The 40 Days of Lent began yesterday on Ash Wednesday for millions of Christians all over the world. I imposed ashes upon the foreheads of my flock last night in a meaningful and humbling service to mark the beginning of Lent. These next six weeks are a season for looking inward at ourselves and outward at Christ. It’s all about letting of things that are destructive and sinful and embracing the way of Jesus.
I’ve often thought that we Baptists are “liturgically challenged” when it comes to appreciating the great themes of the Church Year. But I take in heart in the coming of Ash Wednesday because it is supposed to be an awkward experience of somber reflection and repentance, a time of being starkly reminded that these bodies we inhabit will indeed turn back to dust sooner or later. And who’s comfortable with that?
While Ash Wednesday is a sobering jolt, it is not a time for wallowing in guilt and despair! We are created beings—dust returning to dust—but we are more than these bodies! God has given us the breath of life. Within our flesh and bones we have a powerful capacity to serve the world as God’s people.
Of course God knows what we are—sinners, rebellious children of dust. Yet God chooses to breathe into us a life that gives birth to new possibilities. God does not give up on us. And consequently we have no reason to give up on ourselves.
So, Lent is a season that reminds us to repent and get our lives centered, our priorities straight, and our hearts clean.
Traditionally many Christians “give up” something for Lent—maybe their favorite food, or smoking, or caffeine. But I suggested to those last night that we give up something collectively for Lent. Let’s give up, not something that we can measure on the scales, but something that we can measure in our attitude and words.
I suggested that we all covenant together to give up a judgmental spirit. That’s right. Give up judging others. Jesus said, “Don’t judge unless you want to be judged.” Yet we do it all the time! Everyone does.
Honestly, it would be easier to give up chocolate or fast food. But why not give up something that might make a lasting difference in our lives, in our church, and maybe in our community.
Just don’t participate in judging others. When you catch yourself falling into that familiar speech or thought pattern, ask God to help. Covenant with someone else and then you can help each other.
It’s just one thing, but it’s no small thing. We get rid of things that are sinful and destructive so that we can become more like the people God wants us to be.
This holy season called Lent offers us a new chance to say "yes" to our Creator—the One who made us in his own image, the One who loves us with a relentless love made perfectly clear in the person of Christ on the Cross.