How is your Lent going? In our family we are using the season to think carefully about a couple of the issues that every modern family battles with – namely our sugar intake and our screen time!
In a culture where ultra-processed food is cheaper and easier to access than ever before, and where screens dominate so much of how we engage with each other and the world, it’s easy for both these things – sugary food and screens – to become big drivers in our lives.
It seems to be that Lent is a good time to think about what drives us. In Mark’s gospel it talks about how Jesus was ‘driven by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days’. Jesus was clearly so in tune with the Holy Spirit that he let the Spirit guide him out of his comfort zone, even into the desert.
During Lent I often return to my favourite series of paintings, called ‘Christ in the Wilderness’ by Stanley Spencer. It’s the final picture in the series that is most arresting. It is called ‘Driven by the Spirit’ and it shows Jesus standing in a huge bomb crater (it’s probably important to note that these paintings were created during the Second World War, and the image very much looks like the horrific bomb damage that Spencer would have seen during the Blitz).
In the painting, Jesus’s arms are reaching straight up to the sky, like a child waiting to be picked up. It beautifully captures the sense of Jesus seeking his Father in heaven, even in the midst of chaos and suffering. In being driven by the Spirit, Jesus is led into the arms of his Abba Father.
This week at Breakfast Church at St Mary’s we will be looking at what it means to be driven or guided by the Spirit in our own lives, and what are ‘the fruits’ that this produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are virtues we would want to cultivate more in our lives – but we will see that it isn’t necessarily about trying harder, but simply following our Lord Jesus on a journey of being lovingly guided by the Spirit.
Wishing you all a Spirit-led week!
With love and blessings
Revd Jemima