Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
WEEK 2: THURSDAY...

...The true test of a pastor comes not in the set-piece events (big services, regular fellowship groups, the weekly Bible study) but in the unforeseen, unprepared moments. Especially the ones which, frankly, you not only hadn’t planned but hadn’t wanted. You are just settling down at last with the newspaper and a cup of tea. You have taken two funerals; you have visited a parishioner who’s just had a serious operation; you have organized the rotas for the next few Sundays; and you’ve even written a careful couple of letters to the leaders of your denomination warning them about the effects of the new church policy on your congregation. A good day’s work.

We all know what happens next – though we always wish it wouldn’t. The doorbell (if it was the phone, the automatic answering machine could cope for the time being). It’s obvious you’re in; the lights are on. No escape. You go to the door. There they stand. Perhaps it’s the young couple whose baby has just been run over and is in hospital; or the immigrant family threatened with deportation; or the teenager who’s just discovered she’s pregnant; or the old man still devastated by his wife’s death two months ago...

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright