When I was growing up in Slippery Rock, PA in the 1960s and 1970s Lent was celebrated pretty much only by the Catholic Church in town. We Presbyterians knew it was Lent because the schools served fish sticks every Friday through those weeks, but in our church, we did little in the way of observance. We did have an Ash Wednesday service (without imposition of ashes) and a Maundy Thursday service, but otherwise Lent was barely noticed. Over the years, how-ever, Presbyterians have rediscovered what our Catholic friends knew all along – that Lent is worthy of observance for it makes us conscious of our need for repentance and renewal and prepares us for the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter.
Here we began our observance of Lent with the imposition of ashes last Wednesday; we countdown the weeks to Easter with Lenten devotionals to focus our attention and prayers, Taizé worship each Wednesday evening, a simple meal of soup and bread at Together on Wednesday dinners (without desserts!), and perhaps by practicing a Lenten discipline (giving up something for these weeks, fasting, committing to pray or read Scripture, or engaging in some form of service). The purpose is not to prove publicly how holy we are, but to acknowledge privately how holy we are NOT! It is to take time to assess our faith and faithfulness in an intentional way and to recommit to do better – not in the world’s eyes, but in God’s eyes! There are a host of other things going on that threaten to distract us from any Lenten observance – the arrival of spring, March Madness, senioritis, spring breaks, breaking news about what is newly broken in our nation or world – and it can be tempting to lose sight of the journey toward the cross these forty days. The same distractions tempt us to take for granted the agony of the cross and the good news of the empty tomb. Why pay attention to something that happened so long ago when there is so much happening now! The answer of course is that what happened long ago very much impacts our lives today and our hope for tomorrow. “If you would be my disciple, then deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me,” says Jesus. If we are to be his disciples, then we need to recall something of what that cross meant for him and what its implication are for us and our discipleship. We need to travel that road with him to the cross and then to the empty tomb. For it is there that hope is born for us in life beyond death; it is there that we find strength to persevere in the present.So, take time in these coming weeks to observe a holy Lent, not because you have to, but because in so doing, you may grow closer to God and to being the person God calls you to be – a faithful disciple of the crucified and risen Lord!
— John Peterson
