Second Thoughts on Lent

A coworker tonight asked me what I was giving up for Lent. “Nothing,” I answered, “I am not asked to give anything up for Lent. What are you giving up?”

“My time,” she replied, “I think Lent should be about what you give, not what you give up.”

Needless to say, I was floored and told her I thinks she hit the nail right on the head. I have been wrestling a lot with Lent lately. It is a time when Jesus fasted and went without, but for what purpose? The ancient monks had a notion called “white martyrdom.” Where “red martyrdom” was death for your believes, “white martyrdom” was something people could live out in their day. It meant that people could renounce the world and live a life of suffering for Christ.

People do that still today. We go around and tell people what we are giving up for Lent and ask others what they are giving up for the season as well. What point does it serve? Does it draw you closer to Christ, to God, or to the atonement? If it does … well, I don’t mean to be rude, but how? How is it that when I am giving up sugar, television, or what I love bring me closer to Christ and the atonement? It seems to turn God in a fun-stealing ogre, which is how most of my contemporaries view Him anyway. It is bad enough He is a buzz kill with our more problematic excesses, now He has to take away our benign ones too? This is not the God I signed up for twenty-seven years ago and this is certainly not the God I have worked to have a relationship with day in and day out since that first calling.

Luther had a remarkable way of turning the negative prohibitions of the Ten Commandments into positive calls for action in his Small and Large Catechisms. Here he reinforces that we should “fear and love God” so much that we not only down disobey the laws He wrote on our hearts, but obey the positive stirrings that were there before the dawn of history. That is the appropriateness of Lent. Lent is the story of the promises of God. It is the story of being tempted in the wilderness to do things for the sake of our own desires.

What is the purpose of fasting or giving something up? In the wilderness Christ didn’t fast because he was trying to beat Himself up; but rather because fasting removed an impediment to the more important part of His time alone, His need to be in communion with God. If when you fast or remove something from your daily routine, you do not replace it with time with Christ; it is hard to make the case that you are giving that thing up for Lent. Instead, you are doing a sort of post-New-Year’s resolution.

I think of Matthew 6:16 – 18, where Jesus says:

When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won't make you a saint. If you 'go into training' inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn't require attention-getting devices. He won't overlook what you are doing; he'll reward you well.

It is also interesting to note that right before this Jesus talks about how we must pray and ask forgiveness of him. Only then are we to think about fasting.

Perhaps more to the point is something found in the Gospel of Luke:

9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.'
13 "Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.'"
14 Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

I could be making too much about this whole thing or maybe I am just feeling guilty for not giving up anything for Lent. However, I think the more likely scenario is that my pride sees yet another way that my faith shores up my inadequacies whereas my pride is unable fill in the missing pieces. And, like grace, perhaps Lent is less about what I give up, than what I give.