Journey through Lent

Walter Brueggemann (born March 11, 1933) is an American Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian who is widely considered one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades.Walter . He expresses travelling the Lenten Journey in this way. "I imagine Lent for you and for me as a great departure from the greedy, anxious anti-neighbourliness of oureconomy, a great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. And then an arrival in a new neighbourhood, because it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free; it is a gift to come down where we ought to be.” ― 

I wonder, do we perceive Lent as a difficult complicated journey, when in reality it is within the stripped down simplicity of the season that truth is found.

The psalmist puts it simply  “Be still, and know that I am God." and in Luke we read the simple yet profound parable coached in a simple narrative  "...a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 

I suggest that the answer the Lawyer got from Jesus was not the one he was looking for. In our times, we seem to be very good at finding reasons to speak less and less of solidarity and more and more of ourselves and our needs. The parable of the good Samaritan sounds as relevant today as it was in the times of Jesus. It does not allow us to find justification in our rationalisations, but tells us, ‘Go and do the same yourself’.

Lord,

We long for your simple gifts for our lives.

We long for your peace.

We long for your joy.

We long for your hope.

We long for your love.

We long for your touch.

We long for your grace.

We long for your healing.

We long for your touch.

O Lord, open a spring in our lives

that daily refreshes us with your simple gifts.

Amen