Our theme for the second week of Lent is God in the brokenness

Bible reading:   Jeremiah 18. 3-6

So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Prayer

O Christ Jesus,

when all is darkness, and we feel our weakness and helplessness,

give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength.

Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power,

so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things. Amen.

Reflection by Kat Campion-Spall

I wonder how many of us have struggled to find God in the midst of this pandemic, or felt like the world is so broken that it is hard to see God at work at all?  We all know well enough that whether or not we’re between Ash Wednesday and Easter, life has Lenten periods, which require a space for us to bring the sin and suffering – our own, or the world’s - and lay them at the foot of the cross.

Jesus points us firmly towards the cross when he says “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Crosses were places where not just bodies but also wills, resistance, hope were broken.  As Christians we’re called to carry that brokenness.  But the empty cross is followed by the empty tomb. And so the brokenness, the pain, the suffering, even the death that the cross encapsulates, become part of a much bigger reality: that the power of God’s love is greater than the power of human sin and despair.

When we look at the world and see a mess, it is really hard to see where God is. But instead of looking for God in the brokenness, look with God at the brokenness. Because then, rather than starting with suffering, we start with God’s immeasurable love. The world is still broken, but we begin to understand more deeply that God could never abandon God’s precious and beloved creation, whatever we might do to it, and to see God remaking what is broken into something beautiful.