RETREAT IN LENT 2021
Day 8, Wednesday,
24 February
Noticing signs
Jesus is
angry at their looking for a sign because the sign they wanted was reassurance
that they could continue as they were. They would not have to make any changes.
They were not open to change. They were OK. He referred to the story of Jonah
(3:1-10) when the prophet, reluctantly, warned them they must repent or
they would be heading for destruction. They took notice. And he reminded them
of the Queen of the South who heard of Solomon and was curious and came to meet
him. (Luke 11: 29-32). She took notice. She was a sign to ‘this
generation’ of someone eager to learn, not simply satisfied with her lot.
Signs, even
road signs, show us the way. I did a stupid thing on Saturday last getting lost
in a part of the city I thought I knew well. I went miles out of the way until
I saw a sign telling me where I was. Signs jolt us into new thinking.
This is a
weighty Lenten theme because we form habits, usually good habits, of living
together and working and so on. But Lent calls us to stop and notice
signs, sometimes little things, that indicate we need to do something we had
not thought about. We notice how people react to what we do or say; we notice
our own spontaneous response to situations; we notice what upsets us, disturbs
our peace.
Lent prompts
us to look at these things and not just brush them aside. Sometimes this can be quite a challenging
thing to do. We are so prone to ‘settle’ into our ways and attitudes. I am
reading about whites in Southern Rhodesia in the 1940s at the moment. They just
did not want to face the obvious fact that their way of life was unsustainable.
They would have to change if they were to survive. They didn’t change and they
didn’t survive.
OK, that is
all history. But it is a sign, every bit as much as Jonah and the Queen of the
South. Am I, are we, living in a way that is authentic and open? Attentive to
signs? Willing to change if they indicate I am on the wrong road? Tough
questions.
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