A Vision for Lent

"Then to Adam He said....Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3:17-19

The keeping of days, times or seasons must be based on the divine action and revelation of God lest it supplant the very calling of God. Thus the Church has, since ancient times, celebrated the Paschal cycle ("...indeed Christ our Passover, was sacrificed for us." I Cor. 5:7) which marks the very work of God's salvation in the earth made possible by the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Man had been separated from God by his sin and was without hope in this world. The continual offering of the blood of bulls and goats was insufficient to atone for his transgression. It required a supremely more perfect sacrifice, a divine sacrifice of the blood of the only begotten Son of God to accomplish redemption. It required Jesus Christ who was that "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world".

Informally the season starts on Septuagesima Sunday which marks out a period of time of about seventy days before the celebration of Resurrection Day. The next two Sundays before Lent, Sexagesima (sixtieth), and Quinquagesima (fiftieth) remind us of the transition made in the Church year from the celebration of the Lord's birth and Epiphany (manifestation) to the world, and the season of preparation for recalling His all-sufficient sacrifice. Formally, Lent (which comes from an Old English word meaning Spring) starts on Ash Wednesday. This day is marked by the placing of ashes on the heads of the faithful in the sign of the cross with the words "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." It is the pronouncement of death upon us, a recognition of the consequences of our sin. The words carry with them the same dread and sorrow which they did when Adam heard them from the very mouth of God. Unless God be gracious, the enormity of our sin must surely swallow us alive and carry us down to the grave. Ashes have always been a sign of frailty and transience (consider the grass thrown into the oven in Matt. 6:30). They also speak of mourning and repentance when seeking the favor of God (consider Esther 4:1 or Jonah 3:4-9). To us they speak of humility and repentance. The ashes used in the service come from burning the palms which were used during last year's Palm Sunday celebration when our hearts were joyful at the coming of our King. Now we humbly prepare those same hearts to turn from our sinfulness to seek again His righteousness.

Forty days are marked by Lent from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday. We do not count Sundays in our observance for these days have forever been marked as days of rejoicing and celebration by the Resurrection of the Lord. The other days are days marked by special prayer, fasting, self discipline in striving against sin, and sacrificial giving. The Church has always prescribed the two fold discipline of fasting and almsgiving as strong weapons in the fight against self-centeredness and indulgence. Forty is a sacred number being 4, the symbol of the earth, multiplied by 10, the symbol of the complete judgement of God. Forty days marked the deluge which cleansed the earth in the time of Noah; forty years the wandering of the Jews in the wilderness to purge their unbelief; forty days the fasting and warfare of Jesus in the wilderness against Satan. May we welcome this season as the time in which "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge [our] conscience from dead works to serve the living God." (Hebrews 9:14)