Musings from a Pastor, Educator, Wife, and Mother





Monday, February 11, 2013

Let's Talk About Lent

I did not grow up paying all that much attention to Lent.  As a young person I perceived "giving up" something for Lent to be a very 'Catholic' notion and not something protestants really did.  Plus, giving up chocolate is just ludicrous! I think that even more now that as a pastor there are days when chocolate is a MUST to jump the hurdles as I sprint to Easter, as is caffeine. 

But, I do not really think that it is the giving up of something that is important.  Lent is not diet to help you shed the pounds you have not lost since you declared to do so New Years Day so by all means, if you like soda or chocolate, have some! If you are going to deprive yourself during Lent, at least know why and have some meaning behind it.  To sacrifice, I think is symbolic of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross.  That, to me, is way bigger than vowing not to eat M&Ms for a month.  A sacrifice in that case should be something that draws you into  greater relationship with the Lord.  Only you can decide what that looks like.  Maybe it is giving up that extra hour of sleep because you have been missing time in devotion or prayer.  Maybe it is removing one element of your life to add something greater to it.

I do find it fascinating that there are so many debates swirling around "not being allowed to say Merry Christmas on our public streets" or "not being allowed to pray in schools" and yet....many devoted Christians brush Lent under the rug, ignoring the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter mostly because we do not want to give up anything!  Especially our precious time, to go to a Bible Study or a community worship service, or simply to strengthen our faith at home.

  But let me be clear, giving up things  for Lent is not 'doing works' for salvation.  Lenten practices are not necessary for your salvation, only faith in the life, death, and resurrection that Easter celebrates is needed.

Lent can help attune our bodies, minds, souls, to that very moment of rejoicing that Christ Is Risen! It is a time of personal introspection.  Who are you, whose are you? What is your relationship with the triune God?  It is a time of communal worship.  We gather together in sanctuaries, fellowship halls, and homes to communally confess our sins to one another and be assured of the forgiveness we are granted in Christ. It can be a time to recall how great the sacrifice of life was for Christ and lament for the pain he and those who loved him endured.  We can lament the pain that we too as part of the greater humanity also endure as we strive to follow Christ's call to us.  It can be a time of study, a time to devote ourselves to learning more about our faith and perhaps the faith of others.

These are the reasons why, in recent years, Lent has become an important practice to me, not just because I am a pastor and I "have to do it," but that I want to experience this time, to honor Christ's sacrifice and find myself all the more joyful when we stand before the empty tomb. 

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