This year the first of March is Ash Wednesday - so there's no way I can get out of writing about Lent for this month's Messenger! But why should I want to get out of it, anyway? Maybe the whole idea has a tinge of gloom and doom - giving up something you like to strengthen your spiritual muscle or, more practically, in order to give the money you have saved to some good cause. It may be worthy, but it's not really something you look forward to doing, except for thinking longingly about when it's going to be over.
In one way, that feeling is not so far from the mark, if we look at the place of Lent in the Christian calendar. As you'll know, it's that forty-day period before Easter associated with Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness before he began his public work, The Judean wilderness is dry, stony, too hot by day and too cold by night: an endurance test. Lent, then, is a period of testing: of stripping away some of the unnecessary extras surrounding our ordinary existence.
Some of us, of course, don't need to manufacture testing experiences: the desert has already come into our lives, whether we want it or not. Going through hard times, whether it's financial, health-related or simply not knowing which way to turn, can be a sort of involuntary Lent that takes no notice of the church year, and may not be restricted to forty days. In biblical terms, of course, ‘forty days' (like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years) just means ‘a very long time' - and sometimes we will have no idea when our testing may be over. But Lent is also traditionally the period during which people who wanted to join the church prepared themselves, so that they could be baptised on Easter Day. So as well as a period of deprivation, Lent is also a time when Christians join together to learn more about their faith.
This year a group of us at St Andrew's will be using modern material from the Iona Community, alongside readings from the Bible, to help us explore further those connections between life and faith which our two Bible study groups have already started to discuss. I hope you'll be able to join us, or one of the other Lent courses offered by our colleagues at Broomhill Methodist, Hanover Methodist or St Mark's churches. But that study course is just one of the opportunities we'll have this Lent, not to give something up but to take something up. Maybe you've always wanted to learn a musical instrument or a foreign language but never given yourself permission to try - now's your chance! But maybe on the other hand you're worn out rushing around doing things and need to practise quiet prayer or appreciating art instead. Lent can be an opportunity for us to broaden our appreciation of God and God's creation, to see or do things a bit differently, to test the boundaries of our comfort zone.
So as we stand together on the threshold of Lent, I'd like to encourage you, whether you're giving something up or taking something up, to take advantage of the season. Lent is a testing time, as we know from Jesus' example. But we know that as well as being tested in the desert, Jesus also encountered wild animals, and angels helped him. May we all be stretched and enriched by our experiences this Lent, and may we encounter God's messengers as we journey together towards Easter.