It’s three days before the Lent challenge and it seems appropriate for the preacher to help inform any decisions we might be poised to make about our individual response to the forthcoming sacred season.
Each year Lent’s given us to remind us, as the Bible says to run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12.2).
We’re given the Lent challenge, forty days of training, to help us make a difference to the world, the church and to our spiritual lives. I put it that way round to keep our sights on the big picture. The training we accomplish will bring the power and direction of God more to bear upon the world through you and me.
Just as a bicycle get its power and direction from the cyclist through its spokes to its wheels Christian believers travel empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit through the disciplines or spokes of the Christian life.
Lent is an opportunity to refresh our discipleship by fresh attention to our spiritual discipline. You don't get disciples without discipline.
Our sisters and brothers of the Muslim faith have provided us in their keeping of Ramadan with an example of discipleship we should ponder. If only a handful of Christians took Lent as seriously as they take Ramadan there would be a spiritual revival in our land!
The Lent challenge is there from Wednesday. Forty days to get into training.
Coming back to those spokes that bring power and direction to the wheels of a bike what are the spiritual spokes or disciplines you and I can attend to?
I'll give you three. Three spokes would be enough if they were broad spokes and I'm talking broad headings at this stage - prayer, study and action.
Spoke 1 - Prayer. I've just come back from Lanzarote where I was reminded that prayer is like sunbathing. You need to book your lounger, strip off and lounge.
Several people have told me how much they appreciate the silences in the Eucharist. Try a silence at home. You looking at God and God looking at you. Try stopping everything for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes a day from Wednesday. Book your space, strip off your preoccupations and lounge in God's presence.
I can't promise you it'll be like Lanzarote but it will make a difference to you and through you to the world.
Sunbathing can be a corporate activity. In Lent there's a 25 min extra Eucharist on Tuesday morning at 8am and Stations of the Cross on Saturdays at 6pm.
Spoke 2 - Study. One of the things that is really getting to many of us as Christians is the way Christian faith gets ridiculed and sidelined in the United Kingdom. We lose our confidence. Lent is an opportunity to build up that confidence by refreshing our engagement with the Bible and the faith of the Church: the creed, sacraments and commandments.
Every Tuesday at 8pm we'll be studying together through Lent using the Square Mile DVD course and you're welcome to come along.
Maybe a weekly study course on a Tuesday night is difficult for you. Pick up your Bible. Read a Gospel - Mark only takes 90 minutes for an average reader. Pick up a paper back copy of Mark from the back of Church for £1 to me.
Study the Catechism. There’s a 100 minute catechism on two CDs also on sale at the back. The Firmly I Believe CD set – 40 3min talks on the creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer with mood music backing. Can be played at home or in the car or put on your Ipod. That is my last but one series on London’s Premier Christian Radio. The CD sets at the back of Church have a special discount for St Giles - only £5 – again to me.
The last spoke - Action. We need to pray and to study but most of the difference we make to the world comes through unselfish Christian action. I hesitate to illustrate this but charity begins at home. Lent is a time to identify and address what and whom we're neglecting.
Lent 2010 brings with it a special challenge to corporate action here at St Giles through the stewardship renewal. Most of you have packs (show) with details of Christian action at St Giles which ranges from reading in Church to giving people lifts to Sainsbury's. Part of your Lenten rule could be preparing the best response you can to the stewardship challenge and the invitations provided there to join existing ministries at St Giles.
Prayer, study, action - alone or with the Church - these are disciplines we should ponder and refresh this Lent. These are spokes given to help God's power and direction flow more through us into a needy world.
God grant us all a happy and holy Lent! Jesus grant that fruits of his passion may grow in us! Come, Holy Spirit, and give us all fresh power and direction so the kingdom of this world may become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ!
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