The traditional name for today, The Fifth Sunday of Lent, is Passion Sunday. It marks the beginning of the last two weeks of Lent, traditionally called Passiontide. I think the Roman Catholic Church has, since 1969, transferred the name Passion Sunday to be an alternative for next Sunday, Palm Sunday. And many Anglican provinces have followed the Roman Catholic lead. The Church of England, as far as I understand things from the lectionary, allows for either. The Collects, however, read as though we should still call this Sunday by its traditional name. Personally, I prefer to keep the traditional name because of the way it points us towards the passion of Christ.

Today’s Collect tells us in no uncertain terms what Christ’s death achieved for us — eternal peace: the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). We can enjoy a peace-filled eternal life because of what God, through his Son, did for us on the cross. He suffered the agonies of crucifixion so that we may know eternal peace.

That’s how much God loves us! Isn’t that an incredible thought?! Every year at this time, in the two weeks of Passiontide, I shed many a tear thinking about the sacrifice that was made for me.

“Amazing Love, O what sacrifice, The Son of God, given for me” Graham Kendrick.

Gracious Father,
you gave up your Son
out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace
through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

On each day during Passiontide a couple of years ago I published a short reflection on one of the Stations of the Cross. Here is a linked-list of those posts; they may help you on your journey through these last two weeks of Lent.

Today’s Collect, for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, seems to want to encourage me to think about my ministry more than I wanted to, and, in some ways, more than last week’s did. I’ve been putting off writing this post and trying to think of a different approach. But I keep coming back to the same phrase, “you know our struggle to serve you”. Sometimes we just have to go with where out thoughts lead us.

I feel as though, every Lent in recent years, I seriously consider whether I should continue with an active Church based ministry. Perhaps Lent is the right time for it, or perhaps it’s just because it’s springtime, the time of new beginnings. And perhaps it’s because I usually seem to find the winter months difficult with my health.

I really wish I could just enjoy my ministry when my health allows, and accept that that isn’t always going to be the case. The first part of that, I’m not too bad at. It’s the second part that is a problem for me. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could have some warning about when things might change; but the nature of my illness means that it’s very volatile, and completely unpredictable. I have real, personal, issues with commitment and reliability, and every time I have to let someone down (though they wouldn’t necessarily see it that way), it tears me up inside. So once again, I’m left wondering if I should be giving things up, as it feels as though I’m constantly fighting a losing battle.

We keep looking at different ways I can exercise a ministry, and be genuinely useful to the Church. But, maybe, that’s where a part of the problem, and part of the answer, is for me. Perhaps I look too much at serving the Church, when I should be looking for ways I can serve God. When I was healthy, the two were probably much closer to being the same; now, that may not be the case.

Perhaps, If I can change the way my thinking works, my struggle to serve God might not be as great. And maybe then, next Lent, my thoughts will be different. But knowing myself as I do, I suspect that this time next year, I’ll be going through all of this again.

Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Today’s Collect, for the Third Sunday of Lent, always encourages me to think about my own ministry. It encourages me to evaluate where it is, where it’s been, and where it might be going. Of course, the third part of that is the most difficult, and I’m not sure I ever really come up with any answers, but will keep praying, “give us insight to discern your will for us”.

For many years, I’ve strongly believed that where God calls, he also enables. It’s something that has helped me enormously through some bad patches in my ministry. And for years it has been true. Surprisingly, for this incredibly shy person, I have been able to exercise an up-front Church based ministry, something I never thought would be possible.

Preaching has always been a large part of what I felt God was calling me to. Who would have thought that this man who finds it hard to talk to someone one-to-one could possibly preach God’s word to a church full of people? The service I’ve found most fulfilling for my ministry, though, has been Evensong. It’s a much smaller service in terms of congregational numbers: but that adds an intimacy that isn’t present in the larger services, especially as we’re all gathered together in the chancel rather than spread out in the much larger main body of the church. At an Evensong service, I not only get to preach, but also to sing; something that has seemed even more unlikely than preaching. And yet both have been possible because of God’s enabling — what he called me to do, he also enabled.

I still believe that where God calls he also enables. But now I wonder, too, if the obverse of God’s enabling might also be true; ie. where God does not enable, he is not calling. Or more particularly in my case, where he stops enabling. I keep wondering whether my Church based ministry should be brought to a close. My health, which is always very unpredictable, was very bad at the end of last year and the start of this year. As a result, my Church based ministry has been non-existent.

