From The Vicar
The Revd Bruce Wakeling
It is a great shame that some people think Christians are against having fun. Because Jesus himself wasn’t averse to human company and enjoyment. The Bible shows him eating and drinking with others, and at Cana in Galilee, helping a wedding go with a real swing. He did not approve of self-indulgence, of course, nor of having fun at the expense of others. But he was very far from a tut-tutting killjoy, walking around with a disapproving frown on his face.
In fact, Jesus was really God’s great Yes to humanity. God may not approve of all human activity; but by taking flesh himself in the person of Jesus, he made manifest his love of humanity. He wants us to live, to thrive, to be healthy and fulfilled and happy. In short, he wants us to be WHOLE. He wants us to be the whole people only he knows we can be, not the much less that we all settle for.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 22 February this year. We so often think of Lent as a miserable time, a giving-up time, a time of denying ourselves things – which isn’t at all the same thing as self denial. Self-denial is a denial of self-not taking yourself too seriously, not thinking you are more important than anyone else – in short, travelling light through life thinking more of others than yourself, not worrying too much about what you look like or how successful you are. Those who manage to do that are rarely miserable but are refreshing to know. Just like Jesus.
There is plenty in the world to be miserable about, and we don’t do well to shut our eyes to it all. But we do do well not to be bogged down by it all. Why not let the thing you give up this Lent be negativity and a dwelling on the miserable aspect of life. As Jesus said, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you you of little faith? Therefore do not worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ [Matthew 6:25-331]
Bruce
Feb 2012
