Park Avenue Methodist Church Blog

I wonder if you’re among those who give up chocolate for lent, or maybe like my daughter it’ll be crisps (she does like crisps more than chocolate!) or like my son told us a few years ago he’d be giving up broccoli this year for Lent (he doesn’t like or eat broccoli!!).

Yes it’s February already and Lent is fast approaching.  I find quite a lot of people give up something for Lent and why not?! Or actually I want to ask, “Why?”  What are they doing it for?  A lot of people I talk to don’t really seem to know except perhaps that they’re doing it as some sort of exercise in self-discipline or even hoping to be slightly healthier by the end of it.  Fair enough I suppose but is that really what it’s meant to be about?

I know a lady who doesn’t give anything up for Lent, but instead does something extra (no not to do with chocolate).  Usually this has been to organise a weekly lunch for the period of Lent, invite speakers to talk about aspects of Christian faith and people to come and share a simple lunch, fellowship, to listen and to reflect.  I think she is pretty close to the mark.

Lent isn’t exactly Biblical but it has been part of Christian tradition from early on.  To begin with it was as a period of preparation, a time of concentrated study and prayer for those who were getting ready for their baptism which would have taken place early on Easter Sunday morning celebrating the resurrection life of Jesus.  And the rest of the church community joined in the preparation too, taking time to seek spiritual renewal and increasingly focus on the Easter story.

There is also perhaps an element of fasting in giving up something for Lent and fasting is about making a sacrifice to seek God more intensely, more fervently.  You could say it’s about giving something else up to make more time to pray and seek God.  So that’s what I encourage you to do.

If you are going to give something up for Lent, why not use the giving up as a means of prompting you to seek more of God.  Every time you miss whatever you’ve given up, say a prayer instead.

If you’re not giving up something for Lent, why not choose a way to put extra effort into seeking more of God.  Try taking time to seek spiritual renewal and increasingly focus on the Easter story.

God encourages us to seek Him and really does want us to discover the wonder and blessing of His presence in our lives.

Yours in Christ,

 

 

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD…
Jeremiah 29:13

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The Christmas celebrations are all over for another year.  We have had our presents.  We enjoyed the get together with friends and loved ones. And now it is 3:00 A.M., the house is quiet, your family are asleep, it is warm, but it is dark, and you should be asleep too.

However, your mind is racing, your heart is pounding, and worries are overwhelming.You might be thinking about the pressing needs of a tomorrow that will find you unprepared, or it may be an area of concern—financial (the presents have to be paid for now), relational (should never have argued with uncle Burt about the turkey), or employment.

You may even continually find yourself in a place where you are out of hope and out of peace. A place that points to a spiritual separation from God that leaves you vulnerable and open to attacks of anxiety from the enemy. There is something about this part of the night that seems to magnify all of these problems, and I am not sure exactly why that is. Maybe that is why the psalmist said “He guards us from the flaming arrows at night.”

I am convinced that we need God’s help, not only when we are alert and awake, but even when we are sleeping. As you get ready to go to sleep, I think that it is a great thing to end the day in prayer. It has been said that God works the nightshift, and it is so true.
The best place to start is back at the beginning of each new day. Start your day in prayer, committing your decisions, your challenges, and whatever you are going to face that day to the Lord. Then, as I suggested, end your day with prayer as well. In each instance, our prayer should be, “Lord, here it is. I commit it to You.” It reminds me of a quote from Martin Luther, “Pray and let God worry.” I like that. Not that God worries, but the idea is that you should pray about it, rather than worry about it.
Is there something troubling you? Is there something eating away at you? Bothering you? Irritating you? Causing you to be afraid? Pray about it, right now. Just say, “Lord, I can’t handle it.” Philippians says, “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. The peace of God that passes all human understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”
So don’t worry. Pray. You will sleep, and live, much better.

Sleep well

Reverend Martin Swan

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Don’t blame God for Christmas, He only sent his Son”

By the time you read this Advent will be nearly over and Christmas will be upon us. Of course even as I write this, at the end of the first week in November, there are plenty of signs that Christmas is already upon us. Advent may be three weeks away but the shops have their Christmas displays in place hoping to encourage people to spend. After all isn’t that what Christmas is really about, the mid-winter celebration of consumerism? The opportunity for the retail sector to make big sales that will carry them through the leaner months of winter and keep them profitable. So there is no time to waste and this is no time to wait – people need to get out and spend as if there is no tomorrow. That at least has seemed to be the conventional wisdom for many years.

But I wonder will this year be different? Will people, feeling the effects of the economic downturn, and now increasingly aware of the problems of debt, and the threat of job losses make a deliberate decision to spend less? And if they do what difference will it make to their experience of Christmas? Time will provided an answer to both those questions but as we wait to see the outcome I think there are matters that we can usefully reflect upon.

A number of years ago the Christian singer and songwriter, Garth Hewitt, wrote a song entitled “Don’t blame God for Christmas, He only sent his Son”. It was a reflection on the experience of seeing a young woman in a shopping mall wearing a T Shirt that bore the slogan “Dear Santa, I want it all!” That slogan in many ways sums up the sort of society that we have been encouraged to become, wanting and expecting it all and believing that either we should be able to buy what we want, instantly, or even better still someone else should buy it for us. In such a mindset we are not encouraged to ask ourselves if we really need it or whether we or the environment can really afford our relentless pursuit of acquiring more stuff. After all economic survival and hence our future happiness, so we are told, depends on the economy growing and on us consuming more. It seems that for many this mindset reaches its ultimate expression in the period leading up to Christmas. So many people seem to have bought into the belief that you can only show how much you love your children, your family, your friends etc. by the amount of money you spend on them rather than by the quality of the relationships you have with them. I believe it is an understanding that needs challenging and what a wonderful opportunity we have to do so as people are increasingly asking questions about the way our economies operate and the fundamental values by which we live. Think for a moment about the encouraging conversations that are starting to take place and the issues that are beginning to be raised as a result of the worldwide “Occupy” movement, of which the gathering at St Paul’s in London is but one example.

In that context, of a world beginning to face up to fundamental questions about what sort of society we want to live in, let us remind ourselves what we, as Christians, believe we are celebrating at Christmas. We make the startling claim that God has indeed given us it all, because God has come to be with us in Jesus. We call it the incarnation, the statement of faith that in the person of Jesus, who lived a fully human life like us, God is present with us. That is, God not holding anything back but giving all, out of love for the world, and what is more giving it for free. There can be no greater gift than that and it is rightfully a cause for celebration.

Furthermore, if God did come to be with us in the midst of human life we need to take what happens in the world very seriously and engage with it. We need to be involved in the discussions that are starting to happen in places like those outside St Paul’s Cathedral, because they are asking the sort of questions that those who follow Jesus should be asking. That is not to say that there is any one simple answer that all Christians will be able to agree upon but it is to say that we dare not avoid asking the questions if we are serious about worshipping the God who is not distant from the world but chose to be born into it. Oh and don’t be put off by those who argue that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics, just point to the birth of Jesus and tell them you are following God’s example and getting fully stuck in, in God’s world. God asks nothing less of us, if we are serious about celebrating Christmas as the birth of Jesus, God’s son, rather than as a feast of consumption and consumerism.

May we have a thought provoking Christmas and an actively engaged New Year, for the sake of God’s world.

Revd Phil Taylor

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