Friday, March 02, 2007
It's not a time to give up chocolate, again.
Dear Friends,
I don’t know if you’ve been watching the series ‘Blair: The Inside Story’, looking back over the ten years of Tony Blair’s premiership. What a contrast between today and that May morning back in 1997 as he greeted thousands of (mostly young) supporters on the South Bank to the strains of ‘Things can only get better’.
I’m sure all of us can relate to that contrast. How many of us have not known in our own lives the sense of disappointment after the brightest of starts and best of intentions?
And it’s not just us. The people whom God chose and set apart to show the world what it means to be human and what a just and equitable society looks like, knew it too. After 400 years of slavery in Egypt the Israelites were finally set free to live out their calling as the people of God. The first thing God did was to lead them into the desert ‘to test them in order to know what was in their heart’. Spectacularly, and repeatedly, they failed the test. Bright hopes for a new dawn were shown to be empty hopes of a false dawn.
1400 years later, God did exactly the same thing to Jesus. On the eve of his public work, God led him into the desert to test him. And, unlike Israel, unlike our politicians, unlike us, Jesus passed the test.
As you read this, Lent is just beginning. Lent is not a time to give up chocolate, again. It’s not a time to resolve to be a better person, again. Lent is not a time for promises made to ourselves or pledges made to God. We all know where that leads. Lent is a time to take a serious look at the claims of the one person who offers us the prospect of a day when we can be human as we long to be and when a truly just and equitable society will at last be a reality.
With best wishes for Lent,
Tim Ling