I think it's increasingly rare for us to think in terms of liturgical seasons. The seasons that occupy our imaginations are the academic ones (summer break, semesters) and the literal seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall.
Lent as a season is especially difficult for us to mark. There's no large marketing campaign leading up to Easter, so in one way Lent is allowed some breathing room. It can be a truly penitential season, unlike Advent, which is historically called "little Lent" but in the modern era is a shopping season during which Starbucks releases signature drinks.
Lent is also, for better or worse, scheduled according to the lunar cycles rather than the monthly calendar, which means it begins and ends at different moments each year. Sometimes Holy Week falls on spring break, other times not.
So Lent for Christians who observe it is, I guess, something like Ramadan, a long season intended for certain levels of sacrificial observances. But again, unlike Ramadan, which still has a lot of cultural cohesion around it in Muslim contexts, Lent for the most part appears to have been reduced to a season we gesture at more than observe.
What's a pastor who has responsibility for the observation of such a season to do? How much can faith communities invite themselves to tack against the wind? These are the questions I find myself asking each year during the lead up to Lent.
Tomorrow Lent begins. It begins with Ash Wednesday, a simple day with an emphasis on declaring the truth of our mortality. That we all die. At Ash Wednesday, we mark ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our mortality, and declare the simple truth, "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
The season of Lent extends from Ash Wednesday until Holy Week. The most basic practices of the season are fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This year for my fast my goal is to see if I can eat for $3 per day, or about $1 per meal. This will require some creativity on my part, but will also free my pocketbook up for more giving, and perhaps if I eat very simply, more time for prayer.
Each Sunday of Lent is, traditionally, a break from the fast. So on the Sundays of Lent, I'll be a little more extravagant in the food I bring for our weekly meals with new members, because each Sunday after church we'll gather with those new to our church and eat lunch with them, providing space for study and conversation and questions.
I imagine we are all more likely to adopt disciplines for Lent if we ask our friends to hold us accountable. I think we might do well to ask each other regularly: How is your fast? How are your prayers? To what are you giving? Feel free to ask me. I'll try to ask you.
Lent concludes with Holy Week. The week begins with Palm Sunday, a day when we in remembrance of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem wave palms and lay down our coats. We then offer three services mid-week (a month's worth of worship in four days) with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil.
I try to remember, as much as such observances crowd a series of evenings typically spent otherwise, if we commit to the services, we are slowing down our lives and adapting our schedules to the gospels themselves, which likewise slow down and devote many chapters to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.
I do not have a tremendously compelling way to convince all of us to do observe the season and all its services. All I can say is I do appreciate the way in which the rituals of Lent invite us to conform our lives to the shape of Christ's own life.
There's a rugged simplicity to Lent, kind of like going camping in your own backyard. Not everyone does it, but if you do, the world ends up looking different for a time.
I'm kind of the same, I'm not sure I've ever missed the service!
I can’t remember the last time we missed an Ash Wednesday service, it bothered me that we missed one yesterday evening and I even noticed President Biden had an ash cross on his forehead, on the news last evening. Our grand-son and his wife were here from out of town and leaving today so time with them was limited and they are not church going people which made it awkward to leave them while we attended.