Ash Wednesday – evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWednesday 26th February 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ash Wednesday – evening Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nImagine, if you will, that\ninstead of the woman \u2018caught in the very act of committing\nadultery\u2019 \u2013 we have brought in a man, accused of sexual abuse.\nAnd has it ever struck you that it is curious we hear about the woman\nin this case, but not about her partner? Committing adultery requires\nmore than just one person I would have thought! Where is the censure\nfor him???<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThis past week there have been\nseveral people caught up in just such a scandal. Harvey Weinstein has\nbeen declared guilty of at least two of the charges brought against\nhim. And far more shocking for many Christians \u2013 the great Jean\nVanier \u2013 the person who founded the l\u2019Arche communities around\nthe world and who has done so much for those with learning and\nphysical disability. A man who pioneered the notion that such people\nshould be treated as people and not as some sort of lesser being.\nWhose writing has been inspirational for countless thousands of\nChristians around the world and who \u2013 before his death last year at\nthe age of 90 was seriously being talked about as a candidate for\nsainthood. A veritable ambassador for Christ. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nJean Vanier it emerged this\nweek, was guilty of serious sexual abuse of at least six women in the\ncontext of providing them with spiritual direction. The one saving\ngrace is that none of the women were disabled or learning impaired,\nbut they were certainly vulnerable adults when they met Jean Vanier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nHow could someone who seemed\nto be so good, so holy, all the while be abusing the trust placed in\nhim? It is a sadly familiar story. A kind, caring and compassionate\nand pious individual becomes so intoxicated with the power and\nadulation that others afford him that he cannot withstand the\ntemptation to abuse that power. And lives are damaged , souls left\ndistraught and betrayed as a result. We have seen the phenomenon \u2013\nsadly \u2013 several times in the past as the stories of the disgraced\nBishop Peter Ball and \u2013 from the other, Evangelical wing of the\nchurch, the story of John Smith and the Iwerne Christian camps have\ndemonstrated. And, sadly, it won\u2019t be the last shocking story to\nemerge from the Church or other institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nAs we come to the beginning of\nLent, it is high time for us all to consider where we too have fallen\nshort of God\u2019s standards of behaviour. I don\u2019t mean just in a\nmoral sense, – I would like to believe that no-one here has fallen\nprey to the temptation to abuse others or is living themselves with\nthe consequences of such abuse. But I know that the likelihood is\nthat there will be those among us for whom these references bring\nback very dark and painful memories. If you find yourself in such a\nposition, please know that you can come to me in private to share\nyour pain. And if I am not able to help you myself, I will try to\npoint the way to those who can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nBut how would Jesus respond I\nwonder to those who abuse? I don\u2019t think he would go easy on them.\nNot in the sense that he would in any way collude with their\nbehaviour or the self-justification that they may claim for\nthemselves. But neither would he be the first to cast stones \u2013 real\nor metaphorical. He would remind them that \u2013 no matter how serious\nthe allegations made against them \u2013 God is willing to surround them\nwith his healing love if only they accept themselves for what they\nhave done and vow to \u2018sin no more\u2019. And Jesus would also wish to\nlove and to heal those who are hurting and afraid because of the\nactions and abuse of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nLent is the season that the\nChurch sets aside for us all to spend an extended time being honest\nwith ourselves and exploring the hidden depths of our own backstory.\nIt is the environment in which, in the bleak, scarce, wilderness\nexperience, we allow our illusions and pretences to be challenged. It\nis the place when we decide to let ourselves be defined no longer by\nthe public mask we all wear, but by the struggle of the vulnerable\nchild behind it; not from the outside, but from within; not from the\nshallows, but from the depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIt\u2019s the space where we\nallow ourselves to be persuaded that, as someone put it, \u201cwhat you\nare always comes out, what you project rarely comes off.\u201d Lent is\nthe season not for gestures of self-denial that may feed our\nself-satisfaction, but for abandoning ourselves in the\nself-sustaining love that God has for us. That is why some of us\nchoose to carry the mark of the cross today. Not to proclaim how good\nwe are, but to acknowledge the depths to which we too can all too\neasily sink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nLent is not meant to be easy\nor particularly comfortable, but in five weeks\u2019 time or so, as we\nemerge from Lent into the profound experience of Holy Week, may we\ntoo experience some echo of that of Jesus himself, as he returned to\nhis public ministry, and hear the most important affirmation that we\ncan and need to know; You are my son, my daughter, my child; with you\nI am well pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ash Wednesday – evening Wednesday 26th February 2020 Ash Wednesday – evening 2. Cor 5. 20b-6.10 John 8. 1-11 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs Imagine, if you will, that instead of the woman \u2018caught in the very act of committing adultery\u2019 \u2013 we have brought in a man, accused of sexual abuse. And has it ever … <\/p>\n
\n2. Cor 5. 20b-6.10
\nJohn 8. 1-11<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n![\"Maureen](\"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/MaureenHobbs-02.gif\")
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