Introduction.

Today is known in the church calendar as Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent. Traditionally it is an important time of preparation for the events that we remember and celebrate at Easter – ‘The Last Supper’, Jesus’ crucifixion (Good Friday) and his resurrection (Easter Day).

In the northern hemisphere it is a time of seasonal change from the darkness of winter to the delights of longer days and the new life of spring. Many of God’s people use it as a special time to reflect on what God has done for us to bring us from the winter of life without him, to the new life he holds out to us in Jesus Christ through the events of the first Good Friday and Easter Day.

Some find it helpful to make Lent a time of going without (fasting), enabling them to be more focused on their relationship and life with the Lord Jesus Christ. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and continues through to the day before Easter.

Doubts.

That said, do you ever have doubts about your faith? The world is full of ideas about where we find the meaning of life. Richard Dawkins and others tell us that physics will explain the universe. Books about mysticism and eastern religion tell us of the advantages of meditation and spiritual experiences. And there are work colleagues who tell us to forget all the religious nonsense and to come and have a drink with them.

People are full of ideas and they often try to persuade us with their views. Some will ask us: ‘You don’t go to church do you?’ Others will insist: ‘Religion is at the core of the world’s problems’.

The Real Problem.

Writing in his Letter to the Colossians the Apostle Paul says: And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:13-15).

The Bible sees history as divided into two great eras. Before Jesus came there was the present age — ‘the world.’ Now that Jesus has come a new era has begun — ‘the age to come’ or ‘the kingdom of God’. God was in sovereign control of the first era, but it was a world of bondage, in the grip of the elemental principles of the natural world. We were captive to laws we couldn’t keep and, even when God’s law was revealed, we found we couldn’t keep it. Furthermore, we found we were in bondage to a supernatural prosecuting power – Satan.

This supernatural power has set himself up as the prosecutor for our failures. And such is the nature of our failures to love God and to love our neighbors that God that must condemn us. As a result, we are subject to death because our transgressions are, in God’s eyes, a capital offence. Moreover Satan, being the implacable prosecutor that he is, insists that the penalty must be paid. And so, what seems an irony, God in his justice cannot refuse Satan’s demands for our life.

C.S. Lewis captures these elements in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  Because Edmund betrayed Aslan the white witch demanded Edmund’s life. ‘He has broken the laws of the deep,’ she shrieks. ‘His life is forfeit.’

This is the natural condition of every man and woman in this world – the present age. There are laws we cannot keep, we are in the power of spiritual forces we can’t defeat, and we are en route to a grave we can’t avoid. This is what Paul means by captivity.

Liberty.

But then came Jesus. At a single stroke he smashed the bars of the spiritual prison of the old age. He paid the moral debt of the laws we couldn’t obey. Furthermore, he disarmed the demonic powers that we couldn’t overcome. As for the death we couldn’t escape, he abolished it. For when you were dead in your sins, he made you alive with the risen Christ, Paul writes.

How is this extraordinary freedom achieved? Paul tells us twice so that we don’t miss it: By the cross. In verse 14 he says that God took it away, nailing it to the cross of Christ … And in verse 15 he says that God triumphed over them by the cross. For Paul, the world that was, gave way to a new and everlasting world.

The Cross.

The Cross is where Jesus paid the death penalty for this sinful human race, turning our captivity into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The invoice, the bill of debt? It’s nailed to the cross stamped, ‘Paid in Full’. The demonic forces who held us in their control? ‘They are publicly humiliated’, declares Paul.

The cross of Jesus Christ lies at the heart of the season of Lent. Indeed, Lenthelps us to re-set our relationship with Christ and enable us to re-frame our lives throughout the year.

Prayer.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (BCP, Ash Wednesday – adapted)

Suggested Reading – Colossians 2:8-15

In an article, ‘Female confidence gurus – inside the feminist fad taking New York by storm’ (Spectator Life, February 17, 2020), Olivia Grant includes her comments on Regena Thomashauer’s recent book, ‘Pussy: A Reclamation,’ a New York Times best seller.  Olivia Grant notes: ‘the gist was essentially that the patriarchy has pulled an elaborate con on women encouraging them to hate their bodies, fear other women and become disconnected from the divine feminine’.

‘To fight back, Regena argues, women need to start celebrating themselves, their feminine experience and their anatomy. Literally revisioning themselves as ‘goddesses,’ which is a term she uses a lot. “I want women to be turned on again,” she said simply when I got her on the phone. “When I looked at the women around me they seemed unplugged and uninspired. I want to help them find their power and enthusiasm.”

