REFLECTIONS
These pieces are written each month by members of our clergy team.
March Leader
‘Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return, repent, turn to Christ and believe the Gospel.’These are the words that the priest says on Ash Wednesday, as the sign of the cross, in ash, is made of the forehead of each person and no matter how many times I experience it, it never fails to bring me up with a start. Usually on a day-to-day basis we just get on with the business of living, our to do list, our commitments and responsibilities. We make our plans for the future and put stuff in our diaries, yet none of us are immortal and in the title of Evelyn Waugh’s book we are ultimately a handful of dust.
#I appreciate that this is not the most cheery of leaders that you have ever read, and you may be wondering why I am reminding you of a fact that we all know but would rather not think about. As Woody Allen once said, ‘I am not frightened of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’
Rather than seeing Lent as a dreary time of penance, fasting and self-sacrifice, (it is those things as well). Maybe one way to approach Lent is to see it as an opportunity given to us by the Church to stop, pause and think about our lives and what we need to do in the limited time that we have on this earth. Lent can pose uncomfortable questions. Is there something that we need to engage with, someone who I need to reach out to, someone I need to forgive, or a situation that I need to put right? These and many other questions can so easily be lost in the sheer routine and mundaneness of life and before we know where we are we have indeed come to the end of our life with some things left undone. As we journey through Lent these questions and opportunities are set before us, Lent says to us, where are you? Are there things in your life that you have become overly fond of and need to give up so you can reestablish self-control. Do I need to reconnect with Christ, through prayer and attending Holy Communion, is there a worthy cause that I could give some support to. All of these are the hallmarks of a good Lent and a sign that it is working its transforming power on us. From Lent we move towards Good Friday and Christ’s act of love, self-sacrifice and forgiveness. Then sealed by his resurrection when the sobering reminder of our mortality at the beginning of Lent is matched by The Lord's promise of eternal life after the experience of our death.
Matthew
The Collect for Ash Wednesday: ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Reflection:
We are now in the Season of Epiphany. The word 'epiphany' means an intense showing, or manifestation and it refers to the revealing of Christ to the Wise Men as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel.
The Season of Epiphany then continues until 2nd February when the Church celebrates Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The following Sundays are known as the Sundays before Lent with the season of Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday, which this year comes rather early on Wednesday 18th February.
The main theme of Epiphany is the ongoing revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God. It begins with the manifestation of Christ to the Wise Men, then the Baptism of Christ, then the recognition of Christ as the Messiah by the first disciples, then the beginning of Christ's public ministry as recorded in Matthew 4: 12 following, and finally the transformation of water into wine at the wedding of Cana, the first of Jesus’s signs, as recorded in John chapter 2.
In this bulletin I would like to share some reflections on the above passage which records Christ’s baptism. The first thing to say is that this event is clearly something of an embarrassment. John the Baptist had come out of the wilderness to call people to repentance and to convict them of their sins in no uncertain terms. In response to his preaching people came out in vast numbers to the river Jordan to be baptised and cleansed from their sins. How embarrassing it must have been for John when Jesus turned up in the queue!
Embarrassing and confusing because Jesus was the one who was sent to save the people from their sins, and as he was without sin, he therefore had no need for John’s baptism of repentance. So what was Jesus doing? In coming for baptism Jesus was doing two things. Firstly, Jesus was standing in solidarity with all of us in our lostness and sin. He is with us in all our struggles and reaches out to us in our failure and fallenness. God is not pointing a condemning finger at us from a distance and leaving us to flounder on our own, but in Christ the love of God comes to us, helps us and ultimately saves us from sin and all that goes with it. Secondly, Jesus is baptised to affirm his status as God’s Son. Notice in the above passage that immediately after his baptism God declares:
‘This is my Son, the beloved One, in whom I am well pleased’
This voice from heaven is accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus as he emerges from the river Jordan. Here is a profound manifestation (epiphany), not only of Jesus as God’s Son, but of the blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here is God sending his Son to save us from sin, and the language of love between the Father and the Son, namely the Holy Spirit hovering over the whole scene as a dove.
All physical life starts through water. The breaking of the waters of the womb is a sign that the baby is now ready to be born. The baby emerges into life through water, at one stage we all emerged from the darkness of the womb into the light of the world, from the isolation of being, to the warmth of our mother’s love and body. Similarly through baptism we are once again born through water, but this time it is a spiritual birth, we emerge from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ, from isolation into the warm love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; from aloneness into the family of the Church. In this sense the Season of Epiphany marks not only certain historical events in the life of Jesus, but the ongoing scope for the Epiphany of Christ in our everyday lives. When we are lost in sin and struggling, Jesus is with us, when we are isolated he is with us, when we are feeling down and unhappy with ourselves, Christ reminds us that we are loved and blessed as a child of God. Although our lives are punctuated with memorable occasions, family gatherings, holidays and special experiences, generally life is routine, somewhat humdrum and ordinary. In the normality of our short lives we should be awake and alive to the possibility of 'epiphany' moments - times when the love of God is made clear and known to us. These epiphanies will probably come to us when we least expect them and from surprising quarters. In this sense words from the American Poet Mary Oliver in her poem Sometimes come to mind:
‘Instructions for living a life; Pay attention, be astonished. Tell about it’
MatthewABOUT ST. GILES CHURCH
Monthly Bulletins
It has now been 5 years since we started sending out our monthly Bulletin as a result of the Covid pandemic and I know from various feedback that the Bulletin is very much appreciated. Going forward I remain very committed to making sure that all of us who love St. Giles are kept informed not only of what is going on at our Church but encouraged in the understanding and practice of the Christian faith.In the future we will continue to write to you but every other month making sure that our bulletins coincide with the important occasions in the Church's year. Our next Bulletin will be sent out in July.
Matthew Hughes, May 2025