Getting ready for Lent

Here is the "Faith & Values" article I wrote for the Billings Gazette. It was published today.


It has been called “the new reality.” The seismic shift in our economy has affected all of us and has brought us to this watershed time. Was greed a factor? It’s part of the human condition.

We now find ourselves retooling, retraining, and repositioning for survival and success. Long-standing practices of consumerism have shifted. We are learning to live leaner and greener.

Meanwhile in the world of sports, star players have behaved in a manner unbecoming of their status. Michael Phelps has ‘fessed up. And (say it isn’t so!) Alex Rodriguez has admitted that he “did take a banned substance” because he wanted to be one of the best all-time players. Apparently both are truly sorry and humbly repent.

Coming clean is healthful as it allows the fresh breezes of forgiveness to blow through our lives. Such confession need not be a once-in-a-lifetime event. In the Christian tradition, Lent is that perfect time when God offers us space for such reflection. It’s coming up soon.

Next Wednesday, February 25, is Ash Wednesday in the Church calendar. Ash Wednesday kicks off the Lenten Season, followed by Holy Week and Easter, which falls this year on April 12. This is the time to be intentional about cleaning out the cluttered places of our lives. Lent is the time to consider our own mortality. In particular we think about sin, forgiveness, and ongoing repentance, both individually and corporately. The forty days of Lent allow us to form new habits of the heart for which we might not otherwise make time.

From historical documents we know that Lent was not always forty days. In the earliest times of Christianity, Lent was apparently much shorter. Somewhere in the Seventh Century – in the Dark Ages -- Lent took on its present form. The Church loved this form so much that it became permanent. Forty days matches Jesus’ time in the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan River. Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus fasted during that time.

If we are taking on a Lenten discipline – if we are fasting in any way, we should ask ourselves what we would have to change to make more room for God in our lives. Will giving up chocolate do that for us?

The Church corporately has its own ways of fasting. In the Episcopal tradition, the Church does not provide wedding ceremonies during Lent except in extreme circumstances. We refrain from such festivities. We don’t even get to say “Hallelujah.” This in itself is a fast.

The new reality turns out to be the old reality revisited. It is the human struggle with greed and its results. It affects us all. Lent is a good time to tackle this struggle head on. We can do it, with God’s help. Let’s go.

I wish you peace and a holy Lent.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org