You may still be struggling to get back into your normal routine after the Christmas break, and Easter seems a long way off, but in two weeks' time it will be Ash Wednesday (10 February) and the first day of Lent. Depending on your church background you may have little experience of Lent. If you go to an Anglican church, for example, it may surprise you to know that in some other denominations no reference will be made to Lent at all. I grew up going to church twice on a Sunday, and although I remember Pancake Day, I doubt there was ever any reference to Lent.
So just in case you need some background here is a quick summary. Lent is the time in the church calendar that runs from Ash Wednesday through to Easter. Traditionally Lent is the period of preparation in the run up to the events of Easter - the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. A time of reflection and repentance - which in certain church traditions is often accompanied by fasting. Lent lasts for 40 days but if you've looked at a calendar you will have noticed that there are actually 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. That's because the six Sundays during this time do not count as days of fasting - Sundays are always a day of celebration as we remember the resurrection. Many people, even those with little or no church contact, will give something up for Lent - often this will be chocolate, although in recent years we have been encouraged to be a little bit more imaginative, giving up things like Facebook or television. Within some cultures it is common to go without fish for Lent. Other cultures with have different traditions. This 'doing without' builds on the fasting element that is traditionally a part of Lent.
Another trend over recent years has been to see Lent as a time to do something positive instead of/as well as giving something up. As we look ahead to God's love and generosity displayed in the Easter story it motivates us to be loving and generous.
The 40Acts campaign has been running for a number of years now and encourages those who sign up to complete 40 acts of generosity over the 40 days of Lent. To make a difference in our communities by performing little acts of kindness that can make a real difference in people's lives. If you want to know more or you want to sign up click here to visit the 40Acts website.
I know you're just recovering from Christmas and for weeks you've been bemoaning the fact that the shops are already full of Easter eggs but... ...Easter will be here sooner than you expect. Tomorrow I will be writing about Lent - Pancake Day is only two weeks away today. I know that Easter has nothing to do with eggs - particularly eggs of the chocolate variety - and I know that so many of our annual festivals are driven by big retailers wanting to make money (think Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween as well as Easter and Christmas) but... ...if you're the sort of person who buys chocolate Easter eggs then have you considered The Real Easter Egg?
The Real Easter Egg is a FairTrade chocolate egg, which actually tells the Easter story through the printing on the box and the booklet enclosed. These eggs can be bought in certain supermarkets and independent shops, or online, or if you're quick you can place an order at CBC on Sunday. To see their full range, get more information, read about their charity work, or place an online order visit their website.
If you're following the Read Scripture plan, we're leaving the action of the story for a while and entering into details of the law that God was giving to the people. But we're still reading a Psalm a day and occasionally these two readings will through up an interesting commentary on each other. In Exodus 24 God instructs Moses to come up onto the mountain - but the people must keep their distance. Moses and the elders of Israel went onto the mountain and saw God and lived to tell the tale (24:9-11). Then Moses went further, alone, and spent 40 days within the cloud, which looked to those on the outside like a 'consuming fire'.
Moses entered into the presence of God and spoke with him. The elders saw God at a distance. The people were kept much further away. Today's Psalm asks the question,
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by what is false. (Psalm 24:3-4).
In this verse, David is referring to the temple and the Holy Place, the place where God chose to make his presence known and meet with his people. As we will discover as we continue to read through Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers there were very strict instructions on who could come into the presence of God and how they were to come - if they wanted to live to tell the tale.
Last Sunday at CBC we looked at the Beatitudes and in Matthew 5:8 we read that it is the pure in heart who will see God. But do any of us have a pure heart and clean hands? The good news is that through Jesus' sacrifice God gives us a pure heart and clean hands and therefore we are able to come into God's presence. And in Hebrews 10:19-22 we are encouraged to take advantage of this incredible truth and draw near to God - not to keep at a distance at the bottom of the mountain as others go into the presence of God, but to actually meet with God ourselves.
Seeking to be an authenticcommunity of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed
This week we're going to look at what it means to be a disciple as we continue our weekly series of Friday posts exploring and unpacking our Vision here at CBC. If you miss any of these Friday posts you can easily access individual posts by clicking on relevant word above - or you can use the 'Vision' label at the bottom of this page to view the whole series.
Jesus' final words to his disciples in Matthew's gospel were,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20).
There is an expectation here that part of what it means to be a disciple is that you go and make new disciples. Bands of disciples in the first century would not have been an uncommon sight. Certainly Jesus was not alone in having disciples - we read that John the Baptist had his disciples and the Pharisees had theirs. A disciple was a pupil, a learner and a follower. Within a first century context a disciple would have followed their teacher - listening to them teach, listening to the way they answer questions, watching them in action, with the intention of becoming like their teacher. A disciple would learn how to imitate their teacher. As we read the gospels we see that being a disciple of Jesus involved personal and exclusive allegiance to Jesus. It meant putting the claims of Jesus first - whatever the cost. So what do we mean in our vision statement by the term 'disciple'? We mean that we have committed to follow Jesus, to learn from him, to spend time with him, to imitate him. Our allegiance is to Jesus - we put his claims first - he has first claim on our lives. We will be those who look to introduce others to Jesus just like the first disciples did. And we will be those who make disciples, who will then make disciples ...
Jesus' instruction to disciples is to make disciples, which involves teaching and obeying. Our vision talks about seeing lives transformed - and we'll look at this in a few week's time - but part of this transformation happens as people become disciples - responding to the call of Jesus - and then learn what that means by walking close to Jesus - which, in practice, we do by walking close to others - part of what it means to be an authentic community. The first century gospel setting was generally hot and dry and dusty. As you walked along you threw up dust in your wake which will have covered those following behind. Whether it’s an urban myth or has any basis in fact there is the reported saying amongst disciples about ‘being covered in the dust of your rabbi’s feet’ - the closer you follow your rabbi the dustier you are going to get. Our vision is to be covered in the dust of Jesus' feet. But what does this mean in practice? I guess that if we push this analogy a bit further, and bring in some of the thoughts from being an authentic community, then we will be those who are both being covered in the dust of one or two others who are walking slightly ahead of us - and from whom we're learning what it means to follow Jesus, and dust from our feet will be covering one or two others who are walking just behind us who are learning what it means to follow Jesus from us. We'll be thinking more in a couple of weeks' time about this image of walking close to Jesus as we think about what it means to walk in step with God. [Picture credit: www.LumoProject.com]
