Introduction
When I was a child growing up
in Connecticut and Massachusetts in the
I do remember
wondering why all of a sudden in the middle of winter, some of my friends came
to school with a black mark on the foreheads
I didn’t know that it was supposed to be a sign of the Cross. And I had no notion of what Ash Wednesday had
to do with the Christian faith.
For a young
Protestant kid from the suburbs, this was all somewhat mysterious and
weird: what was going on? Later I heard some of my friends talking
about giving up chocolate for Lent, but I still didn’t know what Lent was all
about and how come my church didn’t participate in it? So when I asked them “Why are you giving up
chocolate for Lent?” they looked at me like I was a moron and said, “Because
Father told us that is what we had to do.”
End of story, quit behaving like and idiot!
And this really
made me curious: who was Father? My neighbor, Lee Bonner’s father who worked
at the Sikorski Plant with my uncle Phil?
Patty O’Connell’s father, Gene, who liked to go out drinking with my
father or play bridge with my parents on Friday nights? Some other father –
some mystical father – who was somehow related to all these kids with black
marks on their foreheads? I had no idea…
I don’t think it was until I was
well into my 20s that I began to read about Lent – where it came from and why
it mattered – and it was only after my babies were born that we tried to figure
out how to observe a Holy Lent as a family.
And as the decades have rolled by, I find that many in our tradition not
only don’t know a lot about the origins and intentions of Lent, but think the
best we can do is the exact opposite of the Roman Catholics, right? If THEY do THIS, then WE must do THAT!
But I don’t think we
construct a healthy and life-giving spirituality by keeping score or simply
doing the opposite so that we can be different.
That strikes me as foolish and childish – that’s what adolescents do in
reaction to their parents – YOU don’t smoke, so I WILL smoke? YOU go to church, so I WON’T go to
church. YOU dress modestly, so I’ll
dress WEIRD. We’ve all seen it, we’ve
all done it and in time most of us grow out of it, too. No, I have come to believe that a healthy and
life-giving spirituality cuts deeper than adolescent rebellion.
So I want to offer a few
thoughts and suggestions this morning about how we might construct a holy and
life-giving Lent for ourselves this year – for children and families as well as
those who are single or empty-nesters or live in some other type of family or
community – what are some of the ingredients for making Lent matter? That’s the challenge for today.
Insights
Now there are two background
realities that I need to tell you right out of the gate:
+ First, the season
of Lent is NOT about simply giving up chocolate – or TV or computer games –
because Lent is mostly not about giving up anything. It is more about making
room than giving up. Making room for
more faith, making room for more hope, making room for more love. Do you grasp the difference?
+ Have you ever
cleaned out your closet or your dresser in order to make room for something
new? What have you done with your old
clothes? Most of us pass them on to Goodwill or friends and relatives who can
get some more use out of them, right?
It’s not that the old things are bad, but before we can get something
new, we have to make more room.
That’s the first thing about
Lent: it is about making more room in
our hearts and lives for God. And I
don’t mean just thinking about God or your favorite Bible story – that’s ok and
there is nothing wrong with that – because Lent is not just about ideas. It is about practicing new ways of living
that make us more like Jesus.
+ And that’s the
second truth about Lent: there are three
practices that help us become more like Jesus if we find ways to do them. They are fasting, prayer and caring for the
poor. And they are actions – disciplines
– spiritual practices that require something more than thought from us.
+ They ask us to
make room so that as we put some things aside – or give them away – we practice
living in the image of God. We practice
choosing to act more like the image of God than the image of Miley Cyrus or
Justin Beiber or Jay-Z or anyone else.
Lent is about choosing to
live more like the image of God than anything else – and that takes
practice. Is that clear? Before I say anything more, do you understand
what I’m saying about making room in our lives to practice the image of God?
For that’s the only reason we DO Lent:
it helps us practice becoming more like Jesus. So if you have ANY
questions, ask me right now…
There are three practices
we’ve been asked to try during Lent – three ways of making more room in our
lives for God – that will make us more like Jesus. And in our tradition, we believe that Jesus
shows us what God is truly like – Jesus shows us as much of God’s truth and
beauty and love as we can comprehend – so if we want to become more like the
Lord, then Jesus is our guide or model.
There are three practices to
work on during the 40 days of Lent. They
aren’t the ONLY things to work on, but they are important. And because life is
busy and hard, we only work on three during Lent so that we’re not worn out and
overwhelmed. And the three practices
for making room for God are: prayer,
fasting and caring for the poor. And
let’s talk about each one for just a moment.
+ What is prayer
all about? We say all kinds of prayers
in church – the Lord’s Prayer, the Lamb of God prayer, the prayer of
confession, prayers for other people – all types of prayer.
+ But what is most
important during our prayers? I think it
is being quiet and silent long enough to hear something of God’s love coming
back to us. Our words are not as
important in prayer as our listening; our words mostly help us get ready to
listen. That’s why in
just a minute we’re going to put away the word ALLELUIA from our songs and
prayers during Lent – we’re going to put it away so that we can make more room
for listening – we’re going to put it away so that we can feel how much we miss
it. And when we bring it back on Easter,
it will be like a party or a feast!
So how might you practice
listening for God more during the 40 days of Lent in your life – or family – or
house? What can you do to make more room
for quiet and listening for the Lord?
The second making room
practice is fasting: traditionally
fasting meant giving up something up like food so that the money we ordinarily
spent on food could be used to care for those who were poor. It was a way of
making room in our bodies for more love.
But it doesn’t have to be about food: sometimes you can fast from TV –
or computer games – or complaining – or gossiping.
+ When my daughters
were young they went through a phase where when they got angry, they slapped
one another. And then one girl would run
to me and tattle and complain and cry.
+ So one year
during Lent we tried a fast from slapping – and whenever a slap did happen –
they had to come to me and slap me as hard as they had just slapped their
sister! Let me tell you, slapping ended
abruptly that year!
+ So how could you make more
room in your life this Lent so that some money or food or energy could be used
to help others? How might you practice a Lenten fast?
And last there is caring for
the poor: Jesus said that the poor will
always be with us – not because they are bad or lazy or cursed – but because
others will always be selfish and cruel and unfair. During Lent, we are asked to pay attention to
the poor in our world – not to look the other way when we see something that
disturbs us – but to connect with the pain.
Offer some help or compassion. Make some room in our hearts for someone
besides those we love.
· Often during Lent
we write letters to our leaders in Congress asking them to make certain they
don’t cut off money for food stamps and other resources that help the
poor. Last year we asked Congress not to
cut back on foreign aid so that we might help the hungry throughout the world.
· Later this month,
our church and some people from South Church are going to actually make a meal
at the Christian Center on a Saturday to feed about 90 people who would go
hungry if it wasn’t for this meal.
· So how could you
make more room in your life this Lent to care for the poor? Any thoughts…?
Conclusion
We
prepare ourselves for a holy Lent by making room. The more we practice making room for God, the
more loving we become – not all at once – but over a life time. We put away the alleluia so that we have more
room for silence. We come to worship in
the middle of the week for Ash Wednesday to say we have room for prayer and
worship in the middle of all our other responsibilities. We take upon our
forehead the sign of the Cross to remind ourselves that we are not the center
of the universe: God is.
My
hope and prayer is that this Lent will be a joyous time of making more room for
the Lord. Today, we commit ourselves to
making more room for a few new members, who are now ready to be a part of our
community. So let me invite them to come
forward at this time…
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