Dates: March 6th - April 20th, 2019

Color: Purple

 

Introduction

The Christian Year is a year-long story patterned after The Story of God’s love in Jesus Christ. Lent, which follows after Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, is a season that is marked by prayer, repentance, generosity, and self-denial. It is, by nature, a more somber season because it follows Jesus on the road to his passion and death. Lent invites us to consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus," (Romans 6:11). In her wonderful book Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren writes this about the cycles of the liturgical year:

“In the liturgical year, there is never celebration without preparation. First we wait, we mourn, we ache, we repent. We aren’t ready to celebrate until we acknowledge, over time through ritual and worship, that we and this world are not yet right and whole. Before Easter, we have Lent… We fast. Then we feast… Practicing the church’s time sets us at odds with the world’s time. Our culture tends to rush from celebration to celebration—from a month of Halloween to two months of Christmas to the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, Cinco De Mayo, and on and on and on. In the midst of our culture’s tendency to embrace constant revelry that leaves us feeling hung-over and empty, we are people in training, together learning to wait.”

(Liturgy of the Ordinary, pgs. 105, 107)

So we join in this season to prepare ourselves together for the great celebration of Holy Week. We live into Lent under the shadow of the cross, knowing that salvation has been won for us (Amen!) but also that our Savior bids us to come and die to find that we may truly live.  As Bobby Gross writes in Seeking God's Face,

“The spare and somber nature of Lent is healthy for the heart and true to the gospel, scrubbing away frothy spirituality by calling us to say no to ourselves in order to experience a greater yes to Jesus."

 

The Themes of the Season

The Rev. Craig Higgins, in his wonderful article On Keeping A Holy Lent answers the question, “How can I (& my community) keep a holy lent?” He writes:

“Traditionally, the Lenten season is observed in four basic (and often overlapping) ways: 

 

Self-Examination

"This is central to the traditional Lenten observance. Use this time to ask yourself some hard questions about your spiritual life, your spiritual maturity. If you’re married, ask your spouse to give you his or her evaluation of your spiritual health. Many Christians have a Christian friend, or a small group of fellow believers, who have agreed to hold them accountable. If you don’t have an accountability group or partner, Lent might be a good time to initiate such a relationship. Parents—especially fathers—could use Lent as time to spend more time with their children individually, trying to understand their particular spiritual struggles and providing them encouragement. With all this emphasis on self-examination, however, it is crucial to keep your focus the gospel: All of us are more sinful and helpless than we would’ve ever dared admit, yet in Christ we are more accepted and forgiven than we would’ve ever dared hope. Be careful that your self-examination is centered on this good news. There is always the danger of falling into morbid introspection, which can lead to despair over your own spiritual health and to a harsh legalism toward others."

 

Self-Denial

"The Lenten season traditionally is also a time for acts of self-discipline and self-denial, a time to remind ourselves that we do not live by bread alone. Self-denial helps us remember what is so beautifully signified in the Eucharist—that Jesus is the true bread of life, our only source of strength and sustenance. The two major fast days of the traditional church year—Ash Wednesday and Good Friday—both occur during the Lenten season. Traditionally, the other days of Lent—except Sundays, of course*—are marked by other acts of self-denial. Some common examples would be giving up one meal a day or giving up a particular food. Self-denial, however, doesn’t always involve what we eat; some people may work on other habits, seeking better to use their time... For families in this dangerously frenetic culture, Lent would be certainly be an appropriate time to cut back on the seemingly-endless flow of activities and spend time worshipping, praying, and learning together."

 

Acts of Compassion

"The Lenten season is a particularly appropriate time to ask God to fill you with compassion for the poor and oppressed and to put this into practice in concrete ways. This can take many practical forms. For example, there are Christians who give up one meal a day as a Lenten discipline, and then give the money they’ve saved by doing so to the poor... Or maybe you know an older person who lives alone who could use some help around the house—or would simply like having a friend. Some families save their loose change or forego some simple expenditures, then give the money to the poor."

 

Using the Means of Grace

"Finally, the Lenten season is a time for renewing our focus on the means of grace—a focus that all-too-easily fades when not given adequate attention. Historically, the church has said there are three means of grace—three instruments through which God helps us grow to be more and more like Christ: the Scriptures, prayer, and the sacraments…In our individualistic culture, it is all too easy to lose sight of the fact that Christianity is a communal faith, that the center of Christian life is not private religious devotion but corporate worship, gathering with fellow believers to sing, pray, and receive Holy Communion."

(On Keeping A Holy Lent, 2-4)

 

Practices for the Season

 

Resources for the Season