Lent

Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten journey of 40 weekdays (Monday through Saturday) that takes the church to the eve of Easter. We had our service at St. Andrews UMC on the 17th of February. We had a time of scripture reading, singing, a short lesson, and communion. This year is unique in that Ash Wednesday had Communion and Easter falls on the first Sunday of April and we will also have Communion. Now, I don't know about you, but for me bookending Lent with Communion is a special gift. This is going to be a very interesting Lenten season.

Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, therefore, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred to as the Sundays in Lent.  The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling.  This season of the year is equal only to the Season of Advent in importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost.

The color used in the sanctuary for most of Lent is purple, red violet, or dark violet .  These colors symbolize both the pain and suffering leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus as well as the suffering of humanity and the world under sin.  Purple is also the color of royalty, and so anticipates through the suffering and death of Jesus the coming resurrection and hope of newness that will be celebrated in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  Christian churches that observe Lent focus on it as a time of prayer, especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the need for God’s grace.  It is really a preparation to celebrate Easter, and the resurrected life that Christians live and hope for.

Many modern Protestants consider the observation of Lent to be a choice, rather than an obligation. They may decide to give up a favorite food or drink (e.g. chocolate, alcohol) or activity (e.g. going to the movies, playing video games) for Lent, or they may instead decide to take on a Lenten discipline such as devotions, volunteering for charity work, and so forth.
  

In addition to the service we passed out Lenten devotionals supplied by the Society of Saint Andrew.  http://www.endhunger.org/  We used these last year and they were very well received and used by the churches. I encouraged everyone to use this as a preparation during Lent. I have found that I have such a busy life that if I don't use all the resources that I can find to prepare my heart before Easter or Christmas, I get to that special day carrying the load of my daily life and missing what God had for me.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who experiences this. So I encourage you to do whatever you can to prepare yourself for what God has prepared for you this Lenten season.

 

 

Ash Wednesday

Last evening we had our Ash Wednesday service for the Mount Airy Charge at St. Andrews UMC. We had 23 attending, which is great for a weekday night. Folks from all three churches were there, plus a visitor (sort of a visitor), my dad rode with me from Lynchburg.

I really dumped on Brian Daniels from Providence UMC and got him to read one of the scripture passages with no advance notice. It is the passage from Joel 2:1-2, 12-17. The passage has the prophet calling the people to repentance. When I read it I could hear Brian's voice speaking the part of the prophet. So, when I saw Brian come into the church, I couldn't resist. He did a great job, he sounded just like I had heard it in my head.

The message came from Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21. In it Jesus tells his disciples to give to the needy, pray, and to fast. But the emphasis is on attitude not just the doing of the acts.

The ashes we used were from burning the palm leaves from last year's Palm Sunday. I had had a terrible time getting those year old, dried out leaves to burn. I went through an entire pack of matches and it never worked. I finally used one of those butane candle lighters and just kept the flame on the leaves until they were all burned up. I didn't need to really worry. It's amazing how far a little ash and some oil go when your dabbing it on someone's forehead. I had enough for a full sanctuary and an overflow crowd standing in the parking lot. They don't have an ash recipe with measurements of how much will serve how many.

Now we are in the season of Lent. I've tried to get folks in the congregations to seriously think about what they will give up for Lent. I hear people saying, "I'm giving up seafood, I'm allergic to it". I had thought about fasting for Lent, but I have people I work with who make my life miserable if they find out I'm not eating for Lent. So, I decided to try fasting two meals a day and only eat after sundown. I'm also going to drastically cut my television watching and do some serious reading. That actually may be harder for me than giving up food, I'm really hooked on watching the news channels.

I actually like the Lenten season. I like the personal preparation for Easter. Life can be so busy and when we give something up during Lent it should help us to slow down and focus. I'm wanting to get myself quieted so I can hear. As I used to tell the youth group, "If you want to hear from God, sometimes you have to shut your mouth". So, I think I'll follow those instructions. Have a blessed Lenten season.