St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Back to basics in Lent

“I invite you ... to the observance of a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.” So runs part of the introduction to the Ash Wednesday service.

But the trouble is, how can anyone truly see his (or her) inner character through God’s eyes? Our views are always coloured by our own bias and self-justification. Our faults may be obvious to others, but we can still be blind to them ourselves. Prayer, fasting and self-examination can end up as us just talking to ourselves and never hearing God.

It has been said that Christian doctrine is like a milking-stool: it is founded on three “legs” which need to keep in balance to bear the weight: scripture, tradition and reason. I see the point, but I would like to suggest that these three are not equal. Scripture is supposed to be the anchor for our traditions and the yardstick for measuring our reason.

For example: scripture says “Christ has been raised from the dead”, but reason says “dead men don’t rise”. The Christian view is not some hybrid between these two: rather, our reason has to submit to the testimony of scripture, so that we say instead “dead men don’t usually rise, but God can step into our world and perform miracles, and in the case of Jesus he did so and raised him from the dead.”

Another example: before the Reformation, the people traditionally received only the bread at communion. But the Reformers in the 16th century noticed that the scripture said “Drink this, all of you”, and the church wasn’t doing it. Their response was not to say we must somehow mix scripture and tradition, but that our tradition needs to be corrected and brought into line with scripture. So the new “Protestants” gave the people the wine as well as the bread.

So, in the invitation on Ash Wednesday, the most important part is: “I invite you ... by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.” God needs to be allowed to make his comments on our lives, and we need the humility to bring ourselves back into line with what God actually says, instead of what we imagine he might say.

The Lent Course is one way of doing this, and there are others. But let’s make sure we do it!

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. March 2003, Page 1.
Home Page. Index of articles. Vicar's Letters: index, New Archbishop, Christmas, Read Mark, Zimbabwe, Basics in Lent, Resurrection. In this issue: (March 2003) Vicar's Letter, Annual Meeting, Lent Course, Why study Islam?	Back to basics in Lent “I invite you ... to the observance of a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.” So runs part of the introduction to the Ash Wednesday service. But the trouble is, how can anyone truly see his (or her) inner character through God’s eyes? Our views are always coloured by our own bias and self-justification. Our faults may be obvious to others, but we can still be blind to them ourselves. Prayer, fasting and self-examination can end up as us just talking to ourselves and never hearing God. It has been said that Christian doctrine is like a milking-stool: it is founded on three “legs” which need to keep in balance to bear the weight: scripture, tradition and reason. I see the point, but I would like to suggest that these three are not equal. Scripture is supposed to be the anchor for our traditions and the yardstick for measuring our reason. For example: scripture says “Christ has been raised from the dead”, but reason says “dead men don’t rise”. The Christian view is not some hybrid between these two: rather, our reason has to submit to the testimony of scripture, so that we say instead “dead men don’t usually rise, but God can step into our world and perform miracles, and in the case of Jesus he did so and raised him from the dead.” Another example: before the Reformation, the people traditionally received only the bread at communion. But the Reformers in the 16th century noticed that the scripture said “Drink this, all of you”, and the church wasn’t doing it. Their response was not to say we must somehow mix scripture and tradition, but that our tradition needs to be corrected and brought into line with scripture. So the new “Protestants” gave the people the wine as well as the bread. So, in the invitation on Ash Wednesday, the most important part is: “I invite you ... by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.” God needs to be allowed to make his comments on our lives, and we need the humility to bring ourselves back into line with what God actually says, instead of what we imagine he might say. The Lent Course is one way of doing this, and there are others. But let’s make sure we do it! John Hartley
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