by Pastor Michael Salemink
These are serious times.
These are unsettled times.
These are sacred times.
Welcome to the forty-day stretch that Christians call Lent.
Now maybe Lent isn’t for you.
Maybe you don’t need this interval.
Maybe you’ve got everything all figured out already.
Maybe your body always does what you want, exactly what you ought.
Maybe your days and relationships never disappoint.
Maybe you just don’t really care.
If so, sit back and tune out.
Daydream or drift off to nappy land.
Just enjoy a momentary opportunity without any other obligations.
For the rest of us, the desperate ones, the whole of humankind,
for the worn-down wayfarers like you and me,
Lent could not have come soon enough.
And Lententide greets us with truly good news.
What does it mean that Lent lasts forty days?
Jesus the Savior faced Satan, our old and evil enemy, for a forty-day duration.
The Lord our God Almighty and Incarnate for six and a half weeks straight
fought off the devil’s every assault,
all the familiar and effective temptations that serpent-tongued deceiver
so often launches upon and against our own flesh.
Forty days, because the struggle is long but not limitless.
Forty days, because we wrestle hard but not without hope.
A Messiah accompanies and the Christ engages alongside us.
He has initiated the blessed resistance, and victory is visible even now.
What does it mean that Lent happens in spring?
The season receives its name from an Old English word for springtime.
This Jesus starts our history over again, a second chance, next chapter, new beginning.
His words draw us into honesty.
His ways drive us to humility.
His will drags us to abandon selfish and sinful desires that we may embrace better life.
Spring, because we crave the dying and re-arising He works.
Spring, because we are preparing for paradise.
Spring, because we keep failing, and we need forgiveness that repeats and persists and prevails.
Spring, because our God comes gradual but energetic, and He deals with us gentle but inevitable.
Spring, because this Gospel breathes life into dead things.
What does it mean that Lent represents a long-standing practice?
It traces back centuries and even millennia.
It connects directly to the chronicles of Him who came down from heaven,
crucified, died, resurrected, ascended again.
Ancient, a grace designed and intended before we were born and while we were unable.
Ancient, a favor that relieves us from pretending we’re the biggest around.
Ancient, a salvation not relenting, won’t surrender, never ending.
An Everlasting Father loves you even if you’re unpretty,
values you even though you’re unpopular,
will have you even when you’re unconscious or unwanted altogether.
Ancient, looking back and leaving behind
in order to look ahead and lean into heavenly homecoming.
What does it mean that Lent consists of Scripture and prayer?
Jesus reveals no one can make it on our own.
He knows a power and bestows a presence from outside ourselves
so that none of us has to go it alone.
Scripture, because we need the Maker’s compassion and promise.
Prayer, because we do best when we believe and belong as beloveds.
Scripture, because it proclaims us royalty and invites us to declare authority.
Prayer, because we can’t help but cry out when One so great guarantees to take care.
What does it mean that Lent dresses in purple?
For your sake, Almighty God denied His rights, laid aside His prerogatives,
emptied Himself of privilege, and accepted our punishments.
Lord Jesus endured bruising on our behalf and poured His blood in our place.
Purple, because His suffering and triumph have brought about this world’s twilight
and the dawning of a more glorious age.
Purple, because kings clothe their princes and princesses in nothing less.
Purple, because we take up this same heavy cross of His in sacrifice and self-denial
to lay hold of empty graves and eternal banner-raising.
Purple, because we hold breath in expectation of the great rejoicing to come.
Purple, all official and expensive, because He finds you worth it, all of you, all of them, all of us.
These are sacred times.
Welcome to the forty-day festival of Lent.
Maybe it is for you after all, huh?
Amen.