I draw attention to the article, not to discuss it but rather to note that here is another example of the cry – from both women and also, I suggest, men – for an answer to the question: ‘Who am I?’

In his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle writes: See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ (2:8).

Philosophy and empty deceit. Pauls’ construction of the word philosophyand the phrase empty deceit is governed in the original text by one definite article indicating a tight link between the two. Empty deceit is a description of the philosophy he has in mind. It is empty because it lacks truth and vital power because it is not grounded in the truth and vitality of God’s revealed gospel.

Furthermore, such philosophy is devoid of hope because, lacking the light of God’s truth, it leads into a fog of uncertainty. And there is something more: the philosophy of which Paul speaks is deceitful because on the surface it seems attractive. In reality, because it is barren, it only seduces lives that are drawn to it.

Now it needs to be said that Paul is not opposed to philosophy as the love of knowledge. Rather, because he understands that God has uniquely revealed himself, he is opposed to a philosophy originating in human reason as the means of understanding the meaning of life and who we are.

Furthermore, Paul is saying that the philosophy that he is speaking about originates in human tradition and not God’s revelation. It also bears the hallmarks of spiritual forces at work in the world. But most of all, he says, it fails to recognize the reality and uniqueness of God’s revelation supremely revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Fullness. And that is not all. In Colossians 2:9 we read: For in him (Christ) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,… This is a rich and profound statement, for Paul is not simply stating that the qualities of divinity are present in Christ. Rather, he is telling us that in Christ the very essence of God lives. Jesus Christ is fully and truly divine in the same way that God the Father is. To know Christ who came amongst us as one of us and who is now glorified in the fullness of the majesty and power of God, is to know God. And, being the fullness of God in this way, he truly reveals God to us.

All of this has significant implications for everyone who turns to Christ Jesus: …and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority (Colossians 2:10). God’s people share the fullness of the life of Christ and so participate in God’s very nature. Indeed, in John 1:16 we read that out of the fullness of God’s Word incarnate we receive grace upon grace– mercy unbounded.

Imago dei. In creating us in his image God’s purpose is that we share in his divine nature. The fall of men and women led to ‘incompleteness’ – a broken relationship with God and with one another (including between the sexes), moral bankruptcy, a distorted reasoning, and a spiritual blindness. Only through a relationship with the One in whom the fullness of God lives is there any hope of our restoration. And what a restoration it is. Our human nature can be filled out as it was meant to be in a reconciled and joyful relationship with God. But we come to experience this only when we are honest and humble enough to turn to Christ in heartfelt repentance and faith.

I recently quoted CS Lewis where he says: ‘If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for.  Nothing less.’

Ten days ago Sydney was shocked to learn that four children had been struck down by a car driven by a 29 year-old allegedly three times over the legal limit. Three of the children were siblings from a family of six. The fourth was their cousin. They had been out together to buy ice-cream when the car veered off the road and on to the path where they were walking. The mother of the three children stunned the world when she said that she forgave the driver. Her husband was quoted as saying that ‘Jesus is the rock’.

How could anyone in such circumstances have it in their heart to forgive?

To forgive when we are wronged is one of the toughest challenges for God’s people. Our first and natural response is to cry out for justice. Anger in these moments is justified. So how can we forgive?

Jesus’ words as he hung on the cross are front and center. On the cross he was dying a painful, slow, wicked death. It was wicked in the extreme because he was innocent of any crime. And yet he prayed, ‘Father forgive them…’

Some have said he was praying for the soldiers. But in that case he would have said, ‘Father, understand them’. They were doing their duty. Others suggest he was praying for the Jewish and the Roman leaders who had instigated his death and certified it.

But when we reflect on the big picture of Jesus’ life and teaching, we realize that he was praying that God would forgive ignorance of the truth about himself and the resulting injustices and godless behavior. Yes, he was praying for the Roman soldiers, the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities. He was also praying for the crowd and for his followers. Furthermore, he was praying for every one of us, including you and me.

Despite the pain and supreme injustice of the cross, Jesus was not looking to his own needs.

Rather, he was sacrificing his life so that God could justly forgive a godless and thankless humanity when they turn back to him. Furthermore, even in his agony he was putting into practice the law of neighbour love that he had taught: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemies,’ but I tell you,” he said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

If we are honest, we are all guilty at some time or another, of mocking or denying the Lord Jesus. We have all rejected his claims to be our Lord. Some of us have often heard the story of the cross yet refuse to let Jesus into every part of our life. Others don’t really believe that their indifference or arrogance towards him contributed to the suffering he endured.

