Seeker

For those of us who try to observe the Christian season of Lent (the 6 weeks before Easter), Lent 2020 has taken a shape we may not have expected. Because of the corona virus Covid-19, in common with many other parts of the world, we are in 'lockdown' - some of us more severely than others. If you are usually a 'church going' Christian and planned to give something up for Lent, you probably had not expected to be compelled to give up 'going to church' in your habitual way. A meme by Daniel Eugene Crocker on the Facebook Page Episcopal Church Memes , made me smile recently. Against a plain black background it read, "This is the Lentiest Lent I have ever Lented." I put 'going to church' in inverted commas, because the church is primarily a community of believers. That community, the body of Christ, remains in communion together through abiding in Christ, even for those who have no access to modern electronic forms of communication. I am gr...

Lamentations is a Biblical book often neglected by UK Christians. I wonder why?  Is it because some of us are just too comfortable that we run away from cries of anguish. Is it because we have forgotten the Biblical injunction to mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep? One third of the Psalms are songs of lament. Other books of the Bible include laments, for example Job. Jesus cried out in anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross he quoted from Psalm 22 to express his sense of being abandoned by God. Lament runs all through the Bible, but Lamentations is its only book that is entirely in Lament form. Mostly we avoid it, given a choice. Yes, I have too. At best we might sometimes pluck out of its context Lamentations 2: 22 – 23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” You don’t know the 5 poems that are Lamentations’ 5 chapters? Help is at hand. ...