What Lent Means

A friend visited a non-denominational mega-church on the west coast, a place noted for a singularly sunny approach to life. It was a grand church, so grand in fact that tours were offered. This friend, upon completion of a tour, asked the guide about the absence of a cross in the sanctuary. The guide responded that they shied away from negative symbols because they were a distraction, even an obstacle to seekers and newcomers. Then the guide asked his own question to my friend: “Around here, do you know what Lent stands for? It’s an acronym: Let’s end negative thinking.”

I have no interest in bashing other religious institutions. We have plenty of work to do here in the Episcopal Church. And I’m all in favor of an optimistic perspective. Hope is a central Christian virtue. But I know in my heart that we lose a great deal when we shy away from the old rugged cross, when we hide it, deny it, turn from it, or perhaps worse of all, prettify it so that the power of its message is diluted.

So let me ask what Lent means to you, as you embark on this journey. As we liturgically come down from the mountaintop and begin a journey towards Holy Week, a season compared to time in the wilderness, what is the meaning of this season for you and for me? Is it simply about a time to try to be more miserable than thou? Is it the spiritual equivalent of hitting your head against a wall because it feels so good when you stop? Are we living into the definition I once heard of a puritan, i.e., somebody who is unhappy in the knowledge that somebody else somewhere is having fun? Is it about what we give up? Is it about what we take on?

Wilderness. (Photo from bibleplaces.com)

The meaning of the season is captured in the biblical image of the wilderness, where Moses and the children of Israel wandered circuitously for 40 years until they were ready to reach the promised land. It’s the place to which Elijah was driven when he wanted to end his life. In that dark place, he was commissioned for service to a God who was faithful even if hidden in a still, small voice, the sound of sheer silence. It’s the place where Jesus was led after his baptism, stripped of basic necessities, left in isolation to get clarity about what his public ministry would be and where it would lead. In each of these cases, the wilderness experience was marked by both challenge and formation. God was faithful in bringing Moses, Elijah and Jesus through that time. And as we launch on the journey ourselves, in whatever wilderness we wander, God will do the same thing for us as well.

What does Lent mean? It’s etymology suggests an Old English word for spring, which is to indicate the promise of resurrection at the end of our journey, the hope that we will stand again, even if we’ve been knocked down. (The word resurrection really means to stand again.) But we can’t get there too quickly. We need both the challenge and  formation that comes with the journey. Thanks be to God, we don’t go it alone. In some ways, the association with spring time is not far off from that sunny approach at that mega-church. But it comes, not as cheap grace, but by traveling through the wilderness of these forty days, through the week we call holy, where the cross is not hidden but in the mystery of our faith, is revealed as the tree of life.

The Rev. Jay Sidebotham is the executive director of RenewalWorks, a product of his time as rector at Church of the Holy Spirit, Lake Forest, IL. Jay and his wife have two children both of whom graduated from Wake Forest University. This past summer, Jay and his wife re-located to Wilmington, NC where he also serves as an Associate Rector at St. James Parish. Jay is well known for his cartoons for the Church Pension Fund and for his work as an animator for Schoolhouse Rock.