Lenten Lessons: Season of sacrifice
I've always loved the season of Lent, which seems a bit strange, even to me. My instructions have always been to devote these weeks to suffering and sacrifice, so better to understand the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus for us. Better understanding is a good thing, I'm all for that, but I've never been a fan of either suffering or sacrifice. In fact, I really truly dislike suffering and/or sacrifice. I really prefer joy and fun, overindulgence and parties. Nevertheless, if it's February and I'm complaining it's too hot already and whining for my winter back, it must be Lent.
For those who aren't in churches that observe the Lent season, it's the 40 days Jesus was in the desert, being tempted by Satan and all. And the 48 days before Easter. Why 48? Sundays don't count as Lent days, and we've got to get the proper 40 days of Lent in there somehow, so we start an extra eight days ahead. A lot of people give up much loved things for Lent. Like chocolate, or desserts, or saying the f-word, those are the kinds of things people give up. I haven't given up anything for Lent in quite a long time, not since a Lenten sermon charged us with adding to our spiritual lives to gain a better understanding of the suffereing of Jesus. I've added special Lent lessons, Lent devotionals to go with my regular ones, more prayer, more study, more scripture. Adding fasting days, which used to scare me they sounded so hard, but of everything I've mentioned in this list, fast days are for sure the easiest.
These things are just ways and means, though. The reason I love Lent is because it always changes me. I learn new things, or learn old things from a different point of view. Mostly things I wondered why I'd never figured out before. So I'm going to write here some of the things I've learned this Lent. It's almost over and I better write good chunks or else Easter will arrive and I'll still be talking about Lent.
I already can't remember the first Sunday in Lent. My first, my first what? insight? that makes it sound greater than these are probably. awakening? I was supposed to awaken during Advent and I think I did, but now perhaps I've dozed off again. I guess I'll call them "thoughts new to me" even though I was hoping to find the one word that was right. But anyway, the first thought that was new to me came out of personal devotions, or maybe on Ash Wednesday. I should have been writing all along, I have already integrated these new thoughts and now I can't remember what pieces were new. I do remember being struck by the reading out of Joel "Come back to me with all of your heart." Perhaps that's where Lent needs to start. Or at least where this year started for me.
Come back to me with all of your heart.
(to be continued)
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Shout it Out Janet!
In solidarity sista'
xoxe
Isaiah 58 1-12 (New International Version)
True Fasting
"Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing+ will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
AND IF you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.