This week's blog link is to that of a Baptist minister called Jo who I first got to know 'on line' and subsequently met a few times as she went through her NAM period.  She has blogged intermittently for many years, and this year it looks as if she is challenging herself to some Lent blogging.  I don't want to pressurise you Jo, but I do want to share your post on laughter.

We can make Lent such a solemn affair (with good reason) but there should still be space for laughter (remember what Jesus said about behaviour during fasts).

Here's the link to Jo's blog post

I saw a post on social media that made me smile.  In resposne to the pious Christian suffering caffiene withdrawal God says "did I ask you give up coffee for Lent?"  Today's PAYG focuses on Isaiah 58: 5 - 9a and the kind of 'fast' God desires... release from oppression, not self-flagellation.  Giving up can be a good disicpline but it can also be a pious trap.  Laughter is good for the soul - I'm sure it says that somewhere in Proverbs if only I searched hard enough!!

Looking Through the Cross, by Graham Tomlin, the Archbishop(s) of Canterbury's Lent book (commissioned by Rowan Williams, endorsed by Justin Welby) begins by inviting the reader to reflect on the difference between seeing (~ unconscious observation) and looking (~ deliberate, conscious observation) (paranthesised definitions my precis) before beginning to explore ways of looking, specifically looking 'at' and looking 'through'.  He then introduces the concept of an icon as the believer looks 'through', a bit like a window, before applying this idea to the Cross (or perhaps more accurately, the 'cross event').

Not, for me, anything vaguely new there.  Likewise the description of what Roman crucifixion actually entailed or the observation that crosses have been reduced to articles of jewellry not instruments of torture (with Nicky Gumbell cited if not by name!) is all stuff that to me is extrememly familiar.

This makes me wonder if he is assuming a very different starting point for his readers than mine.  Whilst I can appreciate that some more conservative, evangelical Christians might be slightly wrong-footed by the idea of 'icons', confusing them with idols (a distinction he is at pains to note) and even that some (maybe many) readers will have given little thought to 'types' of seeing, the need to eplxain what crucifixion really was is worrying... what are churches and Alpha courses actually teaching people?  Or am I being unfair, is he reflecting (another kind of seeing/looking) that there may/will be readers for whom none of this is familiar?

I am looking forward to getting into the book proper, at exploring how he envisages (seeing again) the cross as a lense, or even a pair of spectacles, through which to view aspects of human experience, I think it is a good and promising premise.  I guess that the first 30 odd pages have just left me distinctly underwhlemed.

I did a web search using 'ash wednesday poem' and basically up popped T S Elliott's long and complicated work.  So I tried again with 'lent poetry' and that was more successful.  Here is one that seemed quite fitting for the start of Lent, that challenges the white-washed tombs nature of strict outward obervance and inner corruption...

Lent

by

Robert Herrick

Is this a Fast, to keep
the larder leane?
and deane
from fat of Veales and Sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
of Flesh, yet still
to fill
the platter high with fish?

Is it to fast an houre
or rag’d go,
or show
a down cast look, and sour?

No: ‘tis a fast, to dole
thy sheaf of wheat
and meat
unto the hungry soule.

It is to fast from strife,
from old debate
and hate:
to circumcise thy life.

To shew a heart grief-rent;
to starve thy sin,
not Bin
and that’s to keep thy Lent.

What does the LORD require of thee, this only this: to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

When you fast.... wash your face, comb your hair.... and smile (CG paraphrase of JC!)

It feels like I blinked and missed February (two weeks away but the way the dates landed left me with little or nothing of the month) and now it is Shrove Tuesday and no Lenten blogging plan even considered.  Should I do the lectionary readings or Christian Aid's blessing count, each of which has been my focus in past years?  Or should I parallel the people who so piously purport to abstain from social media for Lent and leave this space silent?  Or something else?  The last of these I think!

As so often in the past, I have bought the Archbishop of Canterbury's 'Lent Book', and to ensure I do actually read it I'll undertake to blog a response to each chapter.  The book is 'Looking Through the Cross' by Graham Tomlin, and there are nine chapters so that doesn't neatly divide between six weeks, but I'll make sure that I get through it in the time allocated and share some thoughts.

The poem a day for Advent seemed to be appreciated by those who read them - I have no neat source to plagiarise, but I'll undertake to post a poem a week for this Lent.  Probably it makes sense to do this on the same day of the week.  So I'll choose Wednesdays for no better reaoson than none.

I have to confess to having got out of the habit of reading most of the blogs I used to follow (some have stopped being wirtten, some I just forgot to read anymore!), so I will make a more conscious effort to read them and to share one post of interest each week.

Beyond that, people seem to like odd bits of prayer or liturgy that I share, and it's always nice to see some photos that carry a sense of 'hope' so I'll aim for some of those too...

So, I think what I'm saying is that each week there will be:

• A response to one or two chapters of the archbish's book choice
• A poem that somehow relates to the season (Wednesdays)
• A signpost to a blog of interest
• A photo that suggests 'hope'
• A prayer, meditation or bit of liturgy by me, appropriate to the season

That means five posts a week (sustainable) and five different approaches, so hopefully something will appeal to most readers... and hopefully I won't run out of steam in week five!

I happened to be in Auckland when two major public festivals were taking place - the celebration of the Chinese New Year and Auckland Pride.  The two seemed to coexist quite happily, with their major events on different days.

Whatever anyone may think about human sexuality and the rights or wrongs of its expression among people who profess Christian faith, it was interesting and challenging (in a good way) to see the sign outside the church opposite my hotel and the photo of some members of one of the churches I visited.

I leave it to you to ponder them and see where your ponderings take you...

First picture taken outside St Matthew in the City, Auckland (just along from Auckland City Mission - roots of course in GCM)

Second picture courtesy of Ponsonby Baptist Church, Auckland.