What is Lent?

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. ³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” ⁴Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

⁵Then the devil^£ led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And the devil^£ said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. ⁷If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸Jesus answered him, “It is written,

⁹Then the devil^£ took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰for it is written,

¹²Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

A Man moves into a tiny village, in a part of the world where everyone knows everyone else and eventually also learns each other's business. During his first week there, this man walks into the local pub and promptly orders three glasses of beer.

The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man three glasses of beer, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone.

An hour later, the man has finished the three glasses of beer and orders three more.

This happens again and again. Every evening, when this man goes to the pub, where he takes his meals, the man again orders and drinks three glasses of beer at a time, several times. Soon the entire town is whispering about the Man Who Orders Three Beers.

Finally, a week later, the bartender broaches the subject on behalf of the town. "I don't mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order three glasses of beer?"

'It is odd, isn't it?" the man replies, "You see, I have two brothers, and we'd always been very close. Some time ago, they both moved away. Now we only see one another once every ten years or so. When we separated, we promised each other that we would always order an extra two glasses of beer whenever we ordered as a way of keeping up the family bond."

The bartender and the whole town was pleased with this answer, and soon the Man Who Orders Three Beers became a local celebrity and source of pride to the little town, even to the extent that out-of-towners would come to watch him sit with his three glasses of beer lined up all in a row.

Then, one day, the man goes in to his favorite pub and orders only two glasses of beer. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening - he orders only two glasses of beer at a time. The word flies around town. Prayers are offered in condolence for the one of the brothers. The next day, the bartender says to the man, "Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer our sympathy to you for the death of your brother. You know-the two glasses of beer and all..."

The man ponders this for a moment, then replies, "You'll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, myself, have decided to give up beer for Lent."[1]

Lent…Its that time of year again. A time when many people change their eating habits, and perhaps some their spiritual habits as well.

When I was a teenager, I had a friend who every year during the Lenten Season, would give up chocolate or coca-cola or some other sweet treat.

I'm sure at some point as he got older, he may have even given up beer for Lent.

Years ago, and even perhaps today among some, Armenians have been very particular about what they could and could not prepare and eat during Lent. No cooking with animal fat, no heavy creams or cheeses, only light oils and very little meat if any. These practices gave birth to some otherwise very tasty dishes, like "Vospov Kufte" – lentil kufte balls, and "Topig" – chick pea kufte balls stuffed with pine nuts and currants, and "Eech" – a no meat, no broth, no oil or butter pilaf made with bulgur.

What were and are the reasons for such altered eating practices? Why were such activities adopted by so many and why were they tied to Lent?

Dishes and practices such as these and so many others have been adopted over many, many years in an attempt to commemorate Lent and to revise and update the ancient practice of fasting.

Lent, is a period of time that moved from 40 hours in the first century of the Christian church, to six days, to 36 days and then sometime in the eighth century to 40 days.[2]

Although the word Lent comes from an ancient English translation of the word lengthen and refers to the lengthening of days as Spring approaches, this 40 day period has always been a period of time commemorating the passion and death of Jesus Christ.

Each of those time periods I just mentioned, from 40 hours to 40 days, represented symbolic time periods that would serve to enhance the commemoration.

The original 40 hours represented the number of hours Jesus' body was in the tomb. The movement to six days was made to incorporate all of Holy Week in the commemorations. 36 days represented a rough tithe, or ten percent of the entire calendar year, devoted to remembering Christ. And the final four days were added, to bring the current 40 days into practice in direct connection to the passage of scripture I read this morning, whichreminds us that Jesus suffered his great temptation in the wilderness for 40 days.

Forty days was also very meaningful because of other important sequences remembered in scripture –Moses fasted for 40 days on Sinai waiting for the Ten Commandments from God, Elijah spent 40 days fasting on the way to a meeting with God and the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

Fasting has always been an important part of Lent and so has led to all the interesting practices surrounding what folks eat and drink at this time of the year. The ancient practice of fasting however was far more severe than what folks do now. Once upon a time, as fast meant eating nothing until sundown, and then only water and bread. Sundays were not included so folks could stock up for the week.

What about now, what happens if we neither fast in the ancient tradition nor watch our fats and sweets and alcohol and are not vegetarian? Does that mean we are not celebrating lent? Does that mean we don't care about the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, his passion, death and resurrection?

No I don't think so. I have never in my life participated in a full Lenten fast, although I have enjoyed some of the lighter Armenian dishes prepared for the occasion. Yet Lent has always been a moving and creative time for me that has inevitably connected me anew and again to the gospel and the Christ of the Cross.

Why? Because Lent isn't just about eating. Lent is a way in which we can commemorate and reflect on Christ's sacrifice in a multitude of ways.

