Lenten meditation

How is Lent going?
We are almost half way through.
This coming Sunday 31 March is called by various names, Laetare, Refreshment Sunday or in the English tradition...Mothering Sunday.
It is a bit of respite from Lenten rigours.

This week I invite you to spend 5-10 minute each day in simple meditation. Here are a couple of ways you can do it.
Pick a time each day (early morning, lunchtime or early evening  all seem to work)
And decide on a place. This can be anywhere. Sit on your bed, in your car, in the garden or find a park bench, perhaps do this on the bus as you go to work, school or where ever..be creative.
The advantage of a particular place is that it means when you get there you have already made a decision you are going to be meditating
Allow about 5-10 minutes (you can always do more if that's how it works out)
Make sure you are comfortable.
Then count your breath
In - 1,2
Out -3,4
In  -5,6
Out- 7, 8
In  -9,10
Out -11, 12
Then do it two or three times
Do that for a few times,
then if you want increase the count up to 4
In - 1,2,3,4
Out -5,6,7,8...and so on

When you have had enough take one deep cleansing breath
Sit for a minute or two, and then go.

This can work whether you do it with religious symbolism (eg, Make the sign of the Cross at the beginning and the end)
or without anything religious

Like everything it's about people

For the week of  11-18 March...but of course also for the whole of Lent and Beyond

While I don't think we should make people into 'projects'

People are the legitimate focus of Christian life.

Well, God, is the principal focus 

and God constantly reminds us 

through Jesus, through the prophets

& through our experience

that our godly encounter is mediated through people.

20 Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,[a] are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister[b] whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

       1 John 4:20

I suggest that during Lent you look at the people who God has committed to your care:

they are usually a small group, maybe one or two particularly stand out,

who might I particularly care for this Lent, 

and how?

Some ways (but not all ways) you could consider:

• Can I physically help someone who is in a difficult spot?
• Can I be with someone who seems to be struggling or lonely?
• Who needs my time, a most valued gift in our crazy world?
• Who can I pray for every day?
• Is there a relationship which needs particular work, reconciliation, forgiveness, help or support?

As I say we shouldn't make people into PROJECTS...so this must be kept in the heart, between me and God. Don't patronise anyone by telling them you have made them your special project! (ironically we may well be theirs!)

Lent has begun

For Thursday 7-Monday 10 March 2019 (but can be used any time)

• Take a short time each day to be quiet. Being aware of God's presence say the Lord's Prayer
• Readings for this week can include:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11  • 

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16  • 

 

Romans 10:8b-13  • 

 

Luke 4:1-13

• you could read one or part of the readings in each of the quiet times
• What do you hear Jesus saying to you during this time?
• Can you talk with him about anything that is of concern, and listen to what he says.

Peace be with you.

Is prayer worth the effort?

We had a good parish  Annual meeting on Sunday ....I raised a couple of issues ...what do we do about declining numbers?  What do we do about the fact we are getting older?...what do we do about this...about that.
Someone actually suggested we might pray 
I could hear the cynics laugh (mainly we said yes! yes! prayer is good...but not quite believing....and not being so rude as to say it!).
I do actually believe that prayer...even crude prayer...money, success, (more importantly) ... healing, forgiveness....opens for us a new way

Simple commitment to a (perhaps) need to call for prayer.
I said to people....There is nothing to stop you 
Prayer is not so much designed to manipulate  God as to orient us to what God might want for us.
I steadfastly say ...God wants more for us than we want for ourselves...I partly get this.
Maybe we should open ourselves to this....heaven knows what prevents us

Tend to others

These are reflexions from the “5 Marks of Love”  a Lenten series of the Brothers of St John the Evangelist (The Cowley Fathers) in North America, which we continue to reflect on during this Lent. This week we we think about TEND...the call to respond to human need by loving service

Christ is already everywhere present in the world. He is with those who

suffer in body, mind, or spirit. He is present in communities of poverty

and despair. He is with those who live on the margins. He is with the

lonely, the neglected and the sick. We are not called to bring Christ to

people in need; he is already there. We are called to join him there –

physically, if we are able, and by our prayers and gifts. We are invited

to be in relationship with him where he is already present.

In order to love Christ, we must love our neighbors. In order to serve

Christ, we must serve our neighbors. In order to be transformed by

Christ’s love for all living beings, we must open our hearts and spread

our arms wide. We must make room in our hearts for all those whom

God holds in God’s heart, even our enemies and those who wish us

harm. God loves each and every one – no exceptions!

Our hearts will become as wide as God’s heart only if we are willing to

allow ourselves to be vulnerable; only if we come to listen and learn from

those we would serve; only if we are willing to embrace and share with

them our own hurts, struggles, joys and dreams; only if we are willing to

be humbled and changed in the process. There is no place for pride or

haughtiness in the service of Christ. There is no place for condescension,

sympathy or pity. We come as fellow pilgrims on the way, willing to set

aside our own needs and our own preferred ways of helping, in order

to listen – and to listen deeply – to those who seek our help.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just send in a donation to a nonprofit organization?

Or serve a meal once a month at the local soup kitchen? Donating time

and money to worthy causes is laudable, but it can sometimes distract us from the deeper questions we ought to be asking. It can allow us to stay

comfortably within the status quo. It can keep us from asking ourselves

what sort of service might really stretch us, make us uncomfortable,

challenge our assumptions about ourselves or others, or expose our

biases?

As we consider the third Mark of Love – responding to human need

by loving service – we are challenged to explore what this Mark truly means

We  are summoned out of our comfort zones, and invited to

open ourselves to the transforming power of Christ, the servant of all.

——

Sitting on the bus

I was told to get off at Jabbok

But I got off at Bethel

(some call it Luz)

Nevertheless, 

I had a perfect morning there

looking at the angels, up and down

wondering what the interest was;

were they brown, dark or fair?

