February 2024 Pastoral Message

Dear Friends,

This year Ash Wednesday and Lent follows hard on the heels of Christmas and Epiphany – we have just two Sundays between the 2 seasons. Often this can make us feel a little bit rushed. No sooner have we celebrated the birth and manifestations of Christ during Christmas and Epiphany (and put our decorations away), then we are focusing on a season of self-denial and discipline, prayer and study, culminating in Christ’s death on Good Friday and resurrection at Easter. I remember being asked this very profound question from a child in one of our schools- "did they take Jesus straight out of the crib and put him on the Cross?” We could be forgiven for thinking the same.

And although the nearness of Lent and Easter to Christmas can be unsettling, perhaps the proximity of these seasons and festivals this year can be to our advantage. Maybe for an unchurched society they make no connection – but there is a really important connection. Maybe we need to find ways to recognise that it is the same person, God incarnate, who is lying in the manger, and who has his arms outstretched upon the cross. Perhaps we can remember, like this:

Perhaps we will remember more clearly that the child of Bethlehem whom angels, shepherds, and wise men adore is the same person who is crowned with thorns and whom the crowd of Jerusalem disown and condemn to die.

Perhaps the depth of God’s love will be revealed more fully to us as we connect together the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ to new life as a promise and gift of God to all his children.

Perhaps there is real symbolism in keeping your Christmas tree, rather than taking it to the dump for recycling and fashion it into a Cross. We often do that at Madresfield church.

It is good when we make such connections in our Faith: when we remember as individual Christians, or as our churches, and take these messages to heart. Let’s use the coming of Lent to get ready - get ready to dedicate ourselves to prayer, read the Scriptures, ‘giving things up’ (aka fasting) for God and supporting those in need.

Are our Lenten observances a bit faded or stale? Perhaps our Lenten observances need re-thinking and re-imagining each year. How many of you remembered to keep out a Christmas ornament on show – and plan to keep it out, despite the temptation to put it away? Will you do the same with your palm cross later in Passiontide, I wonder? Who will have a palm cross available at Ascensiontide? I often meet people who give up the same thing, and do the same thing, during Lent, year after year. Why not try something different: a Lent course, study the Scriptures with a commentary, come along to Lenten prayers or use my Lent Prayer book. Maybe, give up something different and costly and give the money you would have spent to the church or to charity.

Of course, for some these dots between Christmas and Lent and onwards to Easter have already been joined. For some others, none of these things I have written about in this letter may speak to you, but as we enter into Lent I hope and pray that this season may be a time of spiritual refreshment and growth for each and every-one of us.

Every Blessing, Rev Gary