Message from the Manse

 

Happy New Year! It seems a bit odd to be wishing you all a Happy New Year at the beginning of February but as this is the first Messenger of 2012 there it is. Different cultures though celebrate the change of year on various dates so I could wish everybody Happy New Year several times beginning with our own, then the Chinese Yuan Tan on 23rd January, through “old” New Year on 1st April  to the Jewish Rosh Hashanah on September 17th and Islamic Al Hijrah on 15th November, and probably several others in between.

 

Just think of all those opportunities to make New Year’s resolutions (and of course all those extra opportunities to break them), all the chances to start again or fail again. But of course it doesn’t really matter if you break your resolutions because, after all, you can always start again in a short while. That all sounds a bit cynical or a bit pessimistic doesn’t it. I have to admit I have never made a New Year’s resolution in my life and have no intention of ever doing so. It seems to me that the middle of winter when everything is dull and grey is no time to give things up or make drastic changes in your way of life, and I wonder if that’s why, when people’s energies are at such a low ebb, that many of their good intentions fail.

 

There is another time of year however when people make a new start. That time is Lent, which this year begins on 24th February. It is becoming more and more common to hear someone say, “Oh, I’ve given …… up for Lent.” Even in nonconformist churches where Lent was hardly acknowledged at all people seem now to be taking more notice of it, and non-churchgoers and even people who are not Christians or have no faith use Lent as an opportunity to give something up or make lifestyle changes. That may be because Lent is a finite period of time and with an end to it in sight it is an achievable target to aim for. There is also a sense of a shared experience, even if you are doing different things, there are others too engaged in a Lenten task. The temptations to give in can also be lessened as if you say you have, for example, given up chocolate for Lent people generally respect it and are less likely to try to persuade you, “Go on, just one little piece won’t hurt.”

 

Starting something in the spring as the new green shoots and leaves appear, the weather gets warmer, and the days get longer gives a better chance of success too as everything is brighter and you feel more optimistic tic and full of the joys of spring. For Christians though Lent has a serious purpose. It is a time of preparation for Easter, and in the early church was the time when candidates were prepared for baptism which would take place only once each year on Easter day. It was a time of abstinence and fasting, a remembrance of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness as he prepared himself for his ministry and its inevitable consequences.

 

Today observing Lent doesn’t just mean giving something up, although for many Christians that still plays a part. Nowadays Lent is as much about taking something up as it is about giving something up, doing something rather than not doing something. Many of us will take part in Lent study courses and, especially in Holy Week, there will be extra services to go to, and on Good Friday vigils and the ecumenical walk of witness. Why not do something more personal as well? One American pastor after 9/11 when there was a lot of anti-Islamic feeling decided to read the Koran in solidarity with the vast majority of peaceful, tolerant, law abiding Muslims who were being discriminated against. Could we do anything today in support of the marginalised, neglected, persecuted, poor and needy of our communities or of the world?

 

Whatever you decide to do for Lent do it as a witness to Jesus Christ and in obedience to his command to love one another.

                                               

Janet.