What we remember matters.

Memory is very powerful in its capacity to bring into the present not only the facts of the events of the past, but also the feelings and the sense of the experience. 

Human memory is multi-dimensional.  We connect with specific events, dates, times, and locations and, also with the experience of the moment itself.

The Lenten season in the Church Year invites us into our memories and experience. We remember the basic narrative of the journey of Jesus to the cross. We can link together the details of the events of Jesus’ journey and identify those who were with him along the way.

The knowing of the details and the willingness to enter the story personally are quite different. Lent is a time to find meaning in and through placing oneself in this journey. With whom do we associate in the stories?  Where does our attention linger as we read and remember? What feelings are generated as we remember?   Reflecting in such ways, move us from the retelling of facts into the renewing of personal experience and memory. 

This is something that we all as Christian people are invited into. 

The Lenten and Easter narratives are those that bind us together in as the people of Jesus. It is the distinctive and unifying narrative of the Church. We are connected to each other and even though Easter is celebrated on different dates and in differing ways we are united in our focus on the journey Jesus takes and through this comes our common identity as Christian.    

Could your Church go 'flower free' for Lent?

Many years ago, I was a new minister in a local church in the Adelaide Hills. Celebrating Lent had not been part of my past ministry settings. In the enthusiasm of the commencement of a new ministry, the people in the church asked me how we would celebrate Lent. My only personal history up to that point was annual interchurch Lenten Bible studies.

I had to do some research. At a bookstore I found a guide to Lent and some suggestions on how to celebrate. One was to remove flowers and decorations from the church during the period of Lent.

My announcement that this was what we were going to do was met with silence and astonishment. At that time, I was not aware that there were very keen gardeners in the church who loved to share their flowers each Sunday in church!

Being new to the church, and not really well known, the gracious people agreed. For Lent, the church was bare – on Palm Sunday some greenery, but no flowers before Easter Sunday.

Giving up decorations and, in this case flowers for Lent, changed the focal point. Each Sunday we were reminded that this is a serious time in the Christian year. Letting go of flowers also served to build a level of anticipation in regard to Easter and how we would celebrate.

The season of Lent becomes a time to change our focus.

It is easy to give up some parts of our daily rhythm – those things that we won’t miss and ask nothing of us. I could give up Vegemite very easily (I am a rare Aussie who does not eat it, ever). But the choice is to let go of something that matters to us.

What happens is that the season of Lent becomes a time to change our focus. Giving up something we value or enjoy is a way of saying that our focus will not be on everything that seems important to us. Instead, our focus will be on the journey that Jesus takes.

Luke describes, with few words, a change in the focus of Jesus. Luke writes, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). The two passages that follow focus first on the reaction of a Samaritan village to the direction Jesus was heading in. The second focus is on what it means to follow Jesus and maintain our attention on Jesus no matter what we are involved in.

The phrase “set his face” is powerful. It captures a determination and a clear, set direction. The Samaritan villagers do not want to receive him because of this. Jesus, in the teaching that follows, makes it clear that the setting of one’s direction is key to following him.

This part of Luke 9:57-62 is clearly focussed on what it means to have a single, clear commitment to follow Jesus. What strikes me about these words is that they are illustrations of what it means to follow Jesus, and the setting of his face towards Jerusalem. In Jesus, we see the one who is not distracted and follows the intention of God in going to Jerusalem.

Rev. John Gilmore

NCCA President

READ:

Lenten items in Eternity News:

• COULD YOUR CHURCH GO 'FLOWER FREE' FOR LENT? by John Gilmore, published 23 March 2022 
• FIVE WAYS TO PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR EASTER  By Meredith Wright, published 2 March 2022