A few days before his death in March 1910, a saintly and much–loved Bishop of Lincoln, Edward King, wrote to his diocese that his dearest wish had been to lead them to be Christlike Christians.
At first sight this looks tautologous – surely the basic calling to any Christian disciple is to become more Christlike each day, as every confirmation service reminds us?
However, on deeper reflection we may realise that King’s phrase is far from tautology. In an age infinitely more conscious of image than was his, Christians may easily become more concerned that they appear effective, confident, persuasive and generally attractive so that others might see something of the person of Christ reflected in their lives. Indeed to seem to be too Christlike might even appear to suggest naivety, impracticality, timidity and ineffectiveness, none of them seem as cardinal virtues in the culture of today. (That fact that none of these ‘unfashionable’ epithets may reasonably be applied to Christ is apparently ignored.) Growing into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, as Saint Paul expressed it to the Ephesians, is, however, the daily calling of God to every Christian disciple, and the season of Lent is given to us to be a ‘reality check’ on what is the authentic reality of our lives rather than that which struttingly masquerades as such.
George Herbert in one of his poems cleverly suggests that we invert the traditional approach to this season of the church now before us. Changing one letter in one word, he invites us to see Lent as a feast rather than a fast. Lent is to become a celebratory spiritual banquet that we approach with great expectation and happy anticipation for the nourishing impact it will have on our souls.
True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
Where good is seasonable.
Herbert also reminds us that there is physical and spiritual benefit to abstinence. Although the value of fasting has largely been abandoned as a concept in the Christian traditions of the West, it is nevertheless generally recognised that for those for whom it poses no physical or psychological dangers, the discipline of controlled fasting is beneficial to both body and soul. Asceticism of any kind is too readily seen as a pathological condition, but Herbert provides a welcome reminder that if we use the discipline of Lent for the good of others and of our own souls, it can be nothing but wholesome and utterly healthy. We hear echoes of Our Lord’s insistence that our spiritual observances and practices should not be done to attract the admiration of others, but instead that our lives should be turned outwards and away from ourselves for the benefit of others. So, Herbert concludes his poem:
Yet Lord instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sin and taking such repast
As may our faults control.
That ev’ryman may revel at his door,
Not in his parlour, banqueting the poor.
And among those his soul.
Becoming a Christlike Christian is not the work of a day, or a week, or even of a single Lent. It is the calling of a lifetime of Christian discipleship. Nevertheless we can each use this Lent to set ourselves – more joyfully, and perhaps even more exuberantly than we might ever have thought possible – to take the sustenance that our souls most need in the pursuit of the holiness that is God’s loving will for us all.