The Invitation

With the imposition of ashes last Wednesday, the season of Lent began again.  When I was a boy going to church it seemed to me that Lent was about a coin folder.   The custom back then was for the church to pass out coin folders which had slots for a certain number dimes or quarters.  On Easter Sunday the filled folders were returned and everyone could feel good about the way self-denial had been practiced during the days of Lent.  Of course, there were also those in our midst who went to pietistic extremes by giving up chocolate or cokes for Lent.  Those must have been the real saints!

 

While it is a good thing that Lent gets more attention by the Protestant community than it did back in those days, we still seem to struggle with the appropriate way to observe Lent.  Perhaps, the Invitation points us toward a better way.  "Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:  Christians have always observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection.  It became the custom of the church  to prepare for Easter by a season of penitence, fasting, and prayer.  This season of forty days provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for baptism into the body of Christ.  It is also the time when persons who had committed serious sins and had been separated from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the church.  The whole congregation is thus reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our baptismal faith.  I invite you, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; and by reading and meditating on the Word of God."

Here is something to chew in our quiet moments with God during these days of Lent.  A careful read might point us to some acts of self-denial which would be more beneficial than filling a coin folder.   Lent is not just about taking off things which are detrimental to our spiritual health, but putting on those things which will take us further down the road toward spiritual maturity.