Thursday: First Week in Lent Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
WEEK 1: THURSDAY...

...From where I am sitting I can see, out in the autumn fields, the farmer harvesting the corn. It isn’t all in yet; some of the fields won’t reach their full growth for another few weeks. But when I walk down the lane, or drive through mile after mile of golden grain gently waving in the wind, there is a strong sense of fulfilment. As far as the farms are concerned, this is the moment the whole year has been waiting for. This is what all the hard work has been about. It’s time to draw it all together and celebrate the goodness of land, rain, sunshine and fresh air, all contributing to the great harvest.

It is not surprising, given that ancient Palestine had an almost entirely rural economy, that the theme of harvest was a powerful image in the ancient scriptures, pointing forwards to the time when God would fulfil his promises at last. What’s more, when
things had gone badly wrong – when God’s people had gone away into exile in Babylon – some of the prophets spoke not just of a coming harvest, but of a fresh ‘sowing’. God would ‘sow’ his people again in their land, so that the new harvest, when it came, would be the result of a fresh act, a renewal of the covenant...

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright