St David: austerity, wonder and praise

From Helen

Lent is here. In Advent the Church colour was purple and in lent it is the same. The reason is so that we can get ourselves ready to remember the death of Jesus and then to celebrate His resurrection. Lent is a sombre time as we remember Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

I really enjoy Easter and I am never sure whether it is because I have always been used to waiting or maybe even suffering because of what I have given up or taken up for Lent, or whether it is because Easter is the greatest day of celebration in the Church calendar. Easter is amazing because we celebrate the fact that God is greater than death, by His death on the cross we were made right with God. Last week I spoke about a posh word  which was transfiguration and this week there is another one which is justification. This means that we have been put right with God. By His death and His Resurrection we know that we can turn to God, confess our sins, be forgiven and so we are made right with God. 

This is incredible and it’s no wonder that we have a time to get ready for the celebration. I mentioned a while ago that we have three family weddings this year. There is discussion about hen dos, stag dos, dresses, receptions, Churches, foods and even honeymoons. It is an exciting time and it is all because something amazing is about to happen. This is that there will be great celebrations. We are all getting ready for the big days.

The preparation is exciting. Lent doesn’t involve all that getting ready for a wedding would, but it does involve things changing so that we can be ready to have an amazing celebration at Easter. In lent we are not singing the Gloria, we don’t have the alleleuia, the flowers have gone. It is because we are meant to be focussing on God and being austere

The reason why people give things up for lent is a discipline so that we will focus more on God, that is we may think why aren’t I eating chocolate (which is NOT what I am giving up for Lent) but rather so that they remember and turn to prayer.

We are getting ready. In the same way that my nieces have bought their wedding dresses and wouldn’t turn up for their weddings unprepared so we do not want to get to Easter unprepared. Unprepared to turn to God and say thank you.

Today of course is also a day of pride in our country. Today, St.David’s day is the day when we celebrate our patron saint. St.David was nicknamed the water boy. No, he wasn’t like Neil Jenkins bringing water on for the rugby team during a match. St.David only drank water. He didn’t see the point in the fuss. He wanted to concentrate on God.

St.David has lots of stories around him. One of my favourite is the one when there was a big argument going on in the Churches. The argument was threatening to divide the Church. He started to speak, and as he did the ground got higher underneath him so that he could be seen and heard by everyone. The arguments stopped and people were so impressed that they made him Bishop there and then. People decided that he was he one to lead the Church.

St.David thought about God and made sure that nothing got in the way of him and his relationship with God.

Lent is about giving things up, it is about concentrating on God and being ready to celebrate. We humble ourselves remembering that God created us and it is to Him that we should always turn.

In our Psalm today (32) we were reminded of the need for us to confess our sins to God. We were also reminded of the fact that God is our hiding place. It is to Him that we are to turn for safety in every situation.

In the reading from Genesis (2;15-17;3;1-7) we heard of Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was in the garden of eden. As they ate they were going their own way and in doing this they made a huge gap between them and God.

Whenever we turn away from God, whenever we try to do our own thing not putting God first then we are making a gap between us and God. This is why we need to confess our sins, this is why we need to be justified, that is put right with God so that we can start again. In our reading from Romans (5:12-19) we heard of the time when Adam turned away from God. We heard about how this had created a gap between him and God. Then we were told about the second Adam. Jesus. This was a way of Paul who wrote the letter to the Romans explaining what had happened in the crucifixion of Jesus. By His cross and resurrection Jesus had made it so that we could be able to be in a relationship with Him. This is why Paul says that through one man, Adam there came death but then through another man, God Himself, Jesus, there came life.

In the gospel reading (Matthew 4:1-11) this morning we heard about Jesus being tempted by the devil. This is the ultimate spiritual test. Jesus managed to not give in to temptation and this is what we are seeking to do in lent. As we seek in lent to pray more and think more about God so we remember what Jesus gave up for us, He was tempted and we  are all tempted as well. But Jesus stayed faithful to His mission which was to bring heaven to earth by bringing us salvation so we could know Him. 

Lent – well, regardless of what you have given up or taken up  is a time when we can turn to God. As we  remember  that Jesus was tempted and yet did not sin. This means that we can look to Him for our strength through lent and all times. May our prayer this lent and always be that we will seek to draw ever closer to God. And may our prayer be as  I said, last week, and it works very well for today on this St.Davids day, (as it is from a welsh hymn) that we will be changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, till we cast our crowns before Him, lost in wonder, love and praise. AMEN