Readings:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7;
Psalm 32;
Romans 5:12-19;
Matthew 4:1-11

Collect:
Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection

As we enter Lent, I wonder if you are giving anything up? Or taking anything up? Traditionally, the period of Lent is marked by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. We may not name our Lenten practices in quite the same way now, but there are often similarities – we give things up (fasting), we take on new spiritual disciplines (prayer), we give to charity (almsgiving). But why do we do these things? 

Lenten discipline – the stuff we give up or take up – shouldn’t be about making ourselves feel bad.  It’s not about stopping ourselves doing/eating/having something ‘naughty’ or practising self-denial for the sake of it. Nor should our Lenten discipline be about making ourselves feel good. Lent is not about self-help, or self-improvement, or losing a few pounds, or breaking a bad habit. 

The purpose of Lenten discipline is to re-focus on God. To turn back – which is the literal meaning of repentance – to God. We give things up or take things up because (we hope!) doing so will help us to focus more closely on our walk with God through the wilderness of Lent. 

In Lent we realise afresh our absolute dependence on God, that it is only by turning and turning again to God that we can be transformed, renewed, healed, and set free. It really is the opposite of self-help! Lent is a time for letting go of all our pretences that we can succeed in our own strength, and allowing ourselves to rest in God’s unceasing faithfulness – even in the desert wilderness. 

Whatever ‘wilderness’ seasons we may find ourselves traveling through in our own lives, we know that Jesus has walked that way before us, and is walking it with us. And the wilderness, although it is a hard place to be, is also a landscape full of encounter with God. Think of Moses, Abraham, Hagar, (and there are plenty of other examples too) encountering God in the wilderness in unexpected ways. Jesus himself is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, and encounters angels there, as well as the devil. 

Lent is a time for walking faithfully with God who walks faithfully with us, and connecting deeply with God’s abiding presence among us. Whatever kinds of ‘giving up’ or ‘taking up’ will help us with that are to be commended. 

Perhaps if we let it this Lent can be a time of entering more deeply into the mystery of God.

Perhaps we can take this time to dwell more deeply in the wild landscape of the wilderness, and to find Jesus here.

Perhaps this can be a time of encounter with God in the landscape of our everyday lives, a time when we are extra attentive to the presence of Christ in our midst.

However we engage with this Lent, may it be a time which leads us closer to God, and more deeply into the company of Christ, and onwards, led by the same Spirit which led Jesus into the desert, into the justice and peace of God’s kingdom. 

Ruth Harley