Lent and Easter 2023

Psalms, Poetry and Silent Prayer

Journey to Easter

For Sunday 12th March, Third Sunday in Lent

The lectionary many churches use, like a nanny with young children, ‘sanitises’ the readings from Scripture to avoid upsetting people. Well, Psalm 95 does need a ‘trigger warning’, and what follows would be censored in many churches. But Lent is a time when we should face up to the disturbing things about God in the Bible, and in turn let ourselves be disturbed – but it is wiser and safer to be disturbed in the presence of God than simply be perplexed by the troubles of the world.

Psalm 95: 1-2, 6-11

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said,
“They are a people whose hearts go astray,
And they do not regard my ways.”
Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The psalm begins with a call to shout God’s praise, and leads on to a call to listen to the voice of God (a voice which breaks the cedars of Lebanon, Psalm 29). But it ends with God shouting at his people in frustration. Now of course, as Calvin put it, God speaks extra simply to his people in Scripture, indeed like a nanny with young children, and so there is no end to books ‘explaining God’. But in a psalm like this we are confronted with God in holiness, majesty, and even frustration – things which a snowflake generation ought not simply to explain away.

95 Shouting Sober

Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,
I am about to spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16)

Forty days of fasting
to clear the head of compromise,
lose the ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’.

Forty years of loathing
to clear the tribe of disaffection,
throttle sentimental views of love.

Five books of Hebrew psalms
to clear the church of unreal hymns,
bring us, humble, to our senses.

Twelve lines of Hebrew text
to clear the throat of pious praise,
awake a pure and joyful noise.

We do not often think of God ‘shouting’, far less of our Lord Jesus spitting. But Lent is a time of stripping away illusions, a time of clearing house spiritually, and the five books of Hebrew Psalms in our Old Testament Bibles will do that for us if we let them.

Jock Stein

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St Columba’s is located on Pont Street in Knightsbridge in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Church is within easy reach of three London Underground stations – Knightsbridge (Piccadilly Line), South Kensington (Piccadilly, Circle and District Lines) and Sloane Square (Circle and District Lines).

	St. Columba's Pont Street London SW1X 0BD
	+44 (0)20-7584-2321
	office@stcolumbas.org.uk

Getting here by tube

Knightsbridge Station

Take the Harrods exit if open (front car if coming from the East, rear car if coming from the West). Come up the stairs to street level, carry on keeping Harrods on your right. Turn right into Basil Street. Carry straight on into Walton Place with St Saviour’s Church on your left. At the traffic lights, St Columba’s is to your left across the street. If the Harrods exit is closed, take the Sloane Street exit, turn right into Basil Street. Carry straight on past Harrods with the shop on your right, into Walton Place as before.

South Kensington Station

Come up the stairs out of the station and turn left into the shopping arcade. Turn left again into Pelham Street. At the traffic lights at the end of Pelham Street cross Brompton Road, turn left then immediately right into the narrow street of Draycott Avenue. After just a few yards turn left into Walton Street. Carry on walking up Walton Street until the traffic lights at the corner of Pont Street. Turn right and after a few steps you will be at St Columba’s!

Sloane Square Station

Cross over the square into Sloane Street. Walk along Sloane Street until the traffic lights at the corner of Pont Street. Turn left into Pont Street. St Columba’s will then be in sight.