Welcome to March 2023 as we continue on into Lent, a time of self-examination that enables us to reflect upon our relationship with God and with others.
I’m sitting writing these thoughts as the end of a rather hectic week guiding Bishop Rose around the Isle of Sheppey on a Roller Coaster Ride to meet the parish and the community in which we serve. It’s been a sobering time for myself…but more importantly for the ‘Church’ of which Bishop Rose, myself and you are a part. Too often I think the National Church has been prepared to retreat into safe ground like a lord in his castle during troubled times…too often we have simply pulled up the drawbridge to protect our dwindling congregations from outside influences, preferring to stay within our cosy little clubs…too often, I’m sad to say, we have used our Faith as an excuse to exclude others while ‘welcoming’ them in.
Does this sound like the Church you know? Is it the Church you wish to contemplate being a part of? Self-examination is about taking a long, hard, look at ourselves…warts and all. It’s about acknowledging our past…those times we have
got things wrong…those times we have failed to live out God’s greatest commandments, to love the Lord our God, and to love one another as we love ourselves. But do we….really…or does the devil sometimes get in with temptations…do we sometimes find ourselves saying ‘yes, but’ or ‘well, they can always?’ Do we shy away from those issues that make us uncomfortable, or worse yet pretend they are not there…or perhaps they are matters for the ‘great and good…’ There’s a pertinent quote (often attributed falsely to Edmund Burke) that ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing…’ and oh how true that is…Are we like the Priest and Levite who walked by on the other side, or are we the Samaritan who engaged to make the world a better place, for at least one traveller?
More importantly I suppose is do we actually use Lent to bring us closer to God…forget for a moment about giving things up, or doing something new…Lent first and foremost is an opportunity to spend time prayer and conversation with God…just as Jesus did. it/s a time to respond to real temptations…not of sugary foods, or coffeecake, biscuits, mobile phones and video games…but perhaps of the temptation to criticise those around us…for not being good parents, or good friends…for not being administratively able, or for being late to Church (or maybe not even coming). It’s not for us to criticise how others pray, or worship, or sing…we are not the judge…there’s another who has that role to play…our role is to look to ourselves and our relationships….ours is to lead and guide one another to salvation through grace and mercy alone, knowing that salvation comes from God and is not earnt through our own actions or piety (real or imagined). We
receive salvation by accepting it as a gift freely given by a loving Father…perhaps this Lent we, and the Church, will finally learn that we are all equal in God’s sight, and that none of us should be treated differently, regardless of colour, creed, sexual orientation or our ability to hold a note (or not in my case).
May this March bring you each of us opportunities and revelations of what it means to be children of God made in His image…
with every blessing…
Rev Paul
