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Ash Wednesday - 1st Day of Lent

Lent is the season of 40 days that precedes Easter. Unfortunately, it has fallen on hard times in my Evangelical and Charismatic circles largely because it is usually associated with High Church Liturgy (e.g. Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, etc...).

Lent actually began in the early church as a season of preparation for new believers to be baptised. This was an intense season of prayerful preparation, study and reflections on the death of Christ as the new believer became a part of the Christian community. Gradually the celebration of Lent took on it's own ethos as it meant a time for all believers to reflect and prepare for the celebration of the death of Christ (Good Friday) and the resurrection of Christ (Easter). There's significance, biblically, in the number 40 -- 40 days and nights of the Flood in Genesis, 40 days and nights for Moses on Sinai, and 40 days of wilderness temptations for Jesus at the onset of his public ministry -- all of which invite us to a season of reflection on sin, temptation, and the state of our own soul; and all of which ultimately drive us to the cross of Christ Jesus.

Unfortunately, most of Lent has become nothing more than a season for singular deprivations... i.e., "what are you giving up for Lent?" Granted, Lent has historically been a time for prayer and fasting, but I'm concerned that we soothe the religious spirit without understanding the real nature of this season of reflections on the journey of Christ Jesus to the cross.

There's much more to be learned about the Lenten season than I care to write in here. There's an excellent background article available at http://www.cresourcei.org/cylent.html

During this season I am reading a new book (for me that is, it was published in 2001). The book is entitled "Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God", and it is written by Marva Dawn -- a professor and author, who several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear in a series of lectures in Madison. Also, from the beginning of the year, I've been taking my daily bible readings from the "Book of Common Prayer" for year 1, and so my readings/reflections on scripture are coming directly from that lectionary schedule.

As in my Advent Meditations, I am going to write a series of reflections during the Advent season. These are often quotes from her, or reflections on passages of scripture she refers to, or quotes/reflections from others that I have read because of her writing. It's my way of admitting upfront that a lot of my thoughts are not original with myself, but prodded by the writing of someone else. At present I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book, so I have a head start with meditations, thinking, etc... Come along if you'd like, I'd love to have others journeying in this season with me.

ASH WEDNESDAY


A scripture reading for today:

Luke 18:9-14 (NASB)
9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The following comes from Francois de Fenelon whose little book "Christian Perfection" will drive us to our knees:

"I make myself nothing with thee, Lord. I make Thee the entire sacrifice of my pride, of the vanity which has possessed me up to the present. Help my weak beginning. Keep me from the occasions of my falling. 'Turn my eyes that I not see vanity.' that I only see Thee, and that I see myself before Thee. It will be then that I shall know what I am and who Thou art. Jesus Christ was born in a stable. He has to flee to Egypt. He passes thirty years of his life in a craftsman's shop. He suffers hunger, thirst, weariness. He is poor, scorned, and misunderstood. He teaches the doctrines of the Kingdom and nobody listens to Him. All the great and the wise pursue Him, take Him, and make Him suffer frightful torments. They treat Him like a slave, make Him die between two thieves, after having preferred a thief to Him. That was the life that Jesus Christ chose, and we, we have a horror of the slightest humiliation. Let us compare our life to that of Jesus Christ. Let us remember that He is the master, and we are the slaves...Can we with justice feel contempt for others and dwell on their faults, when we are full of them ourselves? Let us commence to walk on the road which Jesus Christ has marked for us, since it is the only one which can lead us to Him."

A Prayer:


"O Lord, because without you we cannot please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit would in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."

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