Over many years Anne and I have enjoyed country walks with
the aid of guidebooks to direct our passage through unfamiliar territory. For
the most part , the way forward was relatively easy to follow, but occasionally
the instruction of the guidebook and the vista that lay before us did not match.
More than once we came to a field which had been comprehensively ploughed, sown
or perhaps awaited final harvest. We
would stand confused, for our instructions and map insisted that the public
footpath did in fact go right through the centre of the field. I was always
grateful when I had remembered to pack my binoculars in my rucksack. Careful
scanning of the far edge of the field, sometimes a considerable distance away,
usually revealed a beckoning style tucked snuggly into the dense hedgerow,
thereby revealing the required direction of travel. Clear sight of our next waymark
enabled our trek to continue.
Any
walker will tell you that a gate or style is both a way out and a way in. The
beauty of a country walk lies in the gift of surprise. Every gate or style
takes a walker out of one niche and into another. Each ‘room’ in the landscape
offers newness and novelty, challenge or ease. The Gospel accounts tell us that
Jesus claimed to be “The Gate”, the way into a new spiritual
landscape, the way out of where we are
and the way into something extraordinarily
different. Above all it is the entry into a place defined by, and
infused with, the love of God. It is not always an easy landscape to walk, but
it offers a journey in companionship with Christ and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore,
it is an eternal journey, extending beyond the existential present, beyond the
boundaries of this life, and into an infinity that awaits.
Country
walking allows the old and the new to converge. The pathway, unless it has been
diverted in recent times, has most likely been in use since, or even long
before, the Enclosure Acts of the 17thCentury onwards, legislation which
privatised hitherto common land. Existing country paths are therefore a compensation
to allow public journeying. However, even ancient landscapes change with the
seasons, the weather, new structures, new land use, new farming methods, growth
of hedges and trees, change of crops, and so on. This gifts us the delights of
travelling ancient and familiar paths that are actually full of newness. It
would seem that old and new are not always mutually exclusive! There is an
intriguing injunction in the Old Testament :
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask
for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk
in it.”
Jeremiah
6:16
The prophet was
speaking into tumultuous times for the Jewish people. In this period the
Babylonians invaded, destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and carried the most
creative, able, and powerful Jews into exile. The political, religious and
social landscape of those forcibly exiled
, and those who remained, had changed suddenly and dramatically. We might say that the well-known and well-worn
path through Judaism was no longer visible. It had been aggressively ploughed
over by circumstances! What was needed was a sight-line to show the direction
of travel in now unfamiliar terrain, just like looking for a distant style
across a field ! Jeremiah offers radical
theological and spiritual advice, of which our quotation from chapter 6 is but
one example.
Ask
for the ancient paths? Really? Go
backwards? Surely life must always be lived forwards? Yet, I think Jeremiah is suggesting that the best
way to advance in a dramatically novel situation is to re-discover the
fundamentals, the deep spiritual values, the precious memories of faith, much
of which had been taken for granted or forgotten. In effect, the ‘old’ becomes the ‘new’ since there
really is no other foundation laid by a
loving God. Perhaps the old is really the new, simply because it had not been previously
fully experienced and explored. A return to a deeper personal relationship with
God in honesty, humility and a genuine anticipation of good things to come, whatever
the prevailing context, will provide newness and richness not previously
experienced.
This coming Lenten
season we will be aware that the old familiar pathways through the Lent
experience will be considerably obscured, ‘ploughed over’ by the effects of Covid
19, as we are denied corporate worship, with its rich spirituality reflected in
our shared liturgical prayers, readings, hymns, meditations and Holy Communion.
Yet, beneath all this apparent absence
there is surely another story taking
shape. In our temporary separation we will most likely have formulated new
questions about our faith, found different ways of sustaining and enriching our
journey, discovered unexpected insights into the preciousness of gathering with
one another, and have gained a deeper appreciation of things that we have
hitherto taken for granted. In short, perhaps a hidden store of treasure has
been forming that will one day, hopefully soon, manifest itself through joyous restoration of normal church
life. As Paul the Apostle discovered , “all
things work together for good, for
those who love God”. Perhaps we need
to embrace a new discipline of personal spiritual awareness and depth. That of
course has traditionally always been the purpose of Lent. But, especially in
these strange times, we seemingly have to accept a greater sense of ‘creative aloneness’ with God,
something that can richly nurture and surprise
us as we walk the 2021 Lenten pathway.
Terry
Rees February 2021
Terry Rees
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Thank you, Terry. You give us some lovely and helpful analogies for this different Lent season.
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