Lent - A season of Hope

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19).

Those words remind us that without God, we are simply dust and ashes. Death is the end.

The messy smudge you will receive in the shape of a cross reminds us of our fragile lives in a fragile world.

That’s why the Lenten season urges us to turn and return to the source of abundant life.

Our Christian faith tells us that death is not the end. There is hope.

The Lenten season proclaims the reason for this living hope.

I guess we would all agree the world isn’t, as we would like it to be.

We all wish things were different; we all wish things would change.

But how can the world change when we can hardly change ourselves?

In a sober consideration of our mortality, we face temptations along with Christ that would detour us from living in newness of life in our earthly life.

Lent invites us to invite the Spirit to breathe life more fully into lives that are nothing but dust and ashes without that life-giving Spirit.

The service of Ash Wednesday looks at everything in our lives that threatens to turn our lives to dust.

That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised when Jesus turns the dynamics of change in our personal lives and shows us how to be the change we want to see in the world.

Because you will see that the Key concept according to Jesus is the opposite of what we expect.

If we want to see change in the outside world the first step is to withdraw into our inner world.

To see change in the outside world we need to connect with God in secret. Connect with God in secret and results will occur openly for everyone to see.

How does that work?.

Jesus offers three specific examples of how this withdrawal process works.

Giving in secret

Praying in secret

Fasting in secret.

Giving, praying fasting are often called spiritual disciplines. Actions within our power that make us capable of things we belief to be beyond our capability.

For example. If you want run a 20 mile race. First you must train in private. You don’t enter the London marathon and turn up in full public view to run it in front of the world without any training do you?

You can get dress look the part and then have your photos taken. But as for completing the race. If you try you will fail to reach the finish line.

Quite often people say to me do you think if you didn’t train you could still run a marathon?  The simple answer is no.

That’s why Jesus emphasise the importance of practicing prayer, fasting, and giving in secret.

If we don’t withdraw from public view we will constantly turn our spiritual practices into a show for others, which sabotage any chance of change taking place in us.

So instead of appearing to be more holy or spiritual in public than we are in private, Jesus urges us to become more holy or spiritual in private than we appear to be in public.

Make perfect sense doesn’t it.

When it comes to giving to the poor. Jesus says don’t publicise your generosity like the hypocrites do. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. By giving in secret, you’ll experience the true reward of giving.

It’s the same when it comes to prayer. Jesus says. Prayer can either strengthen your soul in private or raise your profile in public., but not both.

Rather than the elaborate eloquent prayers in public, A few simple words uttered in private is acceptable to God.

Especially since God knows what you need before you even ask.

As the ashes are applied to each individual later on in this Ash Wednesday service, with a solemn confession,.

the declaration of forgiveness stresses that we are reconciled, redeemed, forgiven and released from the bondage of the dust of death.

But there are just a few simple but profound steps that we need to take.

1.    We need to orientate ourselves to God. Acknowledge God as a loving parent.

2.    Align our greatest desire with God’s greatest desire.

First ask what is it that God wants….we want the world to be a kind place. Then we are to make God’s dreames come true, God’s justice and compassion reigns

3.    Bring God our needs and concerns, Physical – food and shelter as well as our spiritual needs for forgiveness, wrongs and reconciliation.

4.    Prepare ourselves for the public world we will soon re-enter on Maundy Thursday. Guided away from temptations and trials.

The word from Jesus and this Lenten season seek to more fully connect heart and hand, words and deeds so that the Gospel words and Gospel deeds are connected for the sake of the world God loves.

The world won’t change unless we change, and we won’t change unless we pull away from the world’s games and pressures, stresses of life.

And so this Lenten season is a time to deal with those blockages in relationship to God, to ourselves, and to people with whom we live.

But we must accept the invitation to a spiritual examination and forty days of healing therapy.

And in in secrecy, in solitude, in God’s presence, a new creation a new beginning, like a seed can begin to take root. And if that life takes root in us, we can be sure it can bear fruit through us. Fruit that can change the world.

Pray that this lent your secret life will reconnect with God beyond your imagination and that you will be the instrument for change that God created you to be.-