The week begins and we see the end of Lent. This week is the centre of our faith story, the middle of everything. Yesterday, we sang hosannas loud and clear. Kim from Nova Scotia has a little daughter who was delighted by the parade of Palm Sunday at their church yesterday. She described like this:
I’m having a tricky time looking into this week’s readings. I’m still stuck at the end of last week – the wise and foolish bridesmaids, the waiting, the kairos moment of arrival. This past week, I’ve been in Germany for the wedding of a dear friend, so last week’s text inevitably resonates with me.
This week, I picked up a book at the library about St Andrew and his cross. It’s a look across history at the stories that accumulate around the figure of Andrew, one of Jesus’ closest disciples and now the patron saint of Presbyterianism.
How are you? We have passed the half-way point in Matthew now. How has the reading been for you? Are you finding what you expected? And any surprises? What are you finding in this rich text?
Jesus’ twelve named friends are students on the road. And aren’t we all?
Isn’t that a wonderful way to look at these lives we’ve been given? Sent-out and called to learn as we go.
Monday morning and baking bread. I just got the loaves out of the pans and the house smells like home. But it was a bit of a wrestle.
I went to the garden centre this morning while the bread was finishing its rise, and came back with a great selection of seeds. So, as I was prepping the pans for the loaves, I was thinking ahead to my glorious summer garden. I buttered the sides of the pans as usual, and then forgot the bottoms.
Lent begins and, with it, an emphasis on spiritual disciplines. The big ones: fasting, meditation, silence. And storytelling.
Because reading stories is a spiritual discipline, too. We don’t label it like that at bedtime, but it is.
This story juxtaposes dramatically with last week’s leper who says to Jesus “If you will, you can make me clean.” Here, the friends say “we will!” and get rather hands-on to prove the point. The emphasis is on our own faith and therefore on our actions rather than on our ability to persuade God to act. Which is probably a good place to be as we approach Lent.