Lent: a journey through the wilderness
This Lent I have finally got round to reading Bishop Andrew’s book The Way of the Desert. It’s a series of daily meditations on the Israelites’ journey through the desert, from straight after they crossed the Red Sea to when they were ready to cross the Jordan 40 years later. It’s a great reminder of everything we learned when we looked at these stories last year (all the talks remain available via our YouTube channel). It is also highly relevant to us at St Mary of Bethany as we begin to emerge from what has often felt like a wilderness period.
Bishop Andrew juxtaposes the Exodus account with Jesus’ ministry, which began with 40 days in the desert being tempted by the devil. The desert is a normal place for Christians to find ourselves in. It is a place where we have to survive without life’s luxuries. There are no distractions; life is basic. We are faced with the reality about ourselves; in the desert it is impossible to argue that the things you think, say and do which keep you far away from God are somehow the result of external factors. Your sin is internal and it is your own.
Lent is an annual journey through the spiritual desert. It is an opportunity to strip life down and focus on what is really important – this is why it is common to give something up for Lent. Six and a half weeks is a good length of time to kick a habit or start a new habit. Lent does not need to be a season of giving things up; you can start something new. The key is discipline – either the discipline of preventing yourself doing something or of sticking with something new. If your New Year resolutions are stalling, Lent can give them a boost.
If you travel through a real desert, you emerge changed. You are thinner, grubbier, more resilient. You have a sense of what matters most in life. You have done without, so you know that you can manage with less than you might have thought. At its best, Lent does the same thing spiritually. Your walk with God can become more focused, more real, more mature. The roots of your faith get deeper and stronger. You realise you can manage with something quite different from what you may have thought was ideal.
In common with many churches, our post-Covid years have been challenging. We have seen a number of our regulars move away and some did not return when the church reopened. Some of our most senior members are no longer able to make it to church, and some have died. Yet throughout our desert experience, we have been able to see green shoots too: we have seen church members stepping up to take more responsibility for various areas of ministry. Our finances have remained healthy thanks to our generous members, including several legacies from faithful parishioners who have died. We have seen new people joining us from groups less represented in our church family. All of our weekday groups have grown significantly, from our parent and toddler group Bethany Babes to our Friday Night Club for junior age children, our group for senior adults CAMEO and our ministry to people learning English as a second language, Talk Easy. We have the largest Alpha course in recent years.
As we emerge from the desert, we are running fewer ministries than we were before Covid and we employ fewer staff. Yet we have a clearer and more focused sense of our mission, and we know exactly the purpose of everything we do. Our desert time has given us capacity: fantastic spaces in our communal life where it is easy for people to join in. We trust that the Holy Spirit is stirring us into a period of growth, where the green shoots we are seeing become fruitful plants. Lent also reminds us of our history: what God has done before, he will do again. As he has pruned us, even when this has been painful, so he will bring new growth out of this time.