40 Days: it's raining

As Lent begins, it may be worth remembering that its 40 days are reminiscent of many more such time periods in the Bible.  Many think that 40 days and nights were an expression for 'a long time' but that cannot be proven one way or another.  It is clear that wherever it occurs in Scripture this period of time is of divine significance and not a counting coincidence.

In the UK we have just come through a very wet February.

Genesis 7 may or may not be set in February but (verse 12) the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.  Was it climate change?  Most certainly.  Was it man-made climate change?  Well, yes and no.

We don't know how the ensuing flood affected polar life, deep ocean life or many other questions but we do know that it judged human life.  It was sent by God the creator but the cause was Man the sinner.

It has been argued that this was the first rainfall, a thought more persuasive if the rainbow after the flood was also the first rainbow as is implied.  But nowhere does the Bible affirm this clearly (e.g. read here).  The significance of the rain days were that they represent a solemn length as ordained by God.  Whilst a day or two might just simply seem to happen - forty days never so.

The current fear factor of the coronavirus stems in part from its length of days.  As week follows week humans get the message that this is something to think and care about.  The forty days of rain were God's message that sin, concerning which humans are notoriously careless, is something to care about.

Lent is forty days for us to give it some thought in drier conditions.

Storm Ciara

It was a very wet and windy Sunday.

I'm not a huge fan of the over-safety culture in which we live, but nonetheless I tweeted a warning for people to think twice about the safety of travelling to our morning service.  Probably more related to common sense than my tweeting, several people hunkered down and stayed indoors.

Then, later on I discovered that the Queen had also stayed at home instead of her usual visit to the Church in Sandringham.  I don't expect she'd read my tweet, but for a 93 year old it seemed very wise too.

I reflected on this a bit.

Here's Psalm 104:

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
2 Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,
Who makes the clouds His chariot,
Who walks on the wings of the wind,
4 Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire.

Unshockingly the monarch of Great Britain can be held back by the wind.

But the King of kings can, as it were, walk all over it.

Nelson and Brexit

Inevitably on such a momentous day as Brexit Day the mind turned to Anniversaries.

If you are of a Brexiteer mindset the gift to Brexit Day appeared to lie in the very heart of London.  For January 31st was the anniversary of the unveiling of Nelson'e column (1867) in Trafalgar Square.  

And what greater affirmation of Britain's independence from - and hostility to - European domination could Brexit Day want than that?

Nelson's story is a lot more complicated than that though.  It illustrates why it is hopeless to deal with issues like Brexit in a binary way.

Here is one of his later life signatures, and following his appointment as a Duke in Italy he proudly added Bronte - he was Duke of Bronte - to his signature until the day he died.

Europe, for Nelson, was a mixture of good and bad; sometimes an enemy, sometimes a friend - both his proud boast in Naples and his personal nemesis at Trafalgar.

For every Christian this world is always something like that.  As 'strangers in the world' and citizens of another (heavenly) country the journey here is filled with good and bad.  Our Lord was feted at feasts and crucified at Calvary, listened to by crowds and disobeyed by close disciples.

No delight or disaster in this world is of the depth of being rightly or wrongly positioned for the world to come.