Lent, A Hard Sell

So, another Lent is about to begin, and I don’t know many Christians who look forward to it.

All this talk about journeying with Jesus towards the cross, self-denial and spiritual discipline, doesn’t have many rubbing their hands with glee. The end of the week treats, the glass of wine and squares of chocolate, will be replaced by sticks of carrot, or celery, and mugs of hot water. It doesn’t sound all that appealing does it?

When I plan extra services in church, organise speakers, and plan home communions; when I consider concrete actions I can take, like reading spiritual books or spending more time in prayer or with the Bible, those who recognise the challenge and struggle with all these things might well ask what’s the point?

The strange thing is that, when we start to do intentional things to draw us closer to Jesus, or remember Him more, or practice some of his teachings, they begin to change us. We don’t notice at first, so gradual is the change. We sometimes fail and forget what we were trying to do, and dip our hand into the biscuit tin or accept the sweet we were offered, when we had given all these things up, but that’s ok.

Lent, for me, is all about the intention and the journey. Sometimes, all our great plans are derailed by circumstances beyond our control. In my first post as a rector I had made great plans for Lent, Holy Week and Easter, but then our daughter arrived 3 weeks earlier than anticipated. She was born with serious health issues and spent her first nine weeks in hospital, and I had to hand over Lent, Holy Week and Easter to the parishes.

What they put together was far more ambitious and meaningful than my initial plans. An inspiring parish reader, who was terminally ill at the time, directed a passion play over the nights of Holy Week. People from two churches and communities came together, they prayed hard, worked together and had an extraordinary season of ministry in my absence.

I, too, had an extraordinary Lent at that time, experiencing both the joy and the worry of fatherhood for the first time. I discovered the incredible inner strength and resilience of my amazing wife as she was catapulted into, not just being a mum, but looking after someone with complex needs. I also discovered the resilience and courage and unconditional love of a little person who entered this world weighing less than a bag of sugar, and had the capacity to twist me around her little finger from the get go, and continues to do so 17 years later. It’s extraordinary how someone, who has never spoken a word, has that capacity to make you feel safe and loved no matter how challenging your day has been.

Lent, though, is tough going. It makes you think about discipleship and what it looks like to follow Jesus in 2025. Whether I give things up, or take things on, is there a way that I can become even a little bit more like Jesus during this season?

As a church leader, you ask what needs to change in me, what needs to change in the church to enable that to happen?

Sometimes, I think it can be about doing less, rather than more, creating some space for God to speak. Maybe cutting down on social media or television, trying to cut out the noise and the distractions.

Maybe there are books to read, apps or podcasts to listen to. Maybe it’s just the Bible and carving out a little time in the morning or evening to show up and sit in God’s presence and say, “Here I am. Is there anything you want to say to me or teach me?”

We may not get startling revelations every time and, sometimes, they are challenging to hear. It might be a sense that I need to apologise to someone I have wronged, or take the first move in a dispute, that has gone on for too long, to make peace. Maybe, it’s a quiet sense of needing to speak into some area of work or society where we see injustice. Maybe, it’s a quiet or insistent call to spend money we think we don’t have on someone in need.

Lent is often about tuning in.

Perhaps the blog is a good opportunity to invite readers to a series of talks about church planting over 5 Thursdays in Lent, beginning on 13th March. The series will begin this Thursday, as I introduce the idea of church planting, and consider different ways people are trying to reach out to connect the disconnected, or those who have not yet discovered faith in their lives to that concept. The services will be at 7.30 pm and last just about half an hour.

This Thursday, at 8 pm, the Mothers’ Union are hosting an open meeting about decluttering your life, and one of my goals this Lent is to give away a book a day and try to sort out my study! It’s a project I intend to give 15 minutes to each day and see where I get to. It may take considerably longer than 40 days, but we will see how it goes.

May this be a rich season in your life and be instrumental in making you more like Jesus.

Look forward to speaking again soon.

Much love to everyone,

Jono.

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