Dean's Message

A Lenten Message from the Dean

You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So, no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

– Ephesians 5:8-10 (The Message Translation)

 

Darkness is the norm of the universe.

I’m no physicist, but Google tells me that (depending how you count it), the universe is somewhere between 95% and 99.9999999% cold, dark, empty nothingness.

Sure, if you took a cosmic joy-ride, every few million light years or so you might stumble into a patch of light we call a galaxy, with some clumps of solid material and a few gaseous balls circling around a central star, but mostly our universe is just cold, dark, empty nothingness.

Cosmically speaking, tangible material is but a rounding error and light is a miracle.

Thankfully, the earth bucks that trend. We are bursting with life and awash with light. And yet, without wishing to be a ‘downer’, I can’t help but think that our pale blue dot has felt a little darker recently. What do we see in the world today? Geopolitical uncertainty; the rise of the far-right; climate change beginning to bite; a wandering away from the ‘rules-based-order’ toward spheres of influence run by tyrants. It feels like some of the lights of hope are flickering out.

Thank God (quite literally) for Lent and Easter. Because through 40 days of fasting and 50 days of feasting we are reminded of the great truth of the universe  -  “Light shines in the darkness, and darkness has not overcome it.”

In Lent we acknowledge our own contributions to the darkness of the world.

In Easter we celebrate that Christ comes to forgive, redeem, heal and empower.

Darkness may be the norm of the universe, but Christ calls us to live out a difference story – one of hope.

So, may God bless you in your Lenten disciplines, and may God reveal Godself in blinding light-filled glory as we acknowledge our darkness and invite God’s light to shine.

 The Very Rev'd Ben Truman, Dean of Christchurch