Lent This Year

I’ve realized that this year I’m actually genuinely excited for Lent. I’m a good Presbyterian and often my understanding of Lent has been to associate it with feeling bad and unworthy and part of the cause of Jesus’ horrific death. Giving up something for Lent seemed a way to make up for that badness, and to somehow feel part of all the horrible things Jesus went through. Presbyterians tend to be good at feeling guilt, so it’s a comfortable place for us. I have a vivid memory of being handed a nail at a Good Friday service and being asked to bring it up to the cross at the front of the church. The message was clear - you did this, you caused this suffering - and the weeks leading up to this moment were preparation for the appropriate guilt.

But this year in particular, my perspective has shifted. I’m not sure exactly what twisted the kaleidoscope, but part of it is definitely Steve Bell’s influence and writings on the church year. Part of it is my own exhaustion from feeling anxiety and fear about where politics and the environment and our morality are heading. I’ve started to remember that Lent is a possibility for so much more than feeling bad. Yes, there is a place for repentance, but it is also an opportunity for shedding darkness, for self-discovery, and for recognizing the gifts available to us in Christ as we anticipate Jesus’ resurrection,. The next five weeks are an opportunity to come close to God, to reflect on the depth of Jesus’ love, and to find healing and refreshment. It is a time to recognize that our most black and darkest realities are ultimately no match for our God’s persistence and power and grace.

I will not forget all the moments in the story and the points on the journey leading up to the harsh realities of Holy Week, but I will also choose to soak in as much time with God as I can. My sermons will focus on spiritual practices to help others move beyond a vague guilt or feeling of misery and doom and instead to encourage encounters with the Messiah whose love is so much bigger than our brokenness, and who still seeks to heal us, to prove how loved we are as we are, and to give us the greatest gift of Himself. He is ready to meet us and restore us and remove our shame, infusing us with hope.

My Lenten journey will begin when I go to an Ash Wednesday service and allow someone to put the sign of the cross on my forehead. Someone else will be the leader, the vessel of God’s grace and the one reminding me that I came from dust and will eventually return to dust, relieving my anxiety that I’m supposed to be in control when really our God of mystery is. I will strive to carry that hope and reassurance with me through the next five weeks. And I will celebrate all the ways that we can find the security and new beginnings and love we crave in Christ. In worship we will reflect on fasts that bring relief to our over-burdened, over-stimulated and over-consuming lives. We will reflect on prayer and the many ways that God seeks to communicate with us. We will reflect on the privilege of worship and the many ways we can encounter the divine. We will consider the ways we can learn about ourselves and God through reflection and self-awareness. We will end with lament, a recognition that things are not as they should be, but that the answer is found ultimately in our saving God, because we just aren’t able to fix what is wrong ourselves and need the One who can to help and guide us.

The Lenten journey is ultimately one of hope. A Man was willing to undergo an often difficult few years of intense ministry in and among us as God incarnate, and then a gut-wrenching last few days before His painful and cruel death. He knew that this was His destiny and accepted it for us so that we could be close to God once again and made whole and rescued from ourselves. This remarkable story should humble us, should give us pause, and should make us more aware of how far from perfect we are. But it should also be a story that we are immensely grateful for and one that leads to celebration and joy and wonder.

You may choose to experience the next five weeks differently than me, but my prayer is that you will fully engage in this precious time. I challenge you to dig deep to commune regularly with God, to listen carefully, to give time to your spiritual walk and to make the most of the opportunities placed in front of you to be in relationship with the divine.

I’m ready for Lent! Are you?