Here we are, it’s Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season. It seems like we just took down the Christmas tree and put all those decorations away. Now we’re beginning the journey of Lent that will take us to the foot of the cross and eventually to the empty tomb. This is a time of reflection and deep introspection into whose we are.
Lent has always seemed appropriately solemn to me. I recently was in New Orleans to visit my good friend Hadley. Of course, you know that’s a city full of the party spirit. No other time is more festive there than the time of Mardi Gras/Carnival. The city pulls out all the stops to encourage revelers in the lead up to the beginning of Lent. I’m not sure if you know, but they even make a big celebration out of the city greasing the light poles. This is done to keep people from shimming up them to view the parades. Everywhere you go the festive spirit is in full bloom. Come midnight on Fat Tuesday though, it all shuts down. The city workers sweep in to clean up all the refuse, hose down the streets, and the city makes ready to enter the solemnity of Ash Wednesday and Lent.
It seems a little odd that as we make our way into Spring, we would tone things down and seem so somber. Spring is the time of year for new beginnings, everything begins to green up and bloom. The weather is chaotic and often violent, like it was yesterday. Winds blowing, rain falling with such intensity. All of this seems to fall in line with the meaning of a riotous Spring. With all of that energy being displayed, we corral ourselves with a very different kind of intentionality.
Lent is the period of preparation for Easter. Both Lent and Easter are the oldest liturgical seasons the Church has celebrated. Easter is of course the hallmark of our faith, the understanding of Jesus being raised from the death to life, and our belief that it symbolizes our own eternal journey. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection give us a hope for life beyond our mortal existence.
It may seem a little hard to subdue our feelings during this time of Spring appearing. In order for us to properly experience the ecstatic joy which accompanies Easter morning, we have to first go through our own dark night. Lent gives us the opportunity to focus on not only Jesus’ journey to the cross, but our own calling to follow him in the ultimate giving of ourselves for others. We know the journey wasn’t easy for Jesus, and it shouldn’t be for us either. During this solemn period, we are encouraged to engage in faithful prayer and supplication. We approach God in our prayer time, asking for God’s direction in our lives. Asking God to show us the path we should take, and then committing ourselves to carrying our own cross on our journey.
As followers of Jesus, we are like the first followers. We are filled with all of our flaws, all of our failings, all of the peculiarities that accompany our humanness. Yes, we are going to commit to following Jesus, and then we will fail. Yes, we will swear our lives will be lived as a testament to what Jesus came for, and then we will fall by the wayside. This is really what the season of Lent is all about. It is an acknowledgement of all we cannot do on our own, of our recalcitrant nature. But in acknowledging all of that, we also will come to understand how dependent we are on the God who loves us in spite of our failings.
My Muslim friends are also engaged in a season of prayer and supplication, its called Ramadan. This is the time they believe when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, Peace by upon him. They take this time very seriously. They fast from sun up to sun down. They pray fervently. They abstain from all other pleasures during this period. It is a holy time for them.
Lent for us is the same, a time to focus on God’s love and all God has done, is doing, and will yet do in the future. We are called to place our attention on God, not on ourselves, not on our desires, not on anything but doing God’s will. In much of our Christian tradition, we have been asked to give up favorite foods and even pleasurable activities. The giving up of those things has been meant to give more attention to God in our prayer time. That “giving up” has been meant to mimic the sacrifice Jesus made for the world. When we realistically delve into the practice, we realize nothing we do could ever compare to what God did through Jesus for us.
You’ve probably seen the suggestion or our not giving up what we love and enjoy, but rather giving up the habits which separate us from God’s intention for us. We should give up gossiping about others. We should give up our hate-filled rhetoric. We should give up our greed. We should give up our fear of those who are different. We should give up our desire to control and manipulate others for our own self-aggrandizement. We should give up our attitudes that center our lives on ourselves, and begin to live as if we are in the very presence of God in our neighbors.
Although Spring is chaotic, and riotous, and unpredictable, and filled with so much energy, maybe there is something to the Lenten ritual I’ve written about. Maybe when we engage in prayer and giving up those things that separate us from God, we may actually be ready to truly revel in the explosion of life Spring promises, and God provides.
May our Lenten journey be filled with a closer walk with the God who created us, sustains us, loves us, and revives us. May our act of giving up the worst parts of us be an opportunity to take on the best parts of who God made us to be.
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom