Live Lent: God's Story Our Story. Stephen Hance
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lay down on Easter Sunday. Rather, it’s an invitation, to find ourselves in the greatest story ever told, and then to invite others into that story with us.
ACTION
This week, take time to reflect on how your own story of’ faith began. How did God become real to you? You might like to get a journal or notebook and write this down.
Ash Wednesday
Beautiful Feet
READING Romans 10.13-16
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Not many of us think about our feet as our loveliest feature. Leaders of local churches that include footwashing in their Maundy Thursday services know how difficult it can be to find volunteers. Those who do agree to have their feet washed have probably already given their feet a pretty good wash before they came out!
Yet Paul, quoting Isaiah, says that feet can be beautiful because of the news they bring. If you have ever waited for someone to come and tell you that the baby has been born safely, or the test result has come back clear, or that you got the job you longed for, you probably have a sense of what he means.
Today we begin a journey of discovery, a journey which takes us deep into good news for ourselves and those around us. Our prayer is that by the end of the journey we too might have “beautiful feet”!
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for the people who have brought good news to me, especially those who helped me to understand the good news of your love. Please bless them today. Amen.
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
God’s Story
READING John 20.1-18
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (verse 18)
Everybody loves a story.
We remember the stories we were told as children by those who cared for us with great affection.
We watch films to be gripped by a story. And we find ourselves turning the light off to go to sleep later than we meant to because we were so engrossed in our bedtime reading. “Just one more chapter!”
The Gospel is not primarily a set of doctrinal propositions or metaphysical beliefs, but a story. It’s the story of God and God’s engagement with the world. It reaches its climax in the life of Jesus. And the story of Jesus hangs on this extraordinary plot twist, that the man who had died was alive again.
Mary Magdalene was the first to experience this. And her immediate response? To share the story with others. “I have seen the Lord!”
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I may not have ‘seen’ you, but I have experienced something of you in prayer, worship, the Bible, the Eucharist, other people. Thank you for those moments. Amen.
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Living God’s Story
READING Matthew 4.18-20 (NLT)
One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.
Stories tell us who we are. They tell us where we belong. And they help us to decide who we want to be.
When Jesus calls people, he doesn’t call them to an interpretation of the religious law, but into a story. The story into which Jesus invites us is the story of God’s loving engagement with the world. It’s the story which begins with God’s creation, continues through human wanderings towards and away from God, and reaches its dramatic peak in the coming of Jesus, the Word made flesh. The key word in Jesus’ invitation is “follow.” Walk in my footsteps, Jesus says, and make my story your story.
The invitation to Christian faith is always an invitation into the story of God, to make God’s story our own, and to live out of that story. And here, right at the beginning, Jesus makes clear that accepting this invitation will entail inviting others in as well. “I will show you how to fish for people.”
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for the story of God into which you invite each of us. Help us to understand that story more fully this Lent, and to live it out each day. Amen.
Weekend after Ash Wednesday
Come and See
READING John 1.45-47
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”
Yesterday we saw how accepting Jesus’ invitation into his story always entails inviting others into that story as well. Today we see this in action. Frequently in the Gospels we see ordinary people drawn to Jesus.
Tax collectors and beggars by the roadside find themselves irresistibly pulled towards him. They find themselves welcomed and loved when others had rejected them.
Hannah Steele, in Living His Story says: “This kind of invitation can happen anywhere on a bus or a plane, by the water fountain at work, outside the school gates, by the bedside of a sick friend or to the child on your knee during a bedtime story. And it can happen in so many different ways; through acts of love, through the creative arts, through sharing our experience with others, through pointing to the hidden echoes of the story of Jesus in our world today, through prayer and through healing.” All of these can be means to extend that invitation to others: come and see!
PRAYER
Gracious God, your Son Jesus drew all kinds of people to himself, and so to you. Help me to reflect your love so that others may see something of you in me. Amen.
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