Message From the Pulpit

In the Christian view of the nature of man, we have been created for the high purpose of fellowship with God. For this purpose we have been created-male and female-in the image of God. And the highest expression of this fellowship is the worship of God, both our private devotions and our public worship of God in His Church. As St. Augustine expressed it, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, O God; and we are restless ‘till we find our rest in Thee.”

Lent comes to remind us how far some of us have strayed from this purpose of fellowship with God, for which we were created. As we say in the Morning Prayer Service, “We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.” Lent comes to remind us of our tendency to put ourselves in God’s place at the center of the universe. And given all the prosperity, all the scientific advances, and all the mechanical developments of out time, it is not all that surprising that some seem to conclude that we do not need God and that we can shut Him out of our national life. Lent comes to remind us of the peril of our pride.

Lent also comes to show us a way out of our dead-end street. Starting on Ash Wednesday and continuing every day until Palm Sunday, the Collect for Lent begins like this: “Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou has made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts…” Lent prepares us for Holy Week, for Palm Sunday and then Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. As the Rev John Stott has remarked, many of us have it wrong about Good Friday. Many of us see the Crucifixion as the defeat of Christ and Easter as the Victory. Actually, as John Stott says, the New Testament sees the Crucifixion as the Victory and Easter as the Proclamation of the Victory to all the world! And in the Lord’s Supper, I believe, we share in the Victory and in the Proclamation: “..having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension…” Lent prepares us for the Victory of Good Friday, the Victory that reestablishes our fellowship with God. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

Those who have not received a copy of “Daily Lenten Reflections from C.S. Lewis” may get a copy of the reflections at any Sunday service.

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yours in our Lord,

Hugh Hall