We live in a world that doesn’t particularly enjoy self-examination or facing our own shadows. There is much that would call us to think about life, our potential, and reaching for our dreams, but very little to call us to see ourselves truly and confront those thing within us that are destructive. This is why we need times like Ash Wednesday. Although it may be painful to acknowledge our brokenness, our selfishness and our capacity for destruction, ultimately life can only be found by traveling through this “valley of the shadow of death”. So, Ash Wednesday is not just a day of repentance and solemnity. It is also a day of celebration and possibility – the possibility of life in abundance.

May our repentance and honesty lead us to life as we worship this day.

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The Lenten journey has sometimes come to be thought of as a time of “giving things up”. This is a rather domesticated way of thinking of the disciplines which are the true characterisation of this season. The disciplines of Lent (fasting, prayer and giving – including giving of oneself in service) are really tools to enable us to deal with the big three temptations that we all face – sex, power and money. These were, essentially, the temptation that Jesus had to face, and the Lenten disciplines enable us to learn from Jesus how to render these temptations powerless in our own lives. This, first Sunday in Lent, gives us the opportunity to confront these temptations head on, and make the commitment to follow Jesus in the Lenten disciplines for the next few weeks.

May our worship today empower us to do the work of becoming more Christ-like.

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“Faith” is a word that is used all the time in religious circles, in Christian worship, and even in political discourse. Unfortunately, all too often, the way we use the word is a shadow of the richness, vitality and challenge of the biblical meaning. This week the Lectionary allows us to eavesdrop on a conversation about faith between Jesus and a rather hesitant visitor who comes to him at night – and what Nicodemus heard from Jesus was both shocking and surprising.

We come to worship in faith this week. May we leave empowered to put that faith into action in our daily lives.

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It’s common to think  about ‘living water’ – the powerful metaphor from this week’s readings – as something we receive. We focus on our own dryness and thirst, and feel rightly grateful that God comes to us with the offer of gracious refreshment and life. But, to stop there is to leave the extraordinary message of this passage incomplete, and to allow the Gospel to support what can become little more than selfishness. As we follow Christ the call this week is to move from being only recipients of living water to givers of it – especially to the poor and the marginalised. This was the journey of the Samaritan woman, and it is the inevitable, and even uncomfortable, journey for anyone who is serious about living life under God’s reign.

May our worship this week fill us and refresh us, even as we are sent out as “water-bearers” into the world.

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