March 2010 Letter

From the Rectory

Some things are inevitable and not particularly welcome.  Benjamin Franklin confirmed the thoughts of many of us in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789 when he wrote, 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes'.  Given the advances in medical science and the burgeoning national debt, I wonder if the latter isn't more certain than the former.

As with death and taxes, the current season of the church year - Lent - can also evoke a negative response.  Lent is characteristically a time of self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study and preparation for Easter.  In the early church it was a time in which candidates for baptism were instructed in Christian faith; penitents prepared themselves, through fasting and penance, to be readmitted to communion; and the whole Christian community was invited to join them in the process of study and repentance.  This took place over forty days to remind them of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tested.

Despite Lent's rich history it is still easy to see it as no more than a season in which we go without things; for example, a person might be heard to say, "I'm giving up chocolate biscuits for Lent."  This is not, in and of itself, a spiritual discipline; it is more accurately called a 'diet' which is something quite different.

Lent is not about giving things up so much as it is about 'clearing the decks'.  It's about removing the clutter in our lives for a period of time to allow us to focus on what's important.  It's about setting aside life's distractions so that we can reflect on our condition as human beings.  It gives us time to reconnect our lives to God, to refashion our lives in the pattern of Jesus, and to recommit ourselves to being transformed by the power of the risen Christ.

Lent is not just about giving up what we enjoy.  Lent is a time to press into the very best of what God has to offer us.

Stephen Pullin