Wulf's Web-Den

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of another season of Lent. Looking back through my blog, it like I did not do anything particular to mark it in 2008 but that I gave up early morning time on the Internet in 2009 and going to bed late in 2007.

Since there is still not a lot of point giving up one of the more common choices, like chocolate or television (I do not have enough of either to make it worthwhile), I have decided to revisit my 2007 plan and try to get early nights in the weeks leading up to Easter. Traditionally Sunday is a feast day where you can take a temporary break from your chosen discipline but, with work the next day, that is definitely one where I will want to get an early night in order that the weekend provides a good week start. Therefore, I'll let myself have one other night a week to stay up later if required. Otherwise though I'll be aiming for lights out (and that means no staying up reading in bed either) at 10:30pm each night.

What about you? Have you got a lenten discipline of something you will take up or put down?

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Last week I mentioned the “Through the Old Testament in Three Weeks” plan my house group were engaged in. We had reached the week on The Prophets and, on Monday night this week, we concluded with a look over the Wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs).

I began by presenting a diagram that gives a rough chronological overview of the Old Testament. It is not a work of great scholarly rigour or painstaking accuracy (some of the books are very hard to date and I ran out of time to indicate which ones, like Psalms, span hundreds of years in their authorship) but, in case anyone else is working on something similar, I present my history chart for personal use (596KB PDF).

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My housegroup has been following the ambitious plan of covering the entire span of the Old Testament across three weekly meetings. Obviously it is not feasible to get into great depth but that is enough time to develop an overview, understanding the sequence of events and how the different books fit together.

We started by covering "The Law" and "The Histories": everything from Genesis up to Ezra and Nehemiah. These cover the chronological length of the Old Testament from Creation until the re-establishment of the Jerusalem Temple about five centuries before Christ. Last night we were looking at "The Prophets". These are the last sixteen books of the Old Testament but the time period they cover begins perhaps as far back as nine centuries before Christ.

To start and close the evening, I read a poem that I had spotted linked to in my twitter feed yesterday afternoon. I will give the first three stanzas and a link for more if it whets your appetite:

prophets awake exhausted from their dreams.
their beds soaked in sweat,
the ebbing fever of their visions
still ringing in their ears.

they arise each morning
to a world made anew in love;
a love that frightens us like a drunk
passed out on the sidewalk.
we turn away from our chance to live.

prophets see and hear this world,
not as they would wish it,
but just as it is. they do not turn away.

By Roshi Doshi on Open Windows & Unlocked Doors

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Jane and I both enjoyed the PIECES worship workshop we attended at St Peter's, Hextable yesterday. This is the church I grew up in and at which Jane and I met. The main thing I took away from the day was not so much new ideas about worship music but the feeling of privilege at being able to return and find this community still alive and welcoming. Obviously many people have moved on or weren't there because it didn't match their particular interests but it was lovely to spend time with old friends and also to see some of those who were just kids when we moved onto Lewisham taking a role in the proceedings.

That was a precious gift and also left me contemplating how, day to day, we can make a gift of our lives to others. It does not actually take that much effort to inspire and encourage others when fitted in the context of a wider, supportive and loving community.

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I watched a fascinating TED talk on The Neurons that Shaped Civilization by Vilayanur Ramachandran. This seven-minute presentation is about "mirror neurons". Ramachandran shares research which shows that, when we watch others performing an action, a similar set of neurons appear to be activated in our heads as theirs.

That makes sense of how observing others can help us develop our own skills and sensibilities. Perhaps, for example, we learn so much from playing with excellent musicians not just because we listen to what they are doing but also because of subtleties like how we see them forming and sounding their notes or relaxing in difficult phrases and making them seem easy. I can see it also has a more sinister side, perhaps bearing on mob mentality, and gives us more responsibility for what we chose to watch, such as action films were the solution is always violent. The eye, indeed, is the lamp of the body! (qv. Matthew 6:22

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Peace to earth and goodwill to all mankind!

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My house group decided to pick up the advent idea and do a series of Bible studies focused on that. It came to me to develop a specific idea though.

Initially I thought of meditating on the key players familiar from the Navity story - Mary, Joseph, shepherds and wise men. However, as I thought about it, two things struck me. Firstly, there isn't that much to get to grips with for some of them. For example, shepherds feature as a group but none are identified as individuals. Secondly, there are other people in the story with much more written about them who tend to get completely overlooked. Therefore, with the three meetings we had available, we ended up looking at:

Elizabeth

Cousin of Mary and mother of John the Baptist

Zacharias

A priest, Elizabeth's husband and father of John the Baptist

Simeon and Anna

Devout old people from the Jerusalem temple, who see Jesus shortly after his birth (but probably before the wise men)

Their stories can be found in chapters one and two of Luke's gospel. For each, we started by reading and discussing the relevant passages, engaging with our minds. Next, we took a few minutes of silence to meditate on the passage. The purpose of this was to let God speak to us either about the passage or about anything else. One of the wonders of the Bible is that it provides a place God has appointed to speak to us. Meditating on scripture is about actively listening to what God has for us in our lives as well as using our minds to mine the meaning of the text. We then finished each study with a time to share anything appropriate.

To be honest, it is a very easy way to organise a house group but also provided some precious times. I think we will return to a similar idea again but, this Christmas Eve, offer it as a possible inspiration for any who feel harried and rushed as the waiting of Advent is on the cusp of celebrating the Incarnation.

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