Lent - 2006
As a Baptist, I heard so very little about Lent as a child. I entered this discipline just 8 years ago, and have found it to be the backbone of my spring spiritual pilgrimage. That first year, rather than giving up something for Lent, we spoke of taking on something. This Lent, I have determined to write something of a spiritual nature each day of the journey (Sundays excluded).There is no more poignant expression of the sorrow that is ours than the 51st Psalm. Our choir does an anthem by Ruth Elaine Schram entitled "Fall, Slow Tears" that perfectly voices my heart for this day. May your Lenten experience be deep and blessed.
Fall, slow tears,
and drown all my doubts and fearsand wash away my sin and shame
in the flood of forgiveness and mercy.
Weep, sad eyes;
my soul in repentance cries.
Create in me a clean heart, oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Take all my iniquities upon you.
Have mercy on me,
have mercy on me.
and drown all my doubts and fears
and wash away my sin and shame
in the flood of forgiveness and mercy.
Fall, slow tears;
weep, sad eyes;
fall, fall, fall, slow tears.
posted by the sojourning pilgrim @ 2:08 PM
5 Comments:
Richard, I'm going to keep close watch on your blog. I look forward to reading your entries.
I'm the webmaster for the CBFO website. I posted a link to your CBFO Sermon of the Week on the site. I offer commendationd to you for the inspiring sermon!
A lot of newsprint (and blogprint) of late has been about the adoption by Protestant of Lent.
Yet time and again I am disappointed at what exactly has been (or is being) adopted.
It seems that the Protestants as well as the reporters are both on the same level of superficial knowledge on what Lent (in the West) or the Great Fast (in the East) is all about.
First of all, the Great Fast (Lent) is inseparable from the Church's soteriology and eschatology.
It is a concentrated effort at living out the Gospel ("working out" our "own salvation in fear and trembling." cf. Philippians 2:12). In other words, the soteriology that drives this effort is completely different from that of the evangelical Protestants and their spawn (Emerging.Emergent/Pomo/Post-Evangelicals).
It's fine if the Protestants want their own time of preparation for Easter, but they should be as original and innovative in coming upe with another name for their discipline as the are at innovating away from the Catholic understanding of the Fast. How about little "l" lent to match their little "c" catholicism?
Last of all, if they want to share even a semblance of universality with those to whom the Great Fast is not "something new" then they need to get beyond Lent as "giving up" something.
Lent is about:
1) Prayer
2) Fasting
3) Almsgiving
Orthodox and Catholic communions pack this season with extra services in preparation for the Holy Pascha. Prayers of repentance are very much emphasized to a degree that would put off most from the happy-clappy school of evangelicalism and their pomo offspring and would have no meaning to the "once saved always saved" school of little "c" christianity which would see such efforts as, at worst "works salvation" or at worst, anti-climactic.
Almsgiving: Doing good. Charity. Serving the poor. Getting out of the self. What is especially alarming about the protestant "borrowing" of the lenten disciplines is that they seem to have turned it into a selfish endeavor...
A selfish endeavor based on their superficial understanding of what Fasting is about. It's not about "giving up" something. It's about growing discipline.
Fasting from food is only a starting point. An Orthodox Jew explaining what it means to be kosher gives a most succinct explanation about the food-part of the Fast: "If God is not the God of what goes into my mouth, then He is not of anything in my life." Next to breathing, eating and drinking are absolutely essential to life, so the devil attacks us through this weakness and the Holy Scriptures describes those especially vulnerable to his attacks as people whose "god is their belly." Before anyone of us tut-tuts about those poor souls, guess what? That describes all of us.
During the Great Fast we are called to fast from all things which can distract us from God including the Internet, movies, TV. It can be all manner of things, but the basic fasting of foods is the same starting point for all.
Lastly, fasting apart from prayer and almsgiving is useless. A local Orthodox priest (a former Baptist) put it this way:
"Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, THAT is Biblical Christianity."
slight correction (sorry to waste bandwith):
Prayers of repentance are very much emphasized to a degree that would put off most from the happy-clappy school of evangelicalism and their pomo offspring and would have no meaning to the "once saved always saved" school of little "c" christianity which would see such efforts as, at worst "works salvation" or at best, anti-climactic.
Dear Anonymous,
Against my better judgment, I offer this response to your comments.
I suspect from your tirade that you are either a fundamentalist Catholic, or perhaps Eastern Orthodox. I have many Catholic friends who are genuinely enthusiastic about the growing trend of Protestants entering into a practice, however rudimentary, of the disciplines associated with Lent. They are kind and gracious in their responses to Protestants when they offer any instruction in the historical practice of Lent, and they encourage those of us who have come to this tradition so late in time.
Your post, however, indicates an inflexible position steeped in fundamentalism, insistant that anyone who does not believe, understand, and practice Christianity in the same manner as do you is profoundly wrong, and in need of "ecclesiological castigation."
This blog was initially started as a place where I could work through some grief I experienced last year as a result of the passing of my father. It has developed into a place where I share something of my personal pilgrimage, and where other Christians encourage one another. You are certainly welcome to visit and participate in a like spirit. If you have some problem with Protestantism, please take it somewhere else.
I agree, and I'll add - when you're making comments about Protestants, don't lump us all in together. My denomination (UCC) has very little in common with fundamentalism
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