Tuesday, March 17, 2026

 

Trinity Church, New York, NY, March 2025



“Times is hard” Mrs. Lovett,  “Worst Pies in London”

Starting my Lenten reflection with a quote from Sweeney Todd may seem an odd choice but as I am currently embroiled in rehearsals for this musical, its music is constantly swirling through my head.

And, right now, times IS hard. As I am writing this there are armed conflicts raging in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Sudan. The estimate I read said that 2 billion people are living in conflict-affected areas. In our country many people are struggling to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. We are bombarded by xenophobic comments by our leaders, and our neighbours. So yes, Mrs. Lovett, times IS hard.

What does this have to do with Lent and, specifically, the scriptures for today. 

In John, we read about Jesus healing on the Sabbath. For the Pharisees, this was forbidden. To our modern sensibilities, this seems odd. Why would folks object to someone helping others. But in Jesus’s time and faith, work on the Sabbath was strictly forbidden. When confronted with this, Jesus said, “My Father is still working, and I am working.” As I was reading and praying about these readings, as often happens when I do these reflections, I felt like God was saying to me, “Catherine, this is the point.” God is still working, even in this world that feels broken, chaotic, and hard. 

The psalmist, as often happens, really hammers this home in Psalm 46: 


Come, behold the works of the Lord;
    see what desolations he has brought on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields with fire.
 
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
    I am exalted among the nations,
    I am exalted in the earth.’
 
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is with us. 

God is here and he is working to bring peace to all nations. I’ll admit, that in my moments of weaker faith, I can feel skeptical about that. I don’t see any spears breaking when I watch the news.

But then I can reflect on what God is doing in my life and where I do see spears breaking. I see spears breaking when I volunteer at the soup kitchen and witness God working to feed the hungry. I see them breaking when I see little kindnesses that my children do for other people like shovelling a neighbour’s walk or bringing in their garbage bins. I see spears breaking in the bins of socks that the church donates for folks who are experiencing homelessness and the meals brought for sick or grieving friends. It is these things that let me know that God is here and that I can be still and know that [He] is God. 

Times may be hard but, as a people of God, we can both take solace in and rejoice that God is still working both in us and through us. 

Catherine Ball


Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170-J.S Bach 




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday, February 27, 2026

Image
  Ezekiel 18:21-24, 30-32   But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. . . .  Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die.   . . .   . . Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spi...
Read more

Ash Wednesday

Image
  The Conversion of St. Augustine by Fra Angelico   Daily Lectionary for Ash Wednesday The Lord remembers that we are dust . Psalm 103   “I didn’t know you were supposed to be mean for Lent.” So said one of my children around the age of ten after an Ash Wednesday service. They found my going around telling people that they were going to die, and quite literally rubbing it in, a little cruel. And to an age with childlike delusions of its own morality and immortality, the unvarnished, universal and personal conviction of sin and sentence of death in the marking of this day must seem mean. We would rather pretend otherwise.    “You are dust.” It reminds me of the contemporary idiom, “You’re toast.” But this dreadfully honest diagnosis is the first step in our healing. And I would commend healing to you as a new and ancient way of thinking about Lent. A 6th Century Office Hymn for Lent is titled Now is the Healing Time Decreed .   Ash Wednesday, Penitence, Len...
Read more

Sunday, March 1, 2026

Image
Matthew 17:1-9 The Transfiguration As soon as I looked through the readings I was given for this reflection, I knew I would have to include the beautiful note my dad wrote to my mom in the front of the New Testament he gave to her on their wedding day in 1981. He quoted the verses I have chosen to reflect on today from the Gospel of Matthew: “Jesus then came up to them, touched them, and said, ‘Stand up, do not be afraid.’ And when they raised their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.” My dad included a note saying, “The last two words are the ones which will bring you peace.”  I don’t know if our world is actually any worse than it has ever been, or if it just seems that way because most of us live in relative comfort and have time to worry and dwell on the thousands of tragedies we are bombarded with through the 24 hour news cycle and social media. But things certainly do feel heavy a lot of the time. Even if we eliminate the news and the outside world, we will continue to en...
Read more