RESISTING THE TEMPTATION TO GIVE UP HOPE (LENT & WAR)
02/03/2022
(This was my Pause For Thought on Vanessa, BBC Radio 2 on March 2nd 2022... The them was Resisting Temptation... but was soon in the context of war in Ukraine...)
Today like many Christians all over the world, including my Pause for Thought colleague George Pitcher from yesterday, I will go to an Ash Wednesday service and have my head ashed. I will have a cross will be smeared on my forehead - to the words "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
I will do so as part of only the second ever, we think, Ecumenical Ash Wednesday service to be held in Belfast. As a Protestant I never got ashed. Across the world today many Protestant Churches will have ashing services but not in N. Ireland. On Ash Wednesday in N. Ireland you could literally tell what side you were on by whether you had ash on your forehead or not.
The first Ecumenical Ash Wednesday service, 2 years ago, led to by far the most meaningful Lent that I have ever had. Without doubt its public commitment gave me spiritual resilience as I struggled to resist temptation.
So begins the 40 days of Lent, a time when Christians heighten our self denial, increase our prayer lives and prepare for the events of Jesus death and resurrection.
This year we begin that journey in the shadow of war in Ukraine.
A war that can be beamed into your front room. For the Christian there is the dilemma that you pray for peace while actually watching bombs exploding. Watching war on a 24/7 news loop can leave you feeling hopeless.
It was in Nakasongola in Uganda that I saw the phrase HOPELESS IS A BIG ILLNESS. How right is that?
So this Lent it might be all about not resisting the temptation to give up hope for Ukraine and indeed the world.
That’s where I will come back to our 2nd Ecumenical Ash Wednesday Service. Twenty years ago, that could never have happened here in Belfast, for sectarian and religious reasons. That it will take place tonight without a protest outside is a sign that things can change. Peace moves slow BUT it is moving.
As Christian writer Jim Wallis defined it, hope is “believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.” As I am ashed tonight I will publicly commit to resist any temptation to lose that kind of hope for Ukraine and us all.