Lent as a Kick in the Teeth
February 6th, 2008 Posted in God, Church & StuffYesterday I made a side comment about how we tend to retain the fun part of holidays (i.e., the splurge of Fat Tuesday) and let slide the sacrificial part (i.e., the 40 days of prayer and fasting called Lent). So it made me realize I should think a bit more deeply about Lent and what it means.
Tonight’s Ash Wednesday service was a good reminder. The mark of the cross is made on our forehead with literal ash (side note: the ash usually comes from the palms used at last year’s Palm Sunday service) to remind us that “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The 40 days of Lent is kind of like a reality check. It’s a season when the church slows down, strips things away, and realizes that we are mere mortals. It’s a time of self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting and self-denial. The fact that it all seems very at odds with our busy world makes it all the more necessary.
Traditionally, people give things up for Lent. It’s amazing how hard that can be, but also how incredibly freeing. Our priest encouraged us to give up something more than just a treat like chocolate or coffee and make it a real sacrifice. “If you find you can live without it for 40 days, you might also be able to live without it for 40 years.”
I haven’t thought about what I’m going to give up (or if I will–this is a fairly new tradition for me and I don’t have a lot of practice at it [frankly, that's because I suck at giving things up]), but with our upcoming adoption and recent thoughts about making my life matter, I feel like a season of sacrificial living in general and being aware of my fellow man throughout the world might be in order (like the fact that the average American family uses at least 20 times the water of the average African family). It’s also a good time to walk through the house and find junk I don’t need.
A few lines from the Litany of Penitence we read tonight also stand out:
All our past unfaithfulness: the pride, the hypocrisy and impenitence of our lives, we confess to you, Lord.
Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, we confess to you, Lord. …
Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, we confess to you, Lord. …
For the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, accept our repentance, Lord.
For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, accept our repentance, Lord.
For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, accept our repentance, Lord.
Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us; favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.
Lent is kind of like a much-needed kick in the teeth for Christians. I think sometimes we could use that.
It also just so happens that I started reading Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution: Living As An Ordinary Radical the other day, which I think will be good reading for Lent.
