Dear <<First Name>>
Lent starts tomorrow – traditionally a six week period of preparation for Easter marked, before the Reformation, by fasting from meat and dairy products – Orthodox Christians still do this. Many of us try and give something up for Lent, others try and take something up as a positive outworking of spirituality.
During the first 28 days of Lent (not including Sundays) we will be looking at the Book of Job which is not a book many of us are familiar with. Very little of it appears in the Lectionary for Sunday readings which is shame as this Book tries to deal with the problem of reconciling God’s justice with the suffering of humanity. Tennyson felt that the Book of Job was the greatest poem of ancient and modern times so we think it’s well worth exploring over the next few weeks.
As a change to our normal pattern we have a guest writer for this series: the Rev’d Dr Janet Tollington who lectured, for many years, before her retirement, at our Westminster College in Cambridge. Her speciality is the Old Testament.
We hope that this change to our regular pattern will be refreshing as we look at this little known book in the first part of Lent.
with every good wish
Andy
Andy Braunston
Coordinator, Daily Devotions from the URC Project