Thank you for friends and family and church. Thank you for your promise to be always with us. Thank you for your love. Amen HYMN 250 ‘Christ, when for us you were baptized’ REFLECTION By Rev Martin Goodwin, with thanks. It's a strange time, Lent. For the next several weeks, along with giving up whatever it is we're giving up, we'll be taking up something too. Taking up our cross anew, and walking with Jesus to Jerusalem. Lent is a journeying time. Some of us, when we travel, like to get to a place as quickly as possible - the destination's the thing. I wonder if sometimes we do this a bit with Lent? For me it is…'Okay, no chocolates for the next five weeks and then - resurrection, Easter eggs, Yipee!' It's so easy to fall into this pattern for Advent, the other time of waiting in our liturgical calendar. We get so caught up in the expectations - the promise of what lies ahead, that sometimes, we forget about the 'now' and the preparation required to get to the promise of 'then'. Just as Noah had to spend time preparing for the flood by building a boat, Jesus spent time in the Wilderness, preparing for his public ministry. And we, in our turn, now spend time in lent, preparing for the joyous news of Easter. It's a strange time, Lent, because we have a paradox. We move inexorably towards the final destination: Jerusalem and Holy Week. And yet, the journey is also the destination. Let's have a look at the Gospel reading.. Jesus is baptised by John in the Jordan and the heavens are 'torn apart'. There's an echo here from the first Sunday of Advent, of the prophet Isaiah crying out to God -'Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down .'. And there's a foreshadowing of the curtain in the Temple being torn in two at Jesus' death. Past, present and future blend together if only for a moment. The gentle Spirit-dove descending on Jesus becomes the driving Spirit, sending Jesus to the Wilderness.