Lent: Living towards abundance.

Ekklesia director, Simon Barrow, says Lent is not about austerity, but the discipline required to live abundantly ...

‘I came that you might have life, and have it in abundance’, Jesus tells his followers in John’s Gospel. He is telling the truth. But whether we do live like that is up to us when we have the wherewithal – which if we work together, support one another, share, forgive, care and love, can be the case. In order for it to be the case, however, we need to recognise and love our neighbours in and as ourselves. The ‘feast or famine?’ question in the Old Testament was about how to cope in societies where the primary question was survival. The technological and economic means to move beyond subsistence to surplus-based flourishing on a sustainable basis simply did not exist. Today, those means do exist, so if the planet is being despoiled, people starve and the poorest are abandoned that is not a result of a lack of money or resources, it is a matter of choice. Cutting health care while investing in weapons of mass destruction is, likewise, a decision.

The Christian Gospel is about becoming the kind of people and the kind of communities that can make better choices because we have cultivated the character and virtues, based on the self-giving love of God we meet in Jesus Christ, to enable that to happen. It is a message of Good News. God is for us, the world is there for our flourishing, we can be constantly renewed by forgiveness and making a fresh start when we mess up. Divine love is stronger than wrongdoing and death – and ultimately this, not power or money or force – is what our security and possibility is based on.

Lent is a time when we have a chance to reassess our priorities. It gives us the opportunity to try to remove bad habits and bad choices, and instead to make healthy decisions about living hopefully, generously and in solidarity with others near and far, in spite of all that the difficulty of living can throw at us. Rightly understood, Lent is not about austerity and meanness, but the discipline required to live abundantly. It is organising ourselves and being renewed so that the Feast of Life to which the Gospel invites us can be a reality for all, not something restricted to a few. Famine and austerity are not destiny. The love of God that overflows and is unconstrained: that is destiny. It is out of that spirit that we should be looking to reset our lives economically and in other ways, starting with the small choices and opportunities, but also speaking and working into the large ones.

This is an extract from Feast or Famine: How the Gospel challenges austerity – a Lent course for groups and individuals, available now in paperback, priced £6.99. Simon Barrow compiled and introduced the book.