Lent

I don’t remember when I first became aware of Lent. We didn’t observe Lent in the open-country Presbyterian Church that was my family of faith for my first 18 years. That may have been part of our Calvinist heritage that viewed with distrust anything that might be regarded as “Catholic,” or it may have been the free church tradition that had so much influence on our Presbyterian churches, at least in the Midwest. By my teen years I had probably learned about Lent, but it seemed pretty clear that it was Catholic Thing, that Protestants didn’t do Lent.

By seminary I was well aware of Lent, largely I think through the Methodist church we attended after college, but again not a lot was made of Lent at my non-denominational, evangelical seminary, though there were plenty of students and faculty members from liturgical churches. I think Lent really began to be important to me as I got into the parish and began to settle into the rhythm of the church year.

Now, while Lent is important to me, it’s not a season of personal focus so much as a time of corporate discipline. We add Wednesday services during Lent, so my preaching preparation is doubled. I don’t usually give up anything for Lent, though you can ask me about the time I fasted from coffee for 40 days (I almost made it the whole time). One year, in response to a suggestion from a colleague, I added something for Lent, volunteering at a local elementary school. I enjoyed that so much that I continued it long after Lent was over, which may prompt the question: should we be doing something during Lent that we enjoy, or are spiritual disciplines by definition painful?

Preaching twice a week in Lent is more work, but it’s work I enjoy. Paying more attention to prayer takes more effort, but it’s rewarding. Nobody likes thinking about sin and death, but they are the biggest realities of our lives, and any thoughts about sin draw us inevitably to Jesus Christ: his death, his resurrection, his intercession. There’s a reason it’s called Good Friday. Several years ago I saw a TV interview with the novelist John Updike, who had just published Roger’s Version. The interviewer noted that the central character of the novel was a minister, and that ministers had figured prominently in several of Updike’s stories; why was that? Updike’s answer went something like this: ministers are interestingly people [!] because they deal every day with things that most of us don’t have to think about very often: mortality, death, the meaning and purpose of life. And if you’ve read any Updike you know that those are the very themes he deals with on a regular basis.

So Lent has become an important part of my year, not only because there’s so much tradition behind it, but also because it’s the best way to get to Easter. As Shelley wrote, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”