But that is due to change this evening; I’m preaching at our BCP Holy Communion service — it will be the first time in many months. I hope this will give me a good indication of what I might, or might not, manage in the future. If I manage well, I’ll be more confident going forward. If it’s too much for me, maybe I will need to think more carefully about what I should be doing. It will probably be somewhere in the middle of those, though. And I do need to be careful not to set too much store by what happens this evening — it is the first time for a long while. Still, I hope to be given some insight to discern God’s will for me.

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Third Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

One of the names the early Church used for itself was “The Way”. We first read of it in The Acts of the Apostles (see: Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4, 24:14, 26). That may well be an extension of a use already found in the Old Testament (Isaiah 40:3; 40:10-11), where God’s people are seen being led in God’s Way. But it’s probably most influenced by Christ’s words in John’s Gospel — “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6); Christ claims to be the summing up of all that “The Way” means in relationship to God.

That’s quite a thought: in this Collect for the Second Sunday of Lent, we’re identifying with a movement, by name, that stretches back into history something like two thousand years, and it could quite possibly be considerably more.

We’re reminded too, in this Collect, that by following Christ’s Way we can look forward to sharing his glory. That’s his post-Easter glory, his resurrected glory. That’s what we, too, have to look forward to, following our own earthly death, resurrection to the glory of heaven; where we will be with God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — for all eternity.

I think we, as Christians, have lost something over the years by not using the name, “The Way”, more as a way of describing ourselves. “The Church” seems to be a little too solid, too stuck in one place, too much as if we’ve finished our journey, and too much as though it’s something for members only. Perhaps that’s because we have difficulty separating the church as a building from the Church as the people of God.

“The Way”, on the other hand, reminds us that we’re still on an amazing journey; a journey that anyone can still join us on because we’re still travelling, and haven’t yet arrived at our destination; a journey with Christ — the way, the truth, and the life — into eternal glory.

Will you join me on this journey, on The Way?

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

This joke dropped into my inbox this week. I couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling out, so just had to share it on here. I hope you’ll find it as funny as I did — even in Lent!

Have you ever spent time in the desert? The closest I’ve come to spending time in a physical desert, is when we’ve had occasional water shortages here in England — which are as nothing in comparison to many parts of the world. And neither have I spent time in a physical wilderness. I usually think of the Biblical wilderness as being desert. So the two words, ‘desert’ and ‘wilderness’, have become more-or-less synonymous for me.

I’m sure you’ll have picked up my references to a ‘physical’ desert and ‘physical’ wilderness. I can’t tell you what it’s like to spend time in such a place. But I have had experience of being in a spiritual and emotional wilderness — and can tell you that it isn’t a good place to be.

Some years ago I went through a very deep depression. It was a combination of adjusting to some pretty major and life-changing health issues, and some rare side-effects from tablets being taken. And I go through life now never feeling more than one or two steps away from that pit; especially when I go through one of the all too frequent bad patches with my health.

When I was at my worst, I felt anything but ‘closer’ to God. The overwhelming feeling was one of rejection, that I was unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. But those feelings were coming from the illness, and the medication.

Having come through that time though, I realized that what I had known on an intellectual level about how much God loved me, loves each of us, I now knew in my heart, with my spirit, the absolute certainty of God’s immense love for each and every one of us. It was a different way of knowing. It was an immeasurably closer feeling.

God can, and does, use the bad things that happen to us and bring good from them. I wouldn’t recommend the desert I found myself in as a way of growing; but I can certainly understand the sentiment in this Collect for The First Sunday of Lent. We can grow closer to God in the desert, just as Jesus did.

Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The choices we make in life can have unexpected consequences further on down the line. And the wrong choices, the sinful choices, we make often descend quickly into complete chaos. One sinful decision can set off a chain reaction of seemingly unconnected series of events that have consequences far beyond ourselves.

A major part of the rescue plan is already available to us, if only we will take it. Confession and absolution. By “confession” I don’t necessarily mean individual confession to a priest, though that may well be something you find helpful — in that I particularly like the Anglican way: “All may; none must; some should”. The important thing about real confession, whether it be through a priest or directly to God, is that we take responsibility for what we’ve done wrong.

But the best part of the “confession and absolution” equation is the second part, “absolution”. True confession always leads to true absolution. In fact, the absolution is there before the confession, we just don’t truly know our need of it until we have truly confessed, acknowledged and taken responsibility for our sins. We cannot be absolved from something we don’t know exists. But, because of God’s great love for us, he never withholds the absolution from us.

