catapult magazine

So, anyone give anything up for Lent they’d like to share with us? We’re giving up the traditional ol’ meat. Not a real big sacrifice, I don’t think, since we don’t eat too much of it, anyway. I’m starting to think I should really give up caffeine and chocolate.

But then I might find myself single and alone come Easter. Har har.

I wasn’t brought up recognizing Lent by giving anything up, but last year and the year before I gave up chocolate, and I also tried out partial fasting one day a week. This year, for a number of reasons, I am not giving anything up. There are a few people at work (I work at denominational headquarters, so talking about Lent and God is all good…) who are quite vocal about what they’ve given up. In some ways, this is fine. It helps to have people around you knowing what you’re giving up so they can hold you accountable, but I found that I felt much" better" (for lack of a better word…oops, I said better twice..where’s my thesarus?!) about the whole experience when I was less vocal about it. Ultimately, the matter was more between me and God, and when people would joke around and tempt me with chocolate, I felt like the purpose of giving something up for Lent was losing it’s effectiveness…in fact, I just had someone tell me I should drive by Starbucks and help them break their Lenten fast of coffee.

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m all about sarcasm and joking around, (it’s one of my defense mechanisms when dealing with emotions…ha ha), but why is it that people who give things up for Lent (especially in the Protestant world) talk and/or joke about it so much? I just had a conversation with a guy who converted to Catholicism in his adulthood who said that in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, giving something up for Lent is a given. Everyone just assumes you are practicing the three disciplines found in Matthew – giving alms, praying, and fasting. (the topic of disciplines came up last year at this time…we don’t need to cover it unless someone really wants to…) Whereas in the Protestant tradition, Lent is only recently becoming more recognized and people might have the tendency to be uncomfortable with it yet…or something.

Anyone else have any dramatic or not so dramatic thoughts on all of this? I do think it’s an important topic TO talk about (I wasn’t trying to say that just because I notice how people talk about it that we shouldn’t…apparently the Catholics think we need to raise our levels of awareness)…

Interesting that you would bring up that Protestants are more vocal about giving things up for Lent than Catholics, because I’ve always found the Catholic practice of getting an ash smudge on Ash Wednesday to be contrary to “praying in your closet.” Hi everyone! Look at me! I just went to Ash Wednesday services!!

I think it probably is best examined on a personal level. As a Protestant who also grew up with little to no emphasis on Lenten practices, I’m still curious about it.

I just had to say “ha ha” on that whole Catholic ash smudge thing – although, I went to an Evangelical Covenant Church last year and got the smudge, but wiped it off before I went out in public.

me = good, humble protestant. ha ha.

kirstin and i have been going to a lutheran church since we moved to three rivers and it’s been very interesting to see the church year observed. i grew up in a church that rarely, if ever, mentioned lent, so i still have difficulty trying to figure out what it is all about and how it fits into the church year.

we did the whole ashes on the forehead thing on wednesday (a first for both of us), but they had a baptismal font at the door to wash it off on the way out. it was a neat symbol representing the washing away of sins through baptism.

as far as giving up things for lent . . . what is the idea behind that?

laurencer : giving up something for lent is kind of small, yet potentially significant reminder of what Jesus gave up for us years ago. Some of the tradition has been lost, but I found that when I actually took it seriously for the first time last year, it actually meant something. Giving up baked goods was hard. Laugh if you must, but everytime I walked by that tin at work — i thought about what Jesus years ago gave up for us — which was incomparably greater. That is the deal behind giving up something for lent. A six week reminder. It should go all year. But hey Christmas is like that too. Everyone says they should “give” all year around. No one does. Most traditions are like that — riddled with holes. Oh well I guess. We can choose to follow them.

I gave chocolate and caffeine a consideration too….but only for a nanosecond!
As a Lutheran I’ve grown up with following the church year: it’s circular…Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, our Lord’s Baptism, Transfiguration Sunday, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, the Trinity season, Christ the King Sunday (looking forward to His second coming) and Advent again. I like the framework it gives our worship/devotional life and the way it keeps us walking through God’s story over and over again…it is always new, never old, ever-growing….but then again it is second nature for me and I’ve not experienced any other way. In my church it isn’t legalistic or law oriented but simply yet richly the framework in which we worship.
Giving up for Lent isn’t a practice in our denomination and I’ve always been uncomfortable with declaring one is doing so. Ashes have always been meaningful to me but our Ash Wednesday and Lenten services are in the evening so the public thing never was an issue…I think maybe it could be though an oppurtunity to talk about Jesus when questioned about the ash smudge and understand that for many it is very meaningful to leave them there.
My understanding of the Lenten season is that it directs us in worship and in our devotional lives to an extended period of repentance and reflection as we walk through Jesus’ life and suffering toward Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. I suppose if one chose to fast, ‘give up’, or some other exercise it would be to discipline one’s spirit and focus on Christ’s suffering for us like Eddie said.
I’ve always treasured the season for its reflective and somber nature…we emit alleluias and some other portions of our liturgy from the worship service and it brings us a sense of the true passion of Christ…it walks us towards Holy Week with an increased awareness of Christ’s sacrifice for us and creates a longing and anticipation for Easter which we begin at sunrise outside in front of cross with handbells, choir, bagpipes!
Well..there’s your mini lesson on the seasons of the church and my experience of Lent…hope it was helpful.
(Lately I’ve been feeling like I squash discussions with my repsonses…don’t mean to do so. I must be paranoid right now!)

thank you so much, alice, for your explanation of the church year. some of our friends were talking about it the other night, but, being that my church education weak spot has been understanding and internalizing the holidays, i didn’t know much about it.

something i was thinking about when i read one of Trisha’s posts was that verse (forgive me—i don’t have a Bible in front of me) about not going around looking miserable during a fast so that everyone knows you’re fasting. and i think that applies to our Lenten sacrifices as well. it was funny when i worked at a Chinese restaurant with several vocal non-believers (or at least non-practicers)—everyone gave up something for Lent. that certainly trivialized the experience for me before i had ever even tried giving anything up. but at the same time, it seemed silly for me when my high school friends took giving up candy SO seriously.

i was reading a book about Faith Practices for teen-agers and there’s a chapter called “Stuff.” in it, they describe what one youth group did for Lent. for each of the 40 days, the kids had to give one of their pieces of “stuff” away. and it couldn’t be something they simply didn’t want anymore; rather, something they liked, but didn’t need.

i thought this was an interesting way to learn multiple lessons at one time and would like to try it when i have more courage. it seems like it would emphasize sacrifice at the same time it would show us how blessed we really are (how much “stuff” we have) and how we can never truly match Christ’s sacrifice.

anyway, all this to say that i’m learning to appreciate Lent more. and one thing i wanted to add to laurencer’s brief description about our Ash Wednesday service was that the pastor had put cinnamon oil in the ashes, which gave the cross a burning feeling on my forehead. for me, it was an incredible sensory experience of feeling “marked” as a child of God. it heightened my sense that i am a different person since i have accepted the grace of Christ.

Kirstin and Laurencer, I so appreciated your sharing about Ash Wednesday—the baptismal font and water afterwards and then the cinnamon. Someone at your church is ‘into’ creative worship and symbolism. I like that and will file it away to share sometime with my pastorguys. The giving away is cool too….thanks.