Isaiah 58.1-12; 2 Corinthians 5.20-6.10; John 8.1-11

In the past few years, I’ve often not managed to have a pancake on Shrove Tuesday. This year certainly made up for those years of paucity. With the Barkway and Barley pancake dos, I had more than enough.

So, it is perhaps appropriate that today is a day of fasting, after the surfeit of riches yesterday. And, of course, that is where the idea of the pancakes came from. It was the way of using up all the rich food stuffs before the season of Lent came with its requirement for abstinence.

The Church has varied in its approach to Lent over the years. Giving something up was certainly what I remember as the important thing about the Lents of my childhood.
Then more recently it became fashionable to take something on for Lent, perhaps a Lent book or attending mid-week as well as Sunday worship, and so on.

And, I think, both ideas can be important, if we know why we are doing them. The introduction to this service reminded us that Lent is a time of self-examination and repentance; of prayer, fasting and self-denial; and of reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

Jesus’s time in the wilderness while he was being tempted was a period in which he was preparing for his future ministry. It was a time for him of fasting and praying. I’ve no doubt that it was also a period of self-examination; 40 days on one’s own is bound to lead to some thought about one’s life. And certainly, if his response to Satan’s trickery is anything to go by, he spent time meditating on the Scriptures.

So we have a good example to follow.

The word Lent comes from the word for Springtime. Spring is a time of new potential, a time of growth and new life coming out of the dark ground. I hope for us that Lent this year can be a time in which we too grow and develop in our journey towards Easter.

Self-examination and repentance is about becoming aware of our shortcomings and seeking forgiveness. Jesus’s response to the woman taken in adultery was “go and sin no more”. But he did not condemn her. Instead he pointed out to those who sought judgement against her that they were as guilty as she was.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Our self-examination during Lent brings us face-to-face with our shortcomings, but when we do that we are able to open ourselves to God’s forgiveness, which can free us from the sins that drag us down, and enable us to move on.

Prayer, fasting and self-denial emulate the example of Jesus in the wilderness, but also free us from the things around us. It’s so easy to see as essentials things we don’t really need. Fasting can be about food, but Isaiah is clear that it can also be about much more than that. “Is this not the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the things of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free?”

If we take these words seriously, then our fasting can be a whole lot more than giving up chocolate or alcohol. We need perhaps to ask how our behaviour leads to the oppression of others or of creation.

And reading and meditating on God’s Word, something that is sadly neglected by so many Christians. Perhaps Lent is a good time to remind us that God’s Word too is a source of life, a well from which we can drink deeply. But that will only happen if we open our Bibles and begin reflecting and meditating on what we read within.

May God’s Holy Spirit help us to make this Lent God’s little springtime, a time of growth and bringing light out of the darkness. Amen.