Fifth day of Lent - The Nation

 

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model

What is a Nation?  What has it been over the millennia?  It is part of  'the onion' of our lives.  In this model, we live at the centre, surrounded by family, community, nation, continent, and the world.  But which ring has the strongest ring for you? I remember when the European Union attempted to build up a sense of regional identity over national identify as a subterfuge to nationalism.   We were in Burgundy at the time.  It was not particularly successful.  The 'Nation' is a shared concept in our collective heads.  But every head is different.

The nation of Israel has been significant to us in Europe for over a thousand years.  The bible speaks of the Creator relating to this people as a nation.  There is a special relationship with this community.  Small county church have ancient stain glass and painting attempting to depict the Holyland.

In the West we emphasis the power and unique qualities of the individual.  In the South and East, it is the community which is the starting point.  Both are important and significant.  They coexist. 

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”  But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”  “Jacob,” he answered.  28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”  29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”  Genesis 32

PRAYER:  May the nation of which I am a part see its need to acknowledge your authority and accept the salvation you offer, and turn from it's wicked ways, and worship you.

First Sunday in the Feast of Lent - Listen

 

The Wilderness - Israel

Jesus went into the wilderness on his own to be close to the Creator.  He was away from distractions.  But he was there with himself, his inner thoughts - spiritual influences, both the presence of the Creator, but also of the malevolent force we called 'the Devil'. 

PRAYER:  I acknowledge the powers around me.  Powers to bless and build up, and powers to destroy and humiliate. Come close to me, as I come close to you, and save me. 

Fourth day of Lent - The Flood

 

Alex Honnold free climbs Taipei 101
Credit: Taipei Times

We all know the story of the great flood that wipes out many civilisations.  Almost all cultures have this tale set deep within their past.  It speaks of the frailty of life; like "a candle in the wind."

The curious thing about our world is that it is full of wonder, beauty and plenty, juxtaposed with harsh heartless brutality.  

Yesterday I heard Robert Alain, the French spiderman, talking about a recent 'free climb' of the building called Taipei 101.  He was asked how one copes with the risk of imminent death.  What Alain didn't say is that we all undertake similar acts of bravery every day.  Just walking along a pavement next to a busy road, or traveling inside the car on the motorway... Life is full of risk.

I think that the flood story tells us that we are noticed.  we are not alone.  There is method in the madness.  If we look, the signs of hope are about us, and we will arrive on solid land. 

It may feel bleak, but Salvation is in the air.

 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. Genesis 9

PRAYER:  You have told me the story.  You know how it ends.  My trust is in you.

Third day of Lent - Siblings

 

Siblings by Paul Klee- Credit: Wikioo

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Ballard from Reding Gaol by Oscar Wilde.

Like the screaming open mouths of chicks in the nest, siblings are aware they may have to compete for resources. The relationship is not with the sibling primarily.  It is with the parent.  When parents can reassure that everything is safe and fine, the need to compete reduces, and siblings can actually become good friends.  As with all loving relationship, we mature from "You cut and I choose" to I actually want the best for you.  

The bible is full of different kinds of sibling relationships.  I love that between Mary, Martha and Lazarus, But the bible starts with tragic jealousy.  Cain saw perfection in his brother's relationship with the Creator.  He had been selfish, and the boiled over into a murder he must have immediately regrated. Actions have consequences....and the Creator calmed Cain's worries, and continued to protect him.

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Genesis 4

PRAYER: I love you to the point where my survival does not matter as much as loving you.

Second day of Lent - Humanity

Paintings in Chad said to be about 10,000 years old
Credit David Stanley on BBC news website

 What do we make of the messages that humans have been around for tens of thousands of years?

The BBC recently published an article suggesting that the art work found in an Indonesian cave was 67,000 year old.  The migration of humans from Mongolia into the American continent is put at 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.  Then there is the strange business of the relationship between Homo Sapiens and neandertals.  It's a long way of from the world described by Bishop Ussher in the seventeenth century.

The modern picture of humanity blurs the boundaries between species.  When did humans  start to reach out to their Creator?  When did the special relationship begin.  Humanity, though small in population, lived without books and organised religion far longer than it has with them.

I believe that the nature of the relationship is the same with all people, across all time.  Indeed, the relationship remains will all created things.  

"Ours not to reason why: ours to be and try."  

To accept our existence gratefully, and to try to follow our Creator knowing that although the world can look beautiful and magnificence, it can also flip your boat over and leave you in the ocean to drown, the Creator is good, faithful and true.

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians3

PRAYER:  I look to you, my creator, as the child realising who their parents actually are.

First day of Lent - Ash Wednesday - Creation

Big Bang by David Parker
Credit: Fine Art America

I nod to my Muslim colleagues and friends as I cup my hands in prayer. Ramadan and Lent are taking place at the same time. This must be very rare.  

This is my take on creation.

Into the vastness of space, the Creator released a handful of dust.  Initially it spread out like a fine even mist.  Then. as the equilibrium across the field of particles becomes unsettled, each atom pulls persistently on the next.  Eventually the the nudging became irresistible, and the particles slowly moved towards each other.  Proximity accelerates the movement following an exponential curve, doubling, tripling the speed of attraction; ever faster.  

Within the freedom of space, the particles career at full pelt towards the same point.  They collided in a 'big bang'.  The impact was so great it creates fusion and fission reactions between the atoms.  New elements are created, and releases enormous heat, greater than anything we have ever know.  The explosion sends lumps of molten rock far out into space, spinning like the pistols of an engine, 4000x rotations a minute.  Days fly past.

The physical world is created.  Life, a seed, is set on it's inevitable and predictable trajectory.  All is known to the Creator, within this unpredictable chaos.  

As with the butterfly flapping it's wing over China, eventually causing storms over Canada, so the abstract art of diversity hones all that is, animate and inanimate. 

Eventually there is a being that looks up.  A being that not only lives with it's Creator, but also looks to know and understand.  Like the baby who realises over time that these people who care for me, are like me, and that I can interact with them.  That I am experiencing 'love', and we are having fun together. So too we all relate to our Creator, and realise they have been there all along, and without them this miracle would not be.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1 :15 -17

PRAYER: You have always been with us.  We see you more clearly now.  We love and adore you.

Lent 2026 "Illumina, quaesumus, Domine, tenebras nostras".

A New Day Dawns by Naomi Jenkins
Credit: Naomi Jenkins Gallery

Lighten our darkness, 

we beseech thee, O Lord;

And by thy great mercy

defend us from all perils

and dangers of this night;

For the love of thy only son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

(Book of common Prayer. 1662)

Lent - the coming of Spring - the lengthening of the days.

From Ash Wednesday I have some daily reflections spanning wonderful Biblical stories.  The first 20 days are from the Old Testament, and the next 20 are from the New.

Remember to rest on the sabbath!