Words of Light and Hope from Jane McLarty

Words of Light and Hope for 9 th March Jane McLarty        

These days there seems less emphasis on ‘giving something up’ for Lent and more on doing something extra, or differently – following a Lent course perhaps or being more mindful about how we care for our world. But we might be called to do both: to let go of one thing in order to make space for something else, for a while. Forty days is a significant time in the Bible: Moses spent 40 days on the mountain in the presence of ‘the glory of the Lord’ (Ex 24:18); Elijah travelled for 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, where in the end he encountered the God who is in the sound of ‘sheer silence’ (1 Kings 19:12, NRSV); Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, where he was tempted to take not the hard and lonely route of the cross but the way of spectacular miracle and the exercise of worldly power and domination. We may spend 40 days enjoying the presence of God; or we may find Lent a harder experience, a time in the desert. It is always a time where we are invited to alter our perspective, to pull back the focus so that we see what we may miss in the hurry of life: as this poem suggests.

Lent by Jean M. Watt

Lent is a tree without blossom, without leaf,                                                                                                                                                                                Barer than blackthorn in its winter sleep,                                                                                                                                                                                       All unadorned. Unlike Christmas which decrees The setting-up, the dressing-up of trees,                                                                                        Lent is a taking down, a stripping bare,                                                                                                                                                                                          A starkness after all has been withdrawn                                                                                                                                                                                    Of surplus and superfluous                                                                                                                                                                                                             Leaving no hiding-place, only an emptiness                                                                                                                                                                       Between black branches, a most precious space Before the leaf, before the time of flowers;                                                                                            Lest we should see only the leaf, the flower,                                                                                                                                                                            Lest we should miss the stars.