It’s easy to close our minds to what we don’t want to hear, to harden our hearts. Luke tells us that even as we do, Jesus prayed for us, and continues to pray for us. He prays for us in our wilful foolish ignorance and behavior: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The parents of the dead children expressed a profound understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done for us. It was because Christ died in our place and was raised again that Jesus could justly pray, “Father forgive them…”

When we forgive those who have wronged us, people around us take notice.

True faith in Christ Jesus enables us to say, ‘He is my rock and my redeemer’. Because he has forgiven me, I need to learn to forgive and to pray for the grace to forgive. 

As Jesus himself has taught, “When you pray say: 

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who sins against us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial” (Luke 11:2-4).

© John G. Mason

‘Outreach’ in changing times. At the Anglican Connection April Conference speakers will be addressing ways we can live and respond to the challenges of the changes around us. We also plan to provide networks that will facilitate the development of effective leaders for today’s world. Will you pray for us and support us? Will you come with leaders from your church? Register on this website here:…

In his book, The Right Questions (2002), the late Phillip Johnson – who before his retirement had been Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley for over thirty years – wrote:

‘There is an unacknowledged creation story that is at the root of all secular learning’ (p.63). ‘… There was no “Word” – no intelligence or purpose – at the beginning. Only the laws and the particles existed, and these two things plus chance had to do all the creating. Without them nothing was made that has been made…’ (p.64).

‘Belief in a personal, supernatural creator is increasingly confined to the uneducated,’ he continued, ‘and may be expected to fade away as education becomes ever more universal. Even if educated people eventually become dissatisfied with materialism, they tend to turn to some unbiblical compromise like process theology, in which God evolves with the world’ (p.65).

One of the fundamental weaknesses amongst God’s people today is the lack of on-going growth and maturity. So many have received Christ but have not gone any further. Because their faith is shallow they limp through life, not living in the vitality and joy of a heartfelt relationship with Jesus the Lord. Nor do they have answers for a world that has fallen in lock-step with a secular materialism that does not acknowledge the possibility that science might point to the reality of a supernatural creating intelligence; that Dr. John Lennox, emeritus professor of Mathematics, Oxford University, might be correct when he writes in God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? ‘To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power.’

For God’s people to remain stunted in their faith is the very opposite of what God longs to see.

Consider what the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 2:6-7: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so now live. When Christ comes into our lives there are many things that need to happen. There’s cleaning up to do and renovation. But, as anyone who has been involved in such work knows, it takes longer and costs more than anticipated. It’s like that with our lives. It takes longer and is costly to make our lives fit for the king. The challenge is to make Jesus Lord in all our affairs.

Paul sometimes uses the imagery of putting off the old and bringing in the new. In Colossians 3 he provides examples: In 3:5 we read, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:… Toss out of your life what doesn’t fit your new life with Christ. It might be sexual immorality, lustful desire, envy or greed. It might be anger or rage, malice or slander, foul talk or a failure to speak the truth.

Put on then, Paul says, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (3:12ff). As you received Christ, so live in him.

Rooted and built up… While Paul seems to mix his metaphors, his meaning is clear: he expects growth. He doesn’t want to hear that God’s people are stunted in their faith, or as he says later, that they are focusing on rituals, mystical or ecstatic experiences. As with any relationship, true growth occurs through verbal communication. Growth in our relationship with Christ occurs through spending time in the Scriptures and prayer.

Sometimes we’re not motivated to read the Bible until we experience some hardship or tragedy. Sometimes it’s not until we see possessions for what they are, things that have a passing splendour, that we see the reality of God’s truth. And then we begin to grow.

And, Paul emphasizes the need to remember what we have learned from the Scriptures at every twist and turn through life: As you were taught… be established in the truth, (2:7).

Furthermore let’s not overlook Paul’s exhortation …abounding in thanksgiving. How often are we anxious because thankfulness to God is not part of our psyche!

Thankfulness is a real measure of our growth in Christ. We won’t be taken up with our own desires and complaints for long if a spirit of thankfulness is an essential part of our thinking and attitudes.

The Anglican Connection is not just for Anglicans. It is a network that is committed to drawing from the biblical, theological and liturgical riches of the 16th century Reformation for the benefit of our 21st century mission.

