Tuesday, February 23, 2010
For many of us, we now find ourselves in the first week of our Lenten season. This has been a traditional part of most of our respective cultures regardless of our individual beliefs and followings for some time. It is interesting to note that the theme of the this years ecumenical Lenten Noon Hour Services at Christ Church in Chatham is ‘Singing Our Way Through Lent - A Celebration Of Fifty Years’. Congratulations. There may be some feeling of trepidation in our minds as we contemplate this period of penitence. We are after all encouraged to move out of our darkness and weariness of heart and spirit, through the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Do we find ourselves a little short on attitude and feel some encroachment on our Life Worth Living with the very suggestion of this? We all know that the complexities of life have a way of adding strain in relationships, burdens of stress and periods of insecurity, instead of the good feelings and sense of accomplishment that can fill us with the joy of A Life Worth Living. The chosen liturgical reading of last Friday was taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The message, herein, goes a long way towards moving us from the fear and discomfort of sackcloth and ashes to the good feelings of righteous acts of love of neighbour. Read on ................ "Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, here I am." What a simple, yet profound suggestion that can help us to enter into this Lenten season unburdened with the weight of yesterdays, but renewed with the promise and hope of the tomorrow’s in our Life Worth Living.