants to dig away the centre of the mountain, which was resting on Og's head. The mountain then fell onto Og's shoulders.

 

As Og attempted to lift the mountain off himself, God caused Og's teeth to lengthen outward, becoming embedded into the mountain that was now surrounding his head. Moses seized a stick of ten cubits length, and jumped a similar vertical distance, succeeding in striking Og in the ankle. Og fell down and died upon hitting the ground… 

Evil, death, threats, you see do not have the final word even if today you think they do. Who is your Og, King of Bashan? He might worry you now, but God’s mercy endures forever. It’s louder and stronger than anything that is crippling us with worry today. It may not feel like that now but Christian hope calls us to hold on, and those who can’t hold on need to be held and loved by others who don’t let them go. 

 

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear…”

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own, today’s troubles are enough for today.

 

I just say to us all today worry is real, but we need the confidence to place the worry into a bigger picture, that Gods purposes for us are good, and in the end all shall be well, even if we get a bit bruised getting there. I end with two quotes I find helpful. The first is from Rainer Maria Rilke: 

“Go to the Limits of Your Longing”: “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” 

 

But perhaps this is what we need to remember if nothing else as we go out of church into our worrying world again: 

Some words from the prophet Isaiah:
You Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm, and put their trust in you.
And a little later he says:
Israel why do complain that the Lord doesn't know your troubles or care if you suffer injustice? Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God... Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed.

 

Harrogate Road friends. I’m not going anywhere. But I commend your new minister to you. Don’t worry. There’s a foundation of hope and possibility here if we give our church and our worries to Jesus. Thank you for the way you have let me be your minister for the last two and a half years. May your strength be renewed. God bless you.