Over the next few weeks, during this season of Lent, we'll review some of these various traditional ways of commemorating Lent. Today, we'll begin that review by remembering them briefly.

In ancient Lenten practice, there are clear traditions for Study, Repentance, Prayer and Outreach.[3]

In the ancient church, baptisms were conducted all at the same time. Many people, never having been exposes to Christianity, reached well into their adulthood before they were baptized. So before people were admitted and entered into full church fellowship through baptism, they were subjected to a time of study, much like the membership or confirmation classes offer today for the young people that enter our fellowship.

In the ancient church, that training and study was conducted during Lent, and culminated in the sacrament of Baptism at Easter.

When we in our church commemorate Lent, we too return to the discipline of study. Every year, during the Lenten season, our church offers a bible study series in an attempt to challenge our faith, to learn more about the implications of our faith tradition and to give us better resources with which to deepen our spiritual practices. We too culminate this period of Lent with a sacrament. For us that sacrament is the Sacrament of Communion rather than baptism.

Rather than just for those who will be baptized, the newcomers to the faith, for each and every participant in the body of Christ, Lent is an opportunity to learn and to grow and to become better equipped as we approach Holy Week and rededicate ourselves through Communion and prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter.

The practice of repentance is interesting, its perhaps the only one of these four practices that's a natural, organic, occurring in nature practice all its own.

Recently I watched the film on one of those old classic movie channels. It was a movie made in 1941 called "Sergeant York." The movie is the story of a young man who goes off to war and single-handedly leads a squad of seven men to capture 132 enemy soldiers. He is immortalized and becomes a national hero, lifted up on war posters and in comic books. The movie itself was nominated for and won several academy awards, including best actor for its star, Gary Cooper, but not for its war scenes. Rather this movie gained acclaim because it portrayed the irony and wonder of a pacifist and a conscientious objector, a devoutly Christian, back-woods hillbilly being forced into this situation and vindicating his beliefs and his convictions despite impossible circumstances.

Yet this man, Alvin York, apparently wasn't always a pacifist or a devout Christian, just as he wasn't always a war hero.

The opening scenes of the movie begin with him shooting up a church service in a drunken spree. His elderly mother and his siblings are present and are mortified and ashamed. When the pastor is asked by his mother to speak to young Alvin, Alvin rebuffs the pastor, telling him "You can't push religion on a man, its got to come from inside him. I sure wish it would come upon me, Pastor." "It will," the pastor tells him. "When," says Alvin, "I've tried everything to change." "Well I don't know," says the pastor, "but it will, either slow like the morning or fast like a bolt of lightning." Sure enough in true Hollywood style, before the end of the film, he is struck by lightning and he changes his ways. This lightning strike by the way seems to be the only inaccurate portion of this movie, the rest: conversion, conscientious objector and war hero are all true.

But this is repentance. This changing of ways is repentance. The strange part of the practice of repentance during Lent, is that Alvin York is right, you can't foist it on a person, its got to come naturally from the inside.

Yet we practice repentance. More rightly, we engage in practices that we hope will bring about true repentance in our own hearts.

The practices that emulate the wilderness experience of Christ, the testing and facing temptation with God close by, is an attempt to induce repentance.

Fasting, study, prayer, service and outreach, are all efforts to put our hearts and minds in a good place, a place where the natural turning and changing of heart, soul and mind will take hold and we will find ourselves closer in spirit and in soul to Christ.

The last two practices are both traditional practices, like the practice of studying that we have already spoken about.

Prayer is a discipline that must be practiced at all times in our lives, but done in conjunction with the other practices of Lent, it takes on an additional power and energy.

Outreach and service are important aspects of Lenten traditions that are expressed well in the command of an ancient pope. Leo the First said in the year 460, "What we forego by fasting during Lentis to be given as alms to the poor."[4]

Study, Repentance, Prayer and Outreach. During the coming days of Lent, I hope you will join us, so that we may look to scripture and open up these ideas for our hearts and minds, but also that we might participate in them together.

I pray that during this Lenten season, whether we give anything up or not, we will draw nearer to Christ, and find in his passion, his death and his resurrection a greater depth of resources for our journey and our Christian life

[1] Adapted from "Lenten Humor" at http://www.poddys.com/jokes/reli_035.htm

[2] J.R. Brokhoff. "The Lenten Season" Lectionary Preaching Workbook, CSS Publishing Company 1995. also: http://www.christianglobe.com/Childrens_Sermons/searchDetails.asp?session_id=F3457CDA-A3EE-4D6A-A7D7-54756346E678&id=1333174&txtKeywords=lent

[3] J.R. