Lent Reflections 2019
In his homily on Ash Wednesday Father John reminded us of the need to commit ourselves to prayer, fasting and almsgiving in this Holy season of Lent. Our weekly reflections, founded on the principle of social justice throughout the world, will hopefully help us. These reflections, under the banner of “Longer Tables, Lower Fences” will encourage us to consider how we might build longer tables, rather than higher fences as we share whatever we have and connect with our neighbours. CAFOD’s Family Fast day on Friday gives us the first opportunity for specific fasting and alms giving whilst throughout Lent we can undertake our own fasting initiatives and give any money saved to Mary’s Meals, our Lent charity.
(Thanks to the Justice and Peace group for the production of these thought-provoking and challenging reflections)
(Thanks to the Justice and Peace group for the production of these thought-provoking and challenging reflections)
Reflection for 1st Sunday of Lent
Water of life
Water of life
At the Red Centre of Australia lies the desert town of Alice Springs. Despite its name, there is no spring there although water lies deep beneath the surface of the desert and it is replenished infrequently by rain. Through Alice ‘flows’ the River Todd. It rarely contains water and the parched dust of the river bed is marked by the trees that manage to get their roots deep enough to drink.
When there is water in the Todd, it can flow like a torrent, but it never reaches the sea, it disappears into the red earth long before it gets anywhere near the coast. It will however bring the desert into bloom: pink, yellow, orange, purple; suddenly the arid landscapes bursts into colour. But you might have to wait half your lifetime before you see it.
Jesus knew about deserts. He knew the harsh environment that could make his solitary imagination wonder whether he could turn stones into bread. He also knew that the temptation of a quick solution to his desert hunger would divert him from his true path. He needed to wait and wonder and not be distracted by immediate gratification.
In the UK we don’t always rejoice in the gift of water, in fact we are often grumbling about our sodden shoes or wet hair. But desert people know how to wait year on year, believing that one day water will come again. When we think about making longer tables maybe we shouldn’t imagine a table already full of good things to which we, as providers, will invite others out of the goodness of our hearts. Rather we could imagine an empty table at which we wait together with empty plates and glasses knowing we are dependent on God’s generosity to provide everything.
Lent is a waiting time, maybe we could begin by noticing every drop of water that we use and being thankful for it. And also being mindful that what we have in plenty is like gold for others. What could we use more wisely so that all the world can flourish?
To consider:
What situations do we face in life where we feel parched? How can we make our ‘spiritual roots’ search for life giving water? How can I value water and help other people flourish - maybe have a look at the Water Aid website? wateraid.org/uk How can I share more generously this Lent?
Prayer:
Creator of this glorious blue planet, maker of seas, waterfalls, tears and puddles, refresh us with the living water that you intend everyone to share. May the parched landscape of our selfishness be soaked by your generosity. Help us take practical steps to share what we have in abundance. Baptise us with your Spirit so that we can wait longingly for all to be refreshed at the long table of your love. Amen.
When there is water in the Todd, it can flow like a torrent, but it never reaches the sea, it disappears into the red earth long before it gets anywhere near the coast. It will however bring the desert into bloom: pink, yellow, orange, purple; suddenly the arid landscapes bursts into colour. But you might have to wait half your lifetime before you see it.
Jesus knew about deserts. He knew the harsh environment that could make his solitary imagination wonder whether he could turn stones into bread. He also knew that the temptation of a quick solution to his desert hunger would divert him from his true path. He needed to wait and wonder and not be distracted by immediate gratification.
In the UK we don’t always rejoice in the gift of water, in fact we are often grumbling about our sodden shoes or wet hair. But desert people know how to wait year on year, believing that one day water will come again. When we think about making longer tables maybe we shouldn’t imagine a table already full of good things to which we, as providers, will invite others out of the goodness of our hearts. Rather we could imagine an empty table at which we wait together with empty plates and glasses knowing we are dependent on God’s generosity to provide everything.
Lent is a waiting time, maybe we could begin by noticing every drop of water that we use and being thankful for it. And also being mindful that what we have in plenty is like gold for others. What could we use more wisely so that all the world can flourish?
To consider:
What situations do we face in life where we feel parched? How can we make our ‘spiritual roots’ search for life giving water? How can I value water and help other people flourish - maybe have a look at the Water Aid website? wateraid.org/uk How can I share more generously this Lent?
Prayer:
Creator of this glorious blue planet, maker of seas, waterfalls, tears and puddles, refresh us with the living water that you intend everyone to share. May the parched landscape of our selfishness be soaked by your generosity. Help us take practical steps to share what we have in abundance. Baptise us with your Spirit so that we can wait longingly for all to be refreshed at the long table of your love. Amen.
Reflection for 2nd Sunday of Lent
Sharing our Blessings
Sharing our Blessings
For over a year, a member of the Methodist Women in Britain Movement has been getting to know a family from Syria, who came to live in the UK through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. This Government initiative relies on suitable rental property being made available, offered by church or community groups, or by private landlords who then receive a realistic rent, initially via the benefit system.
Local councils, charities, church members and the Cities of Sanctuary movement provide support so that families can access ESOL language and skills training and receive practical help. In many parts of England LIST (Language and Integration Skills Training) is provided by ‘Concept Training’ for a number of refugee men, women and teenagers. They also provide a safe space in which students can begin to deal with the psychological effects of their traumatic experiences as refugees.
Already, those Syrian friends are becoming more confident in their new surroundings, so different from the refugee camp in Lebanon, their last home. Their son is doing well in the local primary school and making friends of his own. His mother is a terrific cook and loves providing hospitality in her home for those who are fortunate enough to know her. The local church was thrilled when she agreed to bake some items for the church Christmas fayre, getting up at 5am that morning to bake. The baklava went down a treat!
To consider:
Could you get involved with or donate to the Loughborough Town of Sanctuary who welcome the 200 people per day who report at the Home Office Immigration Reporting Centre?
How would you develop a relationship with a person from a different culture?
How might there be mutual blessing in such a friendship?
Prayer:
Generous God, we thank you for our homes and for shared meals with families and friends. Please teach us how to share with others the blessings we have come to enjoy. Help us to see you in the faces of friends and strangers alike. Amen.
Local councils, charities, church members and the Cities of Sanctuary movement provide support so that families can access ESOL language and skills training and receive practical help. In many parts of England LIST (Language and Integration Skills Training) is provided by ‘Concept Training’ for a number of refugee men, women and teenagers. They also provide a safe space in which students can begin to deal with the psychological effects of their traumatic experiences as refugees.
Already, those Syrian friends are becoming more confident in their new surroundings, so different from the refugee camp in Lebanon, their last home. Their son is doing well in the local primary school and making friends of his own. His mother is a terrific cook and loves providing hospitality in her home for those who are fortunate enough to know her. The local church was thrilled when she agreed to bake some items for the church Christmas fayre, getting up at 5am that morning to bake. The baklava went down a treat!
To consider:
Could you get involved with or donate to the Loughborough Town of Sanctuary who welcome the 200 people per day who report at the Home Office Immigration Reporting Centre?
How would you develop a relationship with a person from a different culture?
How might there be mutual blessing in such a friendship?
Prayer:
Generous God, we thank you for our homes and for shared meals with families and friends. Please teach us how to share with others the blessings we have come to enjoy. Help us to see you in the faces of friends and strangers alike. Amen.
Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Lent
The Grace of Receiving
The Grace of Receiving
The sign outside the church offered free tea and coffee – and a friendly chat. People at this Church, had set up a drop-in on Friday afternoons when they had seen people queuing outside the doctor’s surgery opposite. They realised that some of them were rather vulnerable and might welcome a place to go, so they opened the weekly drop-in. It was pouring with rain so I went in.
Inside, two long trestle-tables were set up in the tiny church hall. Someone made me a cup of tea and took me to sit down. I spent the next two hours chatting with people there: women and men, old and young, retired, out of work, healthy and struggling.
When my time there finished, I realised that I wasn’t entirely sure who was from the Church and who was dropping in. Being a guest can be quite hard work sometimes. However generous and well-meaning the host is, guests always have to be grateful, always receiving.
Is there a danger sometimes that our well-meaning hospitality, our desire to serve,
places a barrier between us and the other? Do we serve from one side of the table while our guests are seated?
In the Gospels we hear stories of Jesus giving sight to the blind man, healing the bleeding woman, restoring life to the child. But we also hear stories of Jesus receiving – having his feet washed by Mary, having tea at the home of a tax collector, drinking water at the well with the Samaritan woman, receiving hospitality from Mary and Martha.
Through receiving, Jesus encounters these women and men, and from this flows forgiveness, sharing of wisdom and a real connection. Can our longer tables enable us to sit for longer, to encounter the other, to be changed by them?
Look at foodbanks where people’s stories can be really heard as well as their practical needs met. Look at Community cafés where people of all backgrounds come together to share food and stories. Can longer tables enable us to recognise that we all need to receive as well as to give? Until, like this church we can no longer tell the difference between the guest and the host?
To consider:
Why is it easier to be the host than the guest?
Are there situations in your life or in our church where a desire to serve might be getting in the way of real encounter?
How could you receive?
Prayer:
Loving God, you have created us to be in relationship with you and with each other. Help us to long for fullness of relationship, to be willing to make ourselves vulnerable, and through receiving from each other, to know more of you. Amen.
As we move into the second half of Lent this week’s reflection gets right to the heart of the theme of sharing whatever we have and connecting with our neighbours. The reflection focuses on ‘generosity’ and tasks us to consider our lifestyle in the context of personal materialism versus the needs of others.
Inside, two long trestle-tables were set up in the tiny church hall. Someone made me a cup of tea and took me to sit down. I spent the next two hours chatting with people there: women and men, old and young, retired, out of work, healthy and struggling.
When my time there finished, I realised that I wasn’t entirely sure who was from the Church and who was dropping in. Being a guest can be quite hard work sometimes. However generous and well-meaning the host is, guests always have to be grateful, always receiving.
Is there a danger sometimes that our well-meaning hospitality, our desire to serve,
places a barrier between us and the other? Do we serve from one side of the table while our guests are seated?
In the Gospels we hear stories of Jesus giving sight to the blind man, healing the bleeding woman, restoring life to the child. But we also hear stories of Jesus receiving – having his feet washed by Mary, having tea at the home of a tax collector, drinking water at the well with the Samaritan woman, receiving hospitality from Mary and Martha.
Through receiving, Jesus encounters these women and men, and from this flows forgiveness, sharing of wisdom and a real connection. Can our longer tables enable us to sit for longer, to encounter the other, to be changed by them?
Look at foodbanks where people’s stories can be really heard as well as their practical needs met. Look at Community cafés where people of all backgrounds come together to share food and stories. Can longer tables enable us to recognise that we all need to receive as well as to give? Until, like this church we can no longer tell the difference between the guest and the host?
To consider:
Why is it easier to be the host than the guest?
Are there situations in your life or in our church where a desire to serve might be getting in the way of real encounter?
How could you receive?
Prayer:
Loving God, you have created us to be in relationship with you and with each other. Help us to long for fullness of relationship, to be willing to make ourselves vulnerable, and through receiving from each other, to know more of you. Amen.
As we move into the second half of Lent this week’s reflection gets right to the heart of the theme of sharing whatever we have and connecting with our neighbours. The reflection focuses on ‘generosity’ and tasks us to consider our lifestyle in the context of personal materialism versus the needs of others.
Reflection for 4th Sunday of Lent
Scandalous Generosity
Scandalous Generosity
Have you have ever been on the receiving end of scandalous generosity? Visitors to developing countries often comment how humbled and moved they have been by the way that those who seem to have the least materially in this world are often the most generous people, and sometimes put to shame those of us who have more resources – giving with a disregard for prudent thrift and devoid of greed.
Nearer home, our elder generation speak of many generous neighbours and friends who grew up in terrible poverty and instead of making them want more it made them reckless in their generosity, knowing that there wasn’t much materially they needed – but always gave much away.
In Mark’s gospel, in the story of the ‘The Widow’s Mite’ we see this reckless generosity in action. This poor widow gave two little copper coins, worth about a penny. As Jesus said “The others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on”. The widow clearly learned to trust God for her daily needs and was able to make serving the Kingdom of God her first priority. Time and again Jesus and the New Testament writers point us to a way of living in which we receive everything as a gift and make everything we have available to help others when it is needed.
This attitude is at the heart of simple living but not always easy to achieve, especially in this society in which we are bombarded with the consumerist lie that the more we get the happier we will be! Living in simplicity and generosity of spirit is not something that we can do by gritting our teeth, pulling up our boot straps and trying harder. To truly live in generosity and be free of greed we need to ask God to change us from within – to be free from the lust for more and to be so filled with the love of Jesus that we will be open handed to those in need around us and more concerned for the needs of others than ourselves.
To consider:
Who is the most generous spirited person you know? What do you notice about their attitude to money and possessions?
What is your attitude to money and possessions? Do you see your money and possessions as tools to live and help others or objects to be desired?
In what ways could you live more simply so that others may simply live? Ask God to show you ways to demonstrate his sacrificial generosity as an individual, as families and as churches.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help us to seek you and your Kingdom above all else. Forgive us for the times we seek our own comfort and pleasure while others go without. Help us not to lust after the things this world considers valuable but grow in us the desire to live in simplicity, love, grace and generosity of spirit. Amen
Nearer home, our elder generation speak of many generous neighbours and friends who grew up in terrible poverty and instead of making them want more it made them reckless in their generosity, knowing that there wasn’t much materially they needed – but always gave much away.
In Mark’s gospel, in the story of the ‘The Widow’s Mite’ we see this reckless generosity in action. This poor widow gave two little copper coins, worth about a penny. As Jesus said “The others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on”. The widow clearly learned to trust God for her daily needs and was able to make serving the Kingdom of God her first priority. Time and again Jesus and the New Testament writers point us to a way of living in which we receive everything as a gift and make everything we have available to help others when it is needed.
This attitude is at the heart of simple living but not always easy to achieve, especially in this society in which we are bombarded with the consumerist lie that the more we get the happier we will be! Living in simplicity and generosity of spirit is not something that we can do by gritting our teeth, pulling up our boot straps and trying harder. To truly live in generosity and be free of greed we need to ask God to change us from within – to be free from the lust for more and to be so filled with the love of Jesus that we will be open handed to those in need around us and more concerned for the needs of others than ourselves.
To consider:
Who is the most generous spirited person you know? What do you notice about their attitude to money and possessions?
What is your attitude to money and possessions? Do you see your money and possessions as tools to live and help others or objects to be desired?
In what ways could you live more simply so that others may simply live? Ask God to show you ways to demonstrate his sacrificial generosity as an individual, as families and as churches.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help us to seek you and your Kingdom above all else. Forgive us for the times we seek our own comfort and pleasure while others go without. Help us not to lust after the things this world considers valuable but grow in us the desire to live in simplicity, love, grace and generosity of spirit. Amen
Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent
Building Fences
Building Fences
When being sent to a new parish, a priest would pray that the garden would be small and
manageable. Unfortunately at his new place this was not to be. And at the front of the presbytery was a very mature privet hedge, overhanging the pavement by a couple of feet, almost 4 feet wide and the same height. You came into the manse garden by a small gate.
Note the past tense, because over the first year he tackled the hedge to such an extent that it is now a shadow of its former self! He also discovered that when the hedge was thick and overgrown it was a receptacle for dumping rubbish in and he even found a wallet (emptied of course).
When he had finally got it down to a reasonable size the first thing he noticed was how welcoming the presbytery now looked. Before, the high hedge was like a fortress, the message given to those approaching was "Do Not Enter." "Keep Out." "Private." Now he felt it said "Come in. Welcome."
Fences and hedges are there to define boundaries, make a statement, give us security, but they are not always tangible objects that we can touch and see. We place invisible fences around ourselves if we have been hurt in any way in order to protect ourselves - or our attitudes and prejudices create other invisible fences that can keep people out!
We do need fences in our lives and being enfolded is a good feeling. Jesus even spoke of us being in the Sheepfold and that he was the Gate keeping us safe. In the Old Testament, when God was displeased with his chosen people one of ways the prophets declared God's displeasure was to tell them that their fences and hedges would be removed which then made them vulnerable to attack.
So it is not about having no fences, but the height and depth of the fences we erect could be where the challenge lies, and maybe the theme for our Lenten reflections of Lower Fences allows for people to come in and partake at the Longer Table?
To consider:
What fences do you erect around yourself?
What fences does our church erect and how high are they?
Does God have fences?
Prayer:
Lord God, sometimes the prayer I want to pray to you is so hard to put into words, and on those days I ask that you will listen to the yearnings of my heart. I thank you for the fences that keep me enfolded in your love, but I ask that you break through the barriers I erect that stop your healing streams and light from flooding through me.
And painful though it might be, challenge my attitudes and prejudices when they say "keep out, keep away" when it should be "welcome." Loving God, in Jesus you showed us that you welcome all who turn to you, help me to love as you love and see those around me through your eyes, and welcome them in your name. Amen.
manageable. Unfortunately at his new place this was not to be. And at the front of the presbytery was a very mature privet hedge, overhanging the pavement by a couple of feet, almost 4 feet wide and the same height. You came into the manse garden by a small gate.
Note the past tense, because over the first year he tackled the hedge to such an extent that it is now a shadow of its former self! He also discovered that when the hedge was thick and overgrown it was a receptacle for dumping rubbish in and he even found a wallet (emptied of course).
When he had finally got it down to a reasonable size the first thing he noticed was how welcoming the presbytery now looked. Before, the high hedge was like a fortress, the message given to those approaching was "Do Not Enter." "Keep Out." "Private." Now he felt it said "Come in. Welcome."
Fences and hedges are there to define boundaries, make a statement, give us security, but they are not always tangible objects that we can touch and see. We place invisible fences around ourselves if we have been hurt in any way in order to protect ourselves - or our attitudes and prejudices create other invisible fences that can keep people out!
We do need fences in our lives and being enfolded is a good feeling. Jesus even spoke of us being in the Sheepfold and that he was the Gate keeping us safe. In the Old Testament, when God was displeased with his chosen people one of ways the prophets declared God's displeasure was to tell them that their fences and hedges would be removed which then made them vulnerable to attack.
So it is not about having no fences, but the height and depth of the fences we erect could be where the challenge lies, and maybe the theme for our Lenten reflections of Lower Fences allows for people to come in and partake at the Longer Table?
To consider:
What fences do you erect around yourself?
What fences does our church erect and how high are they?
Does God have fences?
Prayer:
Lord God, sometimes the prayer I want to pray to you is so hard to put into words, and on those days I ask that you will listen to the yearnings of my heart. I thank you for the fences that keep me enfolded in your love, but I ask that you break through the barriers I erect that stop your healing streams and light from flooding through me.
And painful though it might be, challenge my attitudes and prejudices when they say "keep out, keep away" when it should be "welcome." Loving God, in Jesus you showed us that you welcome all who turn to you, help me to love as you love and see those around me through your eyes, and welcome them in your name. Amen.
