What Is Lent? Series

WHAT IS LENT?

Last Wednesday we celebrated Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. While I was eating my share of pancakes at a Shrove Tuesday dinner, someone asked me just exactly what is Lent, which started me thinking. For those of us raised in the church (particularly the Roman Catholic Church), we never really talked about what Lent is. We just knew we had to be on our best behavior and give up something (the most common being chocolate).

The name word is a German word for Spring (lencten) and the Anglo-Saxon name for March – lenct –because Lent usually occurs in March. This is another example of Christianity borrowing from other traditions through the ages to help make worship more familiar to the people.

SHROVE TUESDAY

In many places around the world, the last day before Lent (known variously as Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Carnivale) is celebrated as a last fling before the solemn days of Lent. Carnival is the common name for the celebration of Shrove Tuesday because people were expected to fast by abstaining from meat during Lent and the term carnivale is Latin for “farewell to meat.”

ASH WEDNESDAY

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, the day when the ashes from the burned palms from last Palm Sunday are used to place a mark of the cross on our foreheads. As it says in the Bible, from dust we came and to dust we shall return.

Lent is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is preparation through prayer, repentance, charity and self-denial for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the suffering and death of Jesus, ending with Easter Sunday and the celebration of the His resurrection.

LENT

Traditionally, Lent is forty days long, starting with Ash Wednesday and ending with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as preparation for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.

It doesn't take too much reading of the Bible to see that 'forty' is a magic number, not only for Christians but also for a lot of other faiths:

• Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai when God gave him the Ten Commandments

• The great flood lasted forty days

• Moses and the Hebrew people wandered for forty years in the desert after leaving Egypt.

• Jesus lay in the tomb for forty hours before His resurrection

• The forty days of Lent also represent the time that Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry. During those forty days he faced temptation and doubt, purified Himself for His upcoming ministry.

It is a tradition that the season of Lent be celebrated by fasting, both from food and parties, prayer, and also a time for reflecting on our lives in preparation for the resurrection of Jesus.

In earlier times, days of fasting were established, when only one meal a day could be eaten with no meat or dairy. And Fridays were specified as non-meat (I can remember as a child that Friday was fish and macaroni and cheese day). These dietary restrictions have been, for the most part lifted. In place of these are suggested donations to charity and doing social justice work.

There are many churches who do not recognize the Lenten Season, primarily because it is seen as a distinctly Roman Catholic commemoration. Over time quite of few churches have adopted the Lenten observances.

PALM SUNDAY

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. People stood along the road and waved palms as he passed by. Many church hand out palms its congregants in remembrance.

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Maundy Thursday is often celebrating by eating a communal supper or celebrating Communion, much like Jesus ate with his disciples before he was turned over to the Roman officials. Often there is communal feet washing, just as Jesus washing his disciples' feet. After the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Garden Of Gethsemane to pray for strength to endure his upcoming suffering and crucifixion.

GOOD FRIDAY

Christian tradition says that Jesus was hung on the cross at noon on Good Friday and died at 3 pm, as the world turned black. Churches often hold a vigil during this three-hour period.

EASTER VIGIL/SUNRISE SERVICE

The Christian faith says that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning. Some churches hold a vigil on Holy Saturday awaiting Jesus' resurrection. Others wait until Sunday morning to hold an outside sunrise service to celebrate His Resurrection.

As we mark the last days of Jesus' journey, let us use this Lenten Season to look at our own lives and move forward in new life to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Amen

Delivered at In The Garden, Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH, 13 March 2011