Speakers include:

• Dr. HF (Fritz) Schaefer (Graham Perdue Professor, Computational Quantum Chemistry, University of Georgia; one of the world’s eminent quantum chemists);
• Dr. John Lennox (emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Oxford University);
• Dr. Liam Goligher (Senior Minister Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA);
• Richard Borgonon (In the Lloyds insurance market for 45 years. With William Taylor (St Helen’s Bishopsgate, London) he developed and promotes the ministry, ‘Word One-to-One’);
• Keith Getty (Director, hymn-writer, lead pianist, Getty Music);
• Dr. Felix Orji, (Bishop of Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) West);
• Jason Harris (Senior Minister, Central Church, Park Avenue, New York City);
• Andrew Pearson (Dean & Rector, Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, AL)
• Dr. Henry Jansma, Rector of All Souls Church, Cherry Hill, NJ, Canon Theologian, The Anglican Diocese of the Living Word.

“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!” These words form Hamlet’s reflections in Shakespeare’s play of the same name. He speaks admiringly at first but then he despairs of the human condition.

In a recent article, ‘The Tyranny of Opinion’ (The Weekend Australian. January 18-19), John Carroll, professor emeritus of sociology, La Trobe University, Australia, comments on identity politics where ‘the new wars are over opinion’. ‘Belief has been separated from act,’ he says.

‘Human identity without firm and distinct shape,’ Carroll comments, ‘is condemned to leading a haphazard existence, motivated by profane pleasure and the pursuit of power. Pleasures diminish and power is capricious. A vacancy of belief drives some to seek tranquilizers and intoxicants; others to seek militant secular faiths…’

What is alarming, he points out, is that ‘professional orders that are otherwise sober, serious, hard-working and methodical in their practical lives are turning in their leisure, to quasi-religious venting, dark paranoid fantasy and wide-eyed righteous indignation.’

‘As people spend more of their leisure time on smart-phones and less reading books, they develop habits in themselves ill-suited to measured reflection… It is not surprising then,’ he notes, ‘that belief has become separated from act. Others are judged by what they believe, not by what they do.’

How can God’s people respond to the world of change around us? This is the central theme of the April Anglican Connection Conference. (See belowfor registration details.) Change is all around us yet so many of God’s people are ill-equipped for an effective response.

A starting point. In Colossians 1:25 the Apostle Paul tells us that he had been called by God to be a minister to serve God’s people, and that he did this by making the word of God fully known.

God’s plan to reveal himself to men and women whom he had created in his image (Genesis 1:27) was not through miracles, nor social justice, but through words – spoken and written. And Paul saw that it was his task to communicate that message to the world, faithfully and fully.

In a word, Paul saw that he had a duty to preach and teach the Scriptures.  This is important.  It tells us that we don’t achieve a deeper insight into the Christian faith by having some mystical experience of Christ. We need to know the Word of God better so that we can grow closer to Christ, so that we be better equipped to live for him in a world where men and women constantly show their good side but also their dark side.

So the task of preachers is not to get people to see their ideas but rather to see God. Preachers need to open up the Bible so that everyone who hears them can see why they are saying what they are saying.  As Paul says here, the first task of ministry is to make the Word of God fully known.

Only when we know God who has revealed himself through the Bible will we understand God’s plan for every man and woman and young person who turns to him in repentance and in faith. In Romans 8:14-17 we read: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…

CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, put it this way: ‘If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for.  Nothing less.’

The Anglican Connection is not just for Anglicans. It is a network that is committed to drawing from the biblical, theological and liturgical riches of the 16th century Reformation for the benefit of our 21st century mission.

Speakers include:

• Dr. HF (Fritz) Schaefer (Graham Perdue Professor, Computational Quantum Chemistry, University of Georgia; one of the world’s eminent quantum chemists);
• Dr. John Lennox (emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Oxford University);
• Dr. Liam Goligher (Senior Minister Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA);
• Richard Borgonon (In the Lloyds insurance market for 45 years. With William Taylor (St Helen’s Bishopsgate, London) he developed and promotes the ministry, ‘Word One-to-One’);
• Keith Getty (Director, hymn-writer, lead pianist, Getty Music);
• Dr. Felix Orji, (Bishop of Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) West);
• Jason Harris (Senior Minister, Central Church, Park Avenue, New York City);
• Andrew Pearson (Dean & Rector, Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, AL)
• Dr. Henry Jansma, Rector of All Souls Church, Cherry Hill, NJ, Canon Theologian, The Anglican Diocese of the Living Word.