Monthly Message (March 2009) - Making a Difference

Dear Friends,

March will be the month when we journey through Lent this year. I, like many others I guess, have often given up eating sweet things for Lent, as a sign of setting aside the comfort and ease of a life of plenty and following Jesus into the wilderness. But, I realise every year, such gestures are easy to make .... and while I might reach Easter feeling a little slimmer, that is hardly the point!

Lent begins with the story of Jesus, at the very beginning of his public life, taking time out in the desert. Alone in the quiet place of vast empty landscapes he wrestles with all sorts of questions and doubts about the shape and purpose of his life. I imagine Jesus as a passionate and restless young man, deeply aware that his sense of the holy and God’s purpose for his life did not fit with the world around him. Particularly out of step with the shape and priorities of the religious and political people he was sure that God had new things to say and do there and then for the shape and direction of life. But, how could he make a difference?

How can we make a difference? .... is a good question for the weeks of Lent.
It is, at the moment, a very fast moving world. Many things are on the cusp of change as the ways in which the world, its markets and aspirations, stumble into the crisis of global recession. Many people will feel that the ground beneath them is even more uncertain than ever. Along with the day to day change that recession brings .... there will be those soul searching questions that are about the re-assessing of our values, finding new ways to grow hope and remembering that being truly human is something that we do together.

At the Lent Suppers we’re holding at Trinity-Henleaze URC we will follow the story of Jesus’ Last Week, from his arrival in Jerusalem when the crowds celebrated him to his arrest, trial and crucifixion when his life ended. A week is along time ... and we’ll see that this week was as turbulent as it could possibly be ... and at each step we’ll find Jesus determined to make a difference. I do hope that you will make one, some or all of these evenings part of your Lent journey of prayer and reflection. (Details later in this Newsletter).

Times of change can be times of opportunity. And, how can we make a difference? ...is a question that starts for Christians with the search for the difference that God is already hoping and working for in the world. The Lenten weeks of growing into deeper faith call us to look for what God is doing in the world... and to join in with renewed energy.

Yours,

Tracey.

P.S. Another idea ....
Tearfund are inviting people to care for the world by taking part in a ‘Carbon Fast’ during Lent. They offer daily suggestions for ways to reduce your carbon footprint at : www.tearfund.org/carbonfast.