In response to Janet’s very interesting article on how Lent feels and impacts on different people (thank you, I think you’re voicing something that many people are hesitant to admit, and I’ve sometimes felt myself) there are perhaps other ways of looking at Lent for people who find it too negative and somehow destructive for themselves, and which may help shift the balance a little. In many ways the recognition that we are but dust (a reasonably accurate scientific assertion but also a spiritual assertion of what we are without God) can be helpful: but as Janet suggests, it can… Read more »
A former Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco said some years ago that the purpose of Lent was to help us recognize that each one of us goes through the world preceded and followed by angels proclaiming, “Behold, a Child of God! Behold, a Child of God!” Lent is supposed to be a time of preparation for Easter, a time of house-cleaning, dusting, sweeping, window-washing, on both the personal and corporate level. The language of dust, the language of repentance, the language of recognizing the conditions of one’s life are all about cleaning up, cleaning out, bringing order, clarifying… Read more »
Kate
4 years ago
I can – and have – written academic papers on various topics but I confess to be nonplussed by academic theology. Jong covers all sorts of secondary sources but ignores the Gospels. In Matthew 26 the bread is broken to represent how Jesus’s body would be broken but Jesus says something very different about the wine: “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Here the wine is served in… Read more »
Kate
4 years ago
I think Jayne with her talk of unity overlooks two groups, both of which believe that being true to Jesus is important but have polar views of what that means. For instance I don’t want bridges built: what matters to me is that we proclaim the universality of Jesus’s welcome so that everyone, straight or gay, can go into *every* church and be unconditionally welcomed and have equal access to every sacrament.
John S
4 years ago
I understand that Jonathan Jong (he of the article on receiving the eucharist in one kind only above) and his wife had a baby girl on Thursday night. Congratulations!
In response to Janet’s very interesting article on how Lent feels and impacts on different people (thank you, I think you’re voicing something that many people are hesitant to admit, and I’ve sometimes felt myself) there are perhaps other ways of looking at Lent for people who find it too negative and somehow destructive for themselves, and which may help shift the balance a little. In many ways the recognition that we are but dust (a reasonably accurate scientific assertion but also a spiritual assertion of what we are without God) can be helpful: but as Janet suggests, it can… Read more »
A former Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco said some years ago that the purpose of Lent was to help us recognize that each one of us goes through the world preceded and followed by angels proclaiming, “Behold, a Child of God! Behold, a Child of God!” Lent is supposed to be a time of preparation for Easter, a time of house-cleaning, dusting, sweeping, window-washing, on both the personal and corporate level. The language of dust, the language of repentance, the language of recognizing the conditions of one’s life are all about cleaning up, cleaning out, bringing order, clarifying… Read more »
I can – and have – written academic papers on various topics but I confess to be nonplussed by academic theology. Jong covers all sorts of secondary sources but ignores the Gospels. In Matthew 26 the bread is broken to represent how Jesus’s body would be broken but Jesus says something very different about the wine: “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Here the wine is served in… Read more »
I think Jayne with her talk of unity overlooks two groups, both of which believe that being true to Jesus is important but have polar views of what that means. For instance I don’t want bridges built: what matters to me is that we proclaim the universality of Jesus’s welcome so that everyone, straight or gay, can go into *every* church and be unconditionally welcomed and have equal access to every sacrament.
I understand that Jonathan Jong (he of the article on receiving the eucharist in one kind only above) and his wife had a baby girl on Thursday night. Congratulations!