THE CHALLENGE OF LENT - Sarah Cooper

I used to hate Lent

Not my words but those of a nun, a rather extraordinary nun called Liz Dodd

I struggled with Lent, she elaborates, because I found it performative, a season spent contorting ourselves into sadness. And every  year I thought, why play at being sad when there is already so much sadness. War, genocide, poverty and homelessness will not come to an end because we give up chocolate for a few weeks.

Easter in Disguise is a new book for Lent, by our unusual nun. She writes of a world we would all recognise, and of the challenge of Lent to turn our lives upside down, of Lent as a breathtaking invitation to change the world, not a polite fast and  a few extra coins in the collection plate. She writes on the theme of solidarity, through spirituality and our common humanity.

I’d like to share some of her thoughts, and some of my own,

Lent is one of the oldest seasons in the history of the church, and though practices may have changed the essentials have not.

The three pillars of Lent are fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

The words of a Christian in Egypt: It is a time of fasting, so as to break loose from worldly entanglements, and prayer to get into a deeper intimacy with God. It is also a time of giving, to think of others in need, to show mercy and to share God’s blessings with God’s special ones.

Fasting has been practised by many religions for thousands of years, for a day at  a time, during certain festivals, from sunrise to sunset, often not as an end in itself but to try to achieve heightened spiritual awareness.

When Sister Liz was working in a community in Nottingham, alongside people from many faiths, at a time when Lent and Ramadan began on the same day, as they did this year, she was humbled when she found out what fasting meant from other cultures.

She was particularly struck by the story of a young Kurdish girl who quite simply told her she fasted to get closer to God.

Because she had once hungered, she had thirsted, she had been exhausted.

Those were precisely the times when she felt God closest to her and she reached back into those experiences because she knew that this was the place where she could hold and be held by God.

A deeper intimacy with God…this is at the heart of it...whether we fast, abstain, turn our back on things of the flesh….it is in order to strengthen us to create time to reawaken and  refresh our relationship with God. Through prayer and worship.

The Church of England has a helpful and inspiring companion for us all this Lent, Draw Near…daily reflections to help us get closer to God through meditation on a piece of scripture…just a short time each day to pray, to open ourselves to God

In the words of Pope Francis

Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy

And it is a time of giving, especially of ourselves, to those who need it, and to those who don’t realise they do….a smile, a gesture, a phone call you’ve been meaning to make, an offer of practical help,  baking a cake, charitable giving, any or all of these.

We are invited into the wilderness every Lent.

We begin as Jesus did, learning with him what it means to be a human person, in solidarity with other people, in solidarity with us.

For we do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every sense has been tested as we are, yet without sin (Letter to the Hebrews)

Our reading from Matthew is about this period of testing. The moment when God experienced the raw edge of humanity…hunger, shame, powerlessness and vulnerability.

Jesus is  tempted in the  three areas where humans are most vulnerable; our need to survive, our need to be loved and admired, and our need for control.

Bread on tap! Whether you need it or not, more than you need!

They’ll save you! You are so important that the angels themselves will protect you!

You could rule all this! Everything you see…no more rules, absolute power!

Jesus enters the desert to confront three of the most powerful threats to the human condition and the most effective draws away from solidarity.

They are the voices of survival and domination and control, the enemies of human community….

We encounter these voices almost daily in our modern society…the same voices that tell us asylum seekers, or indeed any foreigners, are a threat to our survival…..that military might will save us and is the way to  peace….. that power is more trustworthy than vulnerability

They are voices that whisper insidiously in our ears, that drip feed us with tempting but toxic insinuations, which isolate us, in silos and bubbles.

And many listen and are seduced by  these tempting promises, they feel entitled, worthy almost.

All of these temptations are about power

Power to accumulate wealth

Power to be flattered and dominate

Power to control

And power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely….we do not need to be told that, or maybe we do

In the desert Jesus silenced these voices.

He chose to go hungry, to be overlooked, to be overpowered rather than separate himself from humanity.

Jesus chose solidarity.

Jesus defeated Satan by aligning himself with the poor and the powerless

And now he calls us to make the same journey from complacency through solidarity into action

Through abstinence, yes, but also through prayer and worship, through giving of ourselves.

Lent is a perfect time to search the heart, to let go of all grudges and unforgiveness and to share God’s message and His love with all. It is time for spiritual reading and contemplation.

As our friend from Egypt says

Lent always reminds me of how much God has tried to reach me personally and makes me think of what I can do to make God’s plan fill me and reach everyone around me. The salvation he gave me is a personal gift, but is not a keepsake that should be guarded and not given to others, it needs to be shared and made available through me for everyone to see the gift Christ gave me.  

We are a worshipping community, and it is as a community that we are able to remember what is important to honour in our world. Lent asks us who or what commands our devotion. If we bow before God it keeps us from bowing to anything else.

In the desert Jesus silenced these voices.

We too can silence those voices

So let us draw near to God, together, let us reaffirm our relationship with God during this period of Lent, let us recognise Jesus’ solidarity with us and let us share the good news that we know is to come.

Amen