I tried to see the point 

yet Jacob,just like me, 

avoiding this and that

made it holy, stately, grand;

hip not yet out of joint

I found another bus

and went along to Jabbok.

Did I see God’s face there?

…but then again back in Luz

Cheese and greens

Why not do a simple thing like visit a lonely person. Take some nibbles, cheese and greens (perhaps a bottle to share even though it's Lent     (get over it...the Bridegroom is still with us [Matt 9:15])

5 Marks of Love...The Hallmarks of Anglicanism

We have been well served this Lent by the Brothers of St John the Evangelist (SSJE) who have brought us a gentle Lenten reflection called 5 Marks of Love...based on the 5 Marks of Mission which our (Anglican) Communion set before us as hallmarks of what it means to be an Anglican Christian.  I commend these to you as you engage with Lent this year.  

What to do in Lent.

Lent still seems to intrigue non-churchgoers (like my sister!)
"How is Lent going?" she said to me the other day, "what did you give up?"
I didn't engage with the conversation since I have long ago abandoned focussing on 'giving up', and been suggesting  to people that they should find some small thing to  actually do rather than abstaining from coffee, TV or lollies.
There is some merit, but not much it seems to me, in the giving-up game which has little to do with true fasting.
Better 'to accentuate the positive' as the old song goes ...than to pretend that not eating biscuits is actually of spiritual merit.
I suggest things like: find someone who is lonely and visit them; do an old person's ironing; spend 5 minutes each day just giving thanks for your family and friends.
If you want to accompany that with not eating Mars Bars..then that's fine....but better to act charitably, prophetically and boldly.
Isaiah 58:6 & 1:17 thinks we are capable of sterner stuff

Rather interesting...perhaps there is more to breaking bread than getting dressed up in vestments

Have a bit of a look at this and see if there is a connection
http://livingchurch.org/breaking-more-bread-together http://livingchurch.org/breaking-more-bread-together

I suspect there is ...
perhaps church might not be about being 'religious' so much as bringing Jesus into our daily life!

Getting on with Lent-day by day

I have long told people that Lent is not a time for beating ourselves up. There are plenty of others who will do that for us.
It is rather a time of grace. A God-given time to do some intensive work on building our relationship with God, rather than trying to make it harder.
Sometimes that mean we do need to be a fit firmer with ourselves, so trying not to over indulge (fasting) might help us with that.
Or it may be that we need to do a little more...prayer, work, worship, Bible reading, acts of kindness.
BUT we so often overlook the obvious. Do more of what is going well!
Spend more time not less with those who are closest too us. Do more of the things that seem to enliven us.
It  not a question of either-or but both-and. What I am sure of is that self-inflicted banging our head against an obvious brick wall...setting impossible goals, trying to solve impossible relationship issues, burning candles at both ends......etc is not what we should be doing.
So as we begin Lent, begin where it looks like things are already going well, and perhaps do a little more.
This is advice Thomas Merton gives to those who came to him on how to pray better. Spend10 minutes instead of 5, pray twice a day instead of once, carry one person in your heart throughout Lent....we can build on that. But if we try to scale the heights without gradually strengthening the foundation we are almost certain to fail.
We may also be surprised by how Lent can be a positive experience rather than an exercise doomed to fail...which we probably never therefore begin

Why do we bother?

(look  at Is 58:1-9)
Lent is a time when we dare to raise the term "fasting"
It is not a 21st century concept
because it speaks of giving up....usually food...but also other things
like sex!!!  or alcohol!!
Why would we do this?
The simple reason is that we are trying to claim our humanity!
And to suggest that we are not driven by: food or sex or drink!
That's a pretty big claim in today's world. Often we seem to just move from one thing to another. And we don't question any of it.
Fasting is a confrontationalist discipline!
It says...we eat too much.  TRUE
We are obsessed by sex....TRUE
And just in case we can't cope let's drink (or drug, or exercise, or TV, or buy)  ourselves into oblivion.    TRUE

Fasting simply says...let's not do that ...for a limited period
At least to say "I am not driven!"
Can we in the next 24 hours, week, month.....decide to not be driven by our raw appetites!?

for 7th March

Deep roots

I love this verse of Psalm  1
They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper. 

it speaks of God seeking to plant his love deep in our hearts
and to ground it deep within our being
How, I wonder, is God 
deep within us?
How, I ask, do we want God to respond to our deepest needs?
Is it our concern for our children?
Is it our deep-felt sense of loneliness?
If we open up to God about what is really troubling us 
then God can touch the reality of our lives
but if we close in ad say (or pretend)
"I'm fine!"
then we are not going to even let God in there!

for 6th March

Ash Wednesday

It is my great joy on Ash Wednesday to mark my beloved parishioners with the sign of the Cross. In ashes, which are harsh!
The words,  which are also harsh. And remind us of human fragility
  Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return!

  Repent and believe  in the Gospel!

These latter words are perhaps the most important. Because we are reminded on Ash Wednesday that we need to make some changes! Stop doing wrong, stop being two-faced and trying to have an 'each-way' bet and start acting as though we are genuinely committed to God.
I find that there are some people who I don't like very much,
and who are not easy to forgive for the hurt that they have inflicted on me or my family.
Well, Lent says, "Get over it!"
and decide to behave differently.
It is easy, on one level, to say....well they need to say sorry too!
But that is rather beside the point .
Lent is inviting me to act well!
Not to be reasonable! Not to be fair. But to be Christian.
To be, indeed, Christlike
in so far as I can.
This might involve turning the other cheek,
it might involve 'giving and not counting the cost',
and indeed giving our lives for others.
Happy Lent.... but let's not pretend it's going to be easy!


for 5th March-Ash Wednesday