The Season of Lent (Feb. 22 – April 7)

Lent offers us an opportunity to create space for grace. It is a season of the Church that spans forty days (excluding Sundays) beginning on Ash Wednesday and culminating on Palm Sunday as Holy Week begins. For early Christians, Lent was a time to prepare for baptism which only happened on Easter Sunday morning. It was marked by a time of prayer, self-reflection, and preparation for Easter. The number forty is connected with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his ministry. Today, Lent is a time for repentance. It is “housekeeping for the soul” where we clear out the clutter in our lives to receive God’s gift. The traditional practices of Lent, which include fasting and giving up something that hinders us from connecting with God, are not meant to give us “spiritual brownie points” to earn God’s grace. Rather these activities are meant to help us to clear out the clutter in our lives to see, hear and receive God’s grace.

While the word Lent is never mentioned in the Bible, its practices are a vital part of what the Old Testament calls teshuva or “turning” to God. When translated as “repentance,” as it usually is, this word suggests that we turn away from our own faults, inadequacies, sins, and failings (see 2 Chronicles 7:14). Quite simply, Lent is an invitation to turn away from self-preoccupation toward available grace. The same can be said for the New Testament word metanoia, the Greek word that is translated as “repentance.” It literally means “going beyond your present state of mind.” It implies a turning of our whole selves, including our faults, strengths, and everything else inbetween, toward God’s grace.

Contrary to popular belief, this “turning” is neither a once-in-a-lifetime event nor a life-long preoccupation with sin. But it is “creating space for grace” by turning toward God. This involves a continual, habitual recurring shift from an ego-driven agenda to a receptive openness to grace.

I encourage you to take time to create space for grace by creating prayer time and meditation.  If you are not sure where to start, consider visiting www.d365.org.  It is a great website that is quite simple and yet quite profound. It is a great way to hear calming music, read scripture and devotion, and focus to pray.

Ash Wednesday
Worship at 12 noon and 6:30p
Just a few ashes are all that are needed to begin the season of Lent.

Ashes are the product of burning something away. They are what is left over after fire passes over or through something.  For many, our first association with ashes comes from childhood where we watched fires burn in our fireplaces, or we gathered around a campfire.  The ashes for Lent are made from the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday.

So exactly why do we put ashes on our foreheads to start the season of Lent?

One reason is because the ashes are symbols to remind us of who we are. The Bible tells us that we came from the dust and to the dust we shall return. Humankind was formed out of the dust of the earth by God and then God breathed life into that dust (Genesis 2:7).

Ashes are also a sign of repentance. Receiving ashes during Ash Wednesday prepares us for Lent, the time when we are called to repent and change our ways. In biblical times, it was common for people who were mourning to dress in sackcloth and put ashes on their heads. There are several stories in the Bible where the people come to God and sit before him “in sackcloth and ashes” to show their repentance and to seek God’s forgiveness.

So the ashes are meant to be symbols of our mortality and signs of repentance showing that we are truly seeking to follow in God’s path.

They may be small and not so noticeable, but they sure do mean a lot. They signify our need for God. They are also a way of showing on the outside what is happening on the inside. So as you have the sign of the cross placed on your foreheads, repent of your self-reliance and self-seeking. Start off your Lent as a redeemed child of God seeking to be filled with grace.