Hi Friends! I’m so excited to share the great piece below by my good friend Scott Carr Jr., who writes his own blog at reimaginefaith.org (check it out!) and attends Mantua Creek Church (EPC). Last week, while I was speaking at another church, he shared the below with our group and I received so many positive comments on it. Indeed, in reading through a written version of his message this week, I not only learned a lot but it helped me practically decide how I was going to celebrate Lent this year. Admittedly, I am new to this rich part of the Christian tradition. Despite, however, this being only my fifth year or so observing the practice, I’ve found it to be a deeply enriching experience– especially using N.T. Wright’s short devotionals as a guide (see here for this year’s). As Lent starts this Ash Wednesday, 2.14– Valentine’s Day, I invite you to join us!
An Invitation to Lent
“What is your interaction with Lent? What do you know about it? Have you ever practiced it? What is your impression of it? Perhaps you think of it as something only Catholics do or its slapping a spiritual veneer on the diet plan you’ve been meaning to kick off. Yet Lent is a practice from early in the Church’s shared history to deepen our relationship with God. Each year, Christians from a variety of denominational backgrounds dedicate 40-days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday to fasting and spiritual discipline with a focus on self-examination and repentance in preparation of celebrating Jesus’ death and resurrection. (If you counted the days on a calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, you might notice it is actually 46 days. That is because, in church tradition, Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, is a feast day rather than a fast day. So the 6 Sundays of Lent are not considered part of the 40-day fast.)
Lent is not a biblical requirement, but is a wise and good gift from the church to help us prepare to celebrate Easter and do some “spring cleaning” on our souls. The goal of Lent is to take a concentrated period of time to make extra space (fasting) for God to work in our lives. It is an opportunity to take a hard look at ourselves, identify hurts, sins, and heart attitudes that need to be addressed. It is a time to spend additional time with God for Him to work in each of these areas. It isn’t rubbing our noses in our sin. It is honestly facing ourselves for a period of time and opening the corners of our lives, especially those that don’t always get much attention, for God to renovate.
Fittingness of Lent
As already said, Lent is not described in the Bible nor is it commanded. Yet the number 40, especially periods of 40 days, feature prominently in the Bible. 40 is specifically a number of repentance and judgment. When the structure of each story is considered, they map neatly onto the church’s 40-day Lenten season leading up to Easter.
- Genesis 6-9– God’s good world is fully tainted with sin from top to bottom. God’s plan to deal with it is to remove the boundaries He put in place at creation in Gen. 1, to let the world descend into the chaos described in Gen. 1:2. The waters of the earth are unleashed for 40 days and nights, washing away all wickedness from the face of the earth. God brings only Noah, his family, and a selection of animals through the flood in the ark. Afterwards, God brings a new creation, reestablishing the boundaries of creation for people to live in. At Easter, God’s final act of new creation burst into the present as Jesus rose from the dead. As we prepare to celebrate the new creation that happened at Easter, we spend 40 days focused on repenting and turning to God. Our baptisms in water told us that the evil, the sin in our hearts, was washed away by Jesus’ death. During the 40 days of Lent, we experience more of that in our lives as we repent and open our hearts to God’s transformation.
- Exodus 24, 34– Moses fasted for 40 days and nights while with God on Mount Sinai, receiving and transcribing God’s Law. The death and resurrection of Jesus is when God inaugurated the new covenant with us. Jeremiah 31, where the new covenant was first promised, tells us that in this new covenant, God will write His Law on our hearts. So in preparing to remember the day the new covenant in which God’s Law was written on hearts began, we fast 40 days as Moses did while receiving the original Law on stone tablets. As those indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we make room for that Law written on our hearts to do its work transforming us, showing us where our lives are out of step with it, and moving us in a new direction.
- Numbers 13-14– The people of Israel witnessed all God’s great acts in Egypt and the Exodus. But when they came to the border of the Promised Land and heard how formidable the people they would have to fight were, they lost their nerve and couldn’t see any way for them to militarily conquer the land. They focused on their own weakness and lost all faith in God’s promise to give them the land. God sentenced them to 40 years in the wilderness where He was their only source of provision and taught them to trust Him. We are citizens of a new, greater Promised Land, the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom was established in Jesus’ death and resurrection. During this part of the church year, we are on the borders of that Promised Land; that is, before celebrating Easter, we take 40 days to deepen our trust and reliance on God through the discipline of fasting.
- 1 Kings 19– After Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal, he found his life under threat from the evil Queen Jezebel. He fled into the wilderness and took a 40-day journey to Mount Horeb (aka Mount Sinai) where he had a personal encounter with God. God commissioned Him to anoint a new king (Jehu) and ordain a new prophet (Elisha). Just as Elijah spent 40 days traveling to Mount Horeb to meet God, so we spend 40 days traveling to the feast of Easter where we encounter God in Jesus, our Savior, crucified and risen. As witnesses to His death and resurrection, we receive our commission to spread His Gospel. As Mantua Creek enters a new season transitioning to public worship in a rented space, we are entering a new season of ministry, preparing to go public. Our 40-day Lenten journey prepares us to meet God and receive the commissioning of this church’s new chapter of ministry.
- Luke 4:1-13– Before the start of His public ministry, Jesus fasted 40 days in the wilderness while undergoing temptation from Satan. There, He reenacted Adam and Eve’s temptation, but undid it by rejecting the temptation. He resisted temptation in obedience where Adam and Eve had given in to it. Jesus does this on our behalf to give us His victory. This is the first step in Jesus defeating evil. Just as Jesus fasted for 40 days and faced down the temptations of Satan, we join Him for 40 days. We give Him an opportunity to face down the sinful desires that still live in us for Him to give us victory and fill us with His strength to reject temptation.
- Acts 1:1-11– Jesus spent 40 days with the disciples between His resurrection and ascension, teaching them the truth about God’s Kingdom before He returned to Heaven to take up His throne. Just as we celebrate in the church calendar 40 days between the feasts of Easter and Ascension, we fast for 40 days before Easter, preparing our hearts for the feast. There is a 40-day period leading up to Easter and 40 days of celebrating Easter until we celebrate Ascension.
How to Practice Lent
The practice of Lent has two parts. (1) We fast and (2) we take up a spiritual practice.
Fasting makes room for us to take up a new spiritual practice. The goal is to find an area of your life that is a distraction from God, that takes up time, energy, and that draws you away. Give it up for Lent to make room for a new spiritual habit. Then find a spiritual practice to add to what devotional practice you have now. It can be additional praying, Scripture reading, spiritual reading, serving, or giving. This spiritual practice is in addition to whatever practices you currently use. It should ideally be in an area where you feel spiritually weak.
Throughout my life, I have often struggled to set aside periods of time for prayer. So many other years during Lent, I have fasted from all social media to make more time in my day. I used the extra time to spend 30 minutes in prayer. Another year, I found myself overly focused on money. I made a small salary as a Christian school teacher, most of which went to paying for seminary. I became so fixated on my lack of finances, I began to regularly fantasize about what I would do should I win the lottery (despite not playing it). Noticing this was a problem in my soul, I decided to address it during Lent. I had a small portion of my budget set aside for personal pleasure, usually buying a fun book or recording of classical music. Instead of using that money for myself, I fasted from pleasure buying and picked up the practice of generosity. I donated that portion of my budget to an initiative headed by a church I used to work at to give out thousands of free meals to people experiencing food insecurity throughout Philly. I also read one chapter of a 6-chapter book on a Christian’s relationship to money each Sunday of Lent. Lenten practice can be many things. The fast and spiritual practice are ideally paired to address a need in your spiritual life.
At Mantua Creek, Greg has commended an excellent devotional by N. T. Wright titled Lent for Everyone: Mark, Year B for everyone to use. Each Sunday, there will be additional time during the worship service to self-examine and confess sin. The goal is for the whole church community to join together in submitting more fully to the lordship of Jesus and experience his saving grace more deeply.
In conclusion, here are these words from the Book of Common Prayer Ash Wednesday service:
‘Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.'”
BCP pp. 264-265
Scott H. Carr, Jr. is a denominational pilgrim currently attending Mantua Creek Church with his wife, Anna, and their son, Teddy. He previously studied at Calvin Theological Seminary and Eastern University. He teaches Middle School Bible at Atlantic Christian School. Previously, he taught at Bridgeton Christian School and interned at Liberti Church Center City and Main Line and Fairfield Presbyterian Church. He blogs regularly at reimaginefaith.org.