Just because absolution is always given when we truly confess our sins, it doesn’t give us license to go off and deliberately do something wrong, knowing that God will forgive us. True love just doesn’t work that way.

Being rescued from the chaos of sin will restore some order into our lives. And that’s what we should all be aiming to do in this penitential season of Lent.

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.

Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for Ash Wednesday
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The Bishop of Huntingdon has challenged himself to read around the Bible in the forty days of Lent this year — which starts tomorrow. He has invited anyone else who would like to to join him. I am challenging myself to join him in this venture.

Bishop David has set up a special blog on WordPress (HERE) to support the challenge. On there you will find a short guide to the books of the Bible, the simple reading plan, and various other resources. Each day there will be a short reflection on that day’s reading, written by forty different ministers from around the Diocese of Ely.

This is from the welcome message on the blog:

Bishop David’s Bible Challenge Lent 2011

ROUND THE BIBLE IN FORTY DAYS

We all have favourite Bible passages; and we hear quite a bit of the rest in church week by week, but in small chunks and often without much sense of continuity. So it’s good from time to time to get to grips with the whole of its architecture, and soak ourselves in its big story of Creation, Redemption and the coming of the Kingdom.

This year is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, and so just now is a very good time indeed to have such a soak, and celebrate the gift of the Bible to us and the special gift it is to us when it is translated into our own native tongue.

So my challenge to you this Lent (or at some other suitable time in the year) is to join me in reading Round the Bible in 40 days, cover to cover, following the simple plan laid out here.

+ David

Will you join in too?

Today is the Sunday next before Lent; it’s the last Sunday in this period of Ordinary Time before we move into the Lenten penitential season — It’ll be Ash Wednesday this week. We can see in this Collect that we’re beginning to prepare for Lent; acknowledging the disorder of our sinful lives, and asking for our crooked hearts to be set straight. But, at first sight, the phrase I’ve chosen to reflect upon from this week’s Collect, “Bend our wills to love your goodness and your glory”, seems a bit odd.

One would think that we don’t need our wills bending towards loving God’s goodness and glory. And I’m sure most of us, if not all, do indeed love God’s goodness and glory. The problem is that for many of us the effects of that love will be diluted because we also love the wrong things.

Jesus tells us, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). But that is what many of us have done, and I include myself in this, especially in the wealthier western world. It shows in the way many of us will do all we can to grab/earn another pound/euro/dollar, or have taken advantage of the buy-now-pay-later culture we’ve been living in — it’s the latter I’m most guilty of.

And now, with the current financial situation around the world, we can start to understand far more just why we were warned against trying to serve God and wealth: it really doesn’t work. There are many many people around the world who are in a much worse position than I’m in. My heart really goes out to those who, through no fault of their own other than living a normal western life, face financial ruin.

I don’t for one minute believe that God sends bad things our way to test us or anything like that. But I do believe, very strongly, that he can, and does, use bad situations and bring good from them. My hope and prayer is that somehow God will find a way to use the current difficulties for good. And maybe a part of that will be less dilution of our love for his goodness and his glory.

Holy God,
you know the disorder of our sinful lives:
set straight our crooked hearts,
and bend our wills to love your goodness
and your glory
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Sunday next before Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The traditional name for today, The Fifth Sunday of Lent, is Passion Sunday. It marks the beginning of the last two weeks of Lent, traditionally called Passiontide. I think the Roman Catholic Church has, since 1969, transferred the name Passion Sunday to be an alternative for next Sunday, Palm Sunday. And many Anglican provinces have followed the Roman Catholic lead. The Church of England, as far as I understand things from the lectionary, allows for either. The Collects, however, read as though we should still call this Sunday by its traditional name. Personally, I prefer to keep the traditional name because of the way it points us towards the passion of Christ.

Today’s Collect tells us in no uncertain terms what Christ’s death achieved for us — eternal peace: the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). We can enjoy a peace-filled eternal life because of what God, through his Son, did for us on the cross. He suffered the agonies of crucifixion so that we may know eternal peace.

That’s how much God loves us! Isn’t that an incredible thought?! Every year at this time, in the two weeks of Passiontide, I shed many a tear thinking about the sacrifice that was made for me.

“Amazing Love, O what sacrifice, The Son of God, given for me” Graham Kendrick.

Gracious Father,
you gave up your Son
out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace
through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday of Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

On each day during Passiontide last year I published a short reflection on one of the Stations of the Cross. Here is a linked-list of those posts; they may help you on your journey through these last two weeks of Lent.