{"id":2227,"date":"2019-03-07T22:11:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T05:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&p=2227"},"modified":"2019-03-07T22:11:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T05:11:41","slug":"lent","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/lent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble (And Blessing) of Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Lose Senior Pastor,
\nMount Olivet Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it. Lent is in trouble.<\/p>\n

Let me explain. Most of us have favorite holiday seasons. For some it\u2019s Christmas, with the family get-togethers and presents. For others it\u2019s the Fourth of July and summer, filled by a sense of national pride and beach vacations to boot. But each year at just about this time, it strikes me that very few of us would pick Lent, a season that seems to most of us as grim as the weather that usually attends it.<\/p>\n

Think about it: crossing off days on the calendar until Ash Wednesday; leaving work just a little early, saying \u201cI\u2019ve got to get my Lenten shopping done;\u201d advertisements on billboards and television reading \u201conly 12 more days \u2018til the day of Ashes;\u201d or little kids going to bed, asking their parents, \u201cHow much longer \u2018till Lent is here?\u201d It just doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

The trouble with Lent, I think, is fairly clear. It\u2019s buried right in the heart of the primary reading for Ash Wednesday, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6: \u201cAnd when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.\u201d (Sigh) Actually, you don\u2019t have to read the whole verse, as the brunt of the problem of Lent is in the first four words, \u201cAnd when you fast….\u201d \u2028\u2028And when you fast?! C\u2019mon. Except for the occasional crash diet before summer vacation, who fasts anymore?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And there it is in a nutshell, you see, the trouble with Lent: it feels like this strange, weirdly anachronistic holiday that celebrates things we don\u2019t value and encourages attitudes we don\u2019t share. No wonder that each year fewer and fewer churches observe this age-old (fourth century!) tradition \u2014 it\u2019s too old-fashioned, too \u201cRoman,\u201d too medieval for many contemporary Christians to handle.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s face it. Lent is in trouble. I mean, even among those traditions that do honor the season, rarely is there the same kind of enthusiasm or expectancy which greets Advent. Notice we don\u2019t sponsor Lenten Adventures for our kids; we don\u2019t have an Adult Lenten Dinner and Party. We don\u2019t pine to sing Lenten hymns ahead of time. Lent is in trouble.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know, maybe it\u2019s that there are no presents at the end, and no fun and games along the way. Or maybe it\u2019s that Lent asks us to give up things. I mean, my word, haven\u2019t we had to sacrifice enough already to get our kids through college, to save for retirement, to put that new roof on the house, thank you very much. Why should we give up anything more for Lent?<\/p>\n

Or maybe it\u2019s the themes of Lent that trouble us. Penitence. Sacrifice. Contemplation. These are the words of Lent, and I, for one, have a hard time believing they were popular even with the Puritans (you remember, the folks that actually held competitions to see who could resist the greatest temptation or avoid the most pleasure) let alone now.<\/p>\n

Lent, I\u2019m telling ya, it\u2019s in trouble. And so each year, as I listen to my non-Lent-observing friends knock it as \u201cworks theology\u201d and my Lent-observing friends complain about it as a pain in the @&!, the same question inevitably demands loudly to be answered: Why Lent? I mean, who really needs it?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But you know what? Each year, whatever my feelings approaching Lent may be, the same answer comes whispering back: I do. Just maybe, I need Lent. Just maybe I need a time to focus, to get my mind off of my career, my social life, my next writing project \u2014 and a hundred other things to which I look for meaning \u2014 and center myself in Meaning itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just maybe I need a time (is 40 days really enough?) to help clear my head of the distractions which any involved life in this world will necessarily bring and re-orient myself towards the Maker of all that was given for my pleasure and which I have let become merely distracting.<\/p>\n

Maybe I need the opportunity (and perhaps deep down I crave the chance!) to clear my eyes of the glaze of indifference and apathy which comes from situation after situation where I feel nearly helpless so that I can fasten my eyes once more on the almost unbearable revelation of the God who loves God\u2019s children enough to take the form of a man hanging on a tree.<\/p>\n

And maybe, just maybe \u2014 and this takes the greatest amount of imagination of them all \u2014 just maybe Lent really isn\u2019t mine to do with whatever I please. Perhaps Lent isn\u2019t even the Church\u2019s to insist upon or discard at will. Maybe Lent isn\u2019t any of ours to scoff at or observe. Maybe Lent is God\u2019s. Maybe Lent is God\u2019s gift to a people starved for meaning, for courage, for comfort, for life.<\/p>\n

If it is, if we can imagine that Lent is not ours at all but is wholly God\u2019s, then maybe we\u2019ll also begin to recall, at first vaguely but then more strongly, that we, too, are not ours at all, but are wholly God\u2019s \u2014 God\u2019s own possession and treasure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Seen this way, Lent reminds us of whose we are<\/strong>. The \u201csacrifices,\u201d the disciplines, these are not intended as good works offered by us to God; rather, they are God\u2019s gifts to us to remind us who we are, God\u2019s adopted daughters and sons, God\u2019s treasure, so priceless that God was willing to go to any length \u2014 or, more appropriately, to any depth \u2014 to tell us that we are loved, that we have value, that we have purpose.<\/p>\n

Yes. I need Lent. I need an absence of gifts so that I might acknowledge the Gift<\/strong>. I need a time to be quiet and still, a time to crane my neck and lift my head, straining to hear again what was promised me at Baptism: \u201cYou are mine! I love you! I am with you!\u201d<\/p>\n

I need Lent, finally, to remind me of who I am \u2014 God\u2019s heir and Christ\u2019s co-heir \u2014 so that, come Easter, I can rejoice and celebrate with all the joy, all the revelry, all the anticipation, of a true heir to the throne.<\/p>\n

And so yes, I need Lent. And to tell you the truth, I suspect that you do, too. You see, if Lent is in trouble, it\u2019s only because we\u2019re in trouble, so busy trying to make or keep or save our lives that we fail to notice that God has already saved us and has already freed us to live with each other and for each other all the rest of our days. And so we have Lent, a gift of the church, the season during which God prepares us to behold God\u2019s own great sacrifice for us, with the hope and prayer that, come Good Friday and Easter, we may be immersed once again into God\u2019s mercy and perceive more fully God\u2019s great love for us and all the world and in this way find the peace and hope and freedom that we so often lack.<\/p>\n

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