Ash Wednesday is a different experience for me as a pastor than any other day of the year. It is quite strange to have people line up to take their turn having me tell them that they are going to die. I said, “From dust you have come and to dust you shall return” to sixty-one people last night as I marked the sign of the cross in ashes on their foreheads. As I mentioned before, that’s basically me telling each person, “You’re going to die and that’s the way it is.” Many people even said, “Thank you.” Strange day, indeed.
It is a strange day that makes us come to grips with something that is absolutely foundational in Christian belief and practice: we are sinners through and through and the grave awaits us all. Because we are sinners we need God now. Because we all have an expiration date, we need God eternally. God has reached out to us in both our present and eternal predicaments through Jesus Christ. So this is how we kick off the season we call Lent: we get real about who we are and how badly we need God. If we are unwilling to begin there and to hold onto that throughout the season of Lent then we are wasting our time with Lent. After all, Lent is not really about giving up some little treats we enjoy or something we shouldn’t be doing anyway. As I read in an article this week, “Lent is not New Year’s resolutions part two.” Lent is about growing closer to God in Jesus Christ. So I offer this blog as an encouragement and to give some practical suggestions for Lent that you can, of course, take or leave.
Firstly, just a reminder that Lent is 40 days because in the Scriptures “40” is a number that signifies a time of testing and reflection: Noah is on the ark for 40 days and 40 nights, the Israelites are in the wilderness for 40 years, and most importantly Jesus spends 40 days in the desert being tempted by Satan. After those periods of “40,” Noah, his family, and the animals rejoice because of the dry land and rainbow, the Israelites enter the land of “milk and honey,” and Jesus returns to civilization to begin his ministry, proclaiming, “The time has come, the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” The periods of testing, the periods of “40,” don’t last forever, thankfully, but they do help refine us and make the “return” from the wilderness that much more powerful. So fairly early on, the church invented our own "period of 40" that we can observe each year to prepare for the sheer magnitude of God's love on the cross and the celebration of Easter Sunday.
In the spirit of "40," I encourage you to please take five minutes to watch the following video, making sure that your volume is on. It is a powerful “digital story” about Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. Perhaps it will help draw you closer to God in Jesus Christ, which is not only the goal of Lent, but the goal of Life.
Often I have been asked, “What are you giving up for Lent?” Depending on who is asking and whether or not I think they’ll be offended, my answer is sometimes, “That’s none of your business.” Suggestion number one: Don’t ask other people what they gave up for Lent. Suggestion number two: Don’t go out of your way to talk about what you gave up. If you choose to fast from something during Lent, then like all religious fasts that should be kept between you and God if at all possible. It is so tempting for us to find an excuse to mention what we are doing for God. Jesus talks again and again in the gospels about doing our acts of righteousness not to be seen by others, but to grow closer to God. This holds true with Lenten disciplines as it does with anything. Suggestion three: if you give something up then save up the money that you would have spent on that item each day and give that money to the poor. If you give up your daily Tim Horton’s latte to help remind you each morning of your reliance upon God, then put $3.00 every day in a jar and on Good Friday give that money away to a reputable organization that helps the poor or to a family you know who is in need.
Here’s suggestion number four: consider taking something on instead of giving something up. The rest of this blog will be dedicated to this suggestion. Perhaps, take on a daily prayer time or a daily Scripture reading plan. The point of Lent is to grow closer to God in Jesus Christ. Prayer and Scripture reading will facilitate that much more than giving up chocolate (a little won’t hurt anyway) or celebrity gossip (I’d encourage you to give that up permanently for obvious reasons). Catholic nun and author Joan Chittister writes, “[Ash Wednesday and Lent are] about opening our hearts one more time to the Word of God in the hope that, this time, hearing it anew, we might allow ourselves to become new as a result of it.” Giving up Dr. Pepper may not be the best way to go about hearing the Word of God anew.
If you are a parent of small children pick up one of the “Jesus in Jerusalem: A Daily Sticker Activity for Lent”
packets in the front lobby, but make sure you pick it up this Sunday as the daily readings and stickers started on Ash Wednesday so you don’t want to start out too far behind. Wyatt and I did the Advent version this past December and it provided a wonderful opportunity for us to read Scripture together and learn the story together. He loved the stickers and couldn’t wait each day for us to do it. 
Another idea is to download an app to your smartphone such as the Church of England's “Reflections for Lent.” It has a one-time cost of $1.99 and provides a scripture reading and devotion each day of Lent (excluding Sundays) right there on your phone. This is a 21st Century way of doing it and may make more sense for some of us. Another option to find a Bible reading plan for Lent is to look at the three options offered at Bible Gateway. I am always on the look out for ways that we can bring the Scriptures and spiritual disciplines into our technologically connected lives.I know that I have flooded you with options. You may prefer something totally different or you may think Lent is a bunch of bunk, which that is fine too. My goal as your pastor is to provide opportunities for you to grow closer to God in Jesus Christ and I am excited that this blog is allowing that to happen in a new way. Ultimately the life of faith is about the condition of our hearts in relation to God and others. As St. Augustine once said, "Love God and do what you want." That may seem too easy, but as Gary Wills writes, “The inner religion is not less demanding of the worshiper, but more demanding. It calls for a radical cleansing of the heart not to be achieved by externals.” If we truly love God then everything we want to do will glorify God and serve others in Jesus' name. If Lent helps the condition of your heart then observe it in a way that makes sense for you and whatever you do don't look down on Christians who do not observe it. If it doesn't help, then by all means don't do it, but please don't look down on Christians who do observe it.
Regardless, we are all on a journey toward Jerusalem together, toward a cross on Calvary, and ultimately toward an empty tomb in the garden.
Peace be with you all.
