Sermon preached this morning, following the awful news earlier in the week that our minister's wife had died quite suddenly. It was incredibly difficult to know what I could say, what I could offer to a community in grief.
In any normal week I struggle to think what I’m going to put into my sermon, it’s never an easy process but the events of this week have meant that each day I’ve sat and wondered how on earth I was going to stand before you this morning and what I would say.
This week has been overwhelming- sad, shocking and heart-breaking. Some of you may only just have heard the news of Natalie’s death and I think that for each of us it’s still incredibly raw and difficult to comprehend.
You might be wondering how we can make sense of it, but the years I’ve spent working in cancer care have very much taught me that there isn’t any rationalisation we can give, despite our faith and our belief that God is present in all things there simply isn’t any sense or reason to be found right now. We have no easy answers as to why things like this happen.
It’s in our human nature to want to make sense of things, to understand why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there suffering? Why is the world the way it is? Today we’ve heard part of the creation story which goes some way to try and explain why there’s sin and suffering in the world.
Whether you believe in the creation story literally or whether you interpret it as allegory I would guess that when you’re experiencing grief or hurt it gives you little comfort in the midst of what you’re experiencing. This isn’t a time to be rational. We’re asking ourselves: where is God in this?
I believe everything I need to know about God can be found in the life and teaching of Jesus, so that’s who I go to to try and find a way of moving through this, and I find a man who also experienced loss, pain and grief. In Jesus we see that God knows our grief, has experienced it and is right here with us in our loss right now.
We
began our journey into Lent this week, a time many of us may think of as being
a solemn time, a time for acknowledging pain and brokenness, both in the world
and in our lives. Arch-bishop Justin’s Ash Wednesday reflection encouraged us
to think of Lent as a time of joy as we renew ourselves and put aside the
things which may be causing separation between ourselves and God.
This
might be hard for us to get or head around if we’re starting from a place of
such sadness, but I think there’s something we can take from thinking about the
days ahead as a time for renewal.
I
read somewhere else this week that Lent is a season dedicated to falling apart,
and maybe we have to fall apart somewhat before we can be put back together and
renewed in the light of God’s love.
In
our culture of denial Lent is set aside as a time to acknowledge the things we’d
prefer not to confront. We deconstruct our life, faith and belief so that we
may be reconstructed more whole again; deconstructed into wholeness.
We’ve
begun to follow Jesus into the wilderness, we’re present with him in his
temptation as he is present in ours. Our biggest temptation may be to avoid
acknowledging pain and not to let ourselves fall apart a little but to push it
away and hide from it; in doing so we hide part of ourselves from God. We put
up the obstacles we should be trying to tear down during Lent.
The
good news is that Jesus comes to find those who’ve hidden
themselves from God;
For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save
the lost
In Lent we’re invited to let God find us where
we are, wherever our hiding place is. I think God might find us right now in a
place which is a little bit lost, and that’s ok- let God find us acknowledging
our sorrow, our lack of answers and our lack of understanding. When we ask “why
did this happen” it’s ok to say “I don’t know”.
We
also should remember that whilst Lent is often thought of in terms of our
individual and personal journeys we’re each also walking together as a
community. We’re a community united in grief, drawing together in love, support
and prayer for Huw and Billy and their wider family. And we’re united in our
shared love of God, a love that must always radiate outwards, beyond these
walls and beyond this community.
Our
purpose in deepening our relationship with the divine through Lent is to be
able to live more fully in the world, to be a blessing in the places we find
ourselves and accept with both hands the amazing gift which is our life.
We
may be in the wilderness right now but our journey back is one towards the
cross, and towards the ultimate hope of Easter day.
To
finish I’d just like to share something from Pope Francis, which hopefully
reflects something of our community here:
Do you want to fast this
Lent?
Fast from hurting words and
say kind words
Fast from sadness and be
filled with gratitude
Fast from anger and be
filled with patience
Fast from pessimism and be
filled with hope
Fast from worries and have
trust in God
Fast from complaints and
contemplate simplicity
Fast from pressures and be
prayerful
Fast from bitterness and
fill your hearts with joy
Fast from selfishness and be
compassionate to others
Fast from grudges and be
reconciled
Fast from words and be silent
so you can listen.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment