Preparing for Lent, a wife that is awesome, and growing up in the church

A long title for a long week.

This week has been interesting and good in many ways.  Wendy has not had to go to work because Trinity has a unique schedule that includes a mid-winter AND a spring break.  Consequently, she’s had lots of Jan time.  Additionally, she’s been working some full days at church with me.  She gives her time so freely and selflessly, and I’m deeply in her debt (which perhaps is her master plan).  Consequently, this week, which may have otherwise been almost unbearably busy for me, has been very manageable.  It turns out that when two people work my job, life gets easier.

In addition, Jan has been with us all week.  So when Wendy is at church, so is Jan.  In a lot of ways I think he loves this because he gets to be in huge rooms, like the sanctuary, where he can crawl for a hundred feet uninterrupted by annoying things like walls.  While we have been working we’ve taken to putting all Jan’s toys at the back of the sanctuary, putting him back there too, and running to the front to accomplish some task.  It takes Jan at least a minute to get up to the front and climb the stairs to the platform (his newly acquired talent, which he’s keen to show off – he doesn’t even care what happens once he’s up, so long as he occasionally gets to climb stairs).  So we accomplish work in fits and starts.  Here are some examples.   The first is Jan walking past the equipment we were using (electric lift to get us to the ceiling), and one of Jan trying to get to the paint in my paint tray:

Also, while at church, we thought it would be fun to take a few pics of Jan in the font in which he was baptised.  I don’t think this is sacrilegious, but just in case, don’t mention it to the pastor…

Another thing that has made my life easier in the last year is a group of people in the church called the fine-arts team.  They have answered my pleas for help, done excellent work, and not been too peeved when I changed my mind after seeing the “finished” product.  Thanks, folks, you’ve made the installations we do a reality.  Look at these busy bees painting away with the extremely vague instructions: “paint it so it looks like there is movement.  You know, motion, lines, and that sort of thing.” They got it done.

A brief explanation of what our current installation is:  Our Ash Wednesday service (listen to it here:  http://sbcrc.org/news/podcast.html) began with the imposition of ashes – the idea that we die with Christ.  But it did not end there, as many Ash Wednesday services do.  Instead we then celebrated Holy Communion, to help us remember that while we are entering the forty days of Lent, we are doing so with the realisation that the outcome is the resurrection, and we are redeemed beings living in hope and expectation.  Following Communion, the congregation was invited to go to the back of the sanctuary where there were lumps of clay which they were invited to make into pinch pots.  These pots represent our lives which are empty vessels – empty without Christ and the life we gain through his sacrifice.  We were then invited to place these pots on a cross on the platform, leaving our empty lives at the cross where we die with Christ, but where we are also raised to new life in him.

Today Wendy and I took similar pots (made by the aforementioned fine arts team) and made an outline of Christ on the cross attached to the wall.  These pots made on Ash Wednesday were transformed into the sacrificed body of Christ.  On Good Friday these pots will be smashed during the service, and on Easter they will reappear as pieces of a mosaic of the risen Christ.

I’ll include more pictures of the installation (which will be completed tomorrow), but for now, I leave you with these pots, showing our Lenten journey toward Christ.

The peace of the Lord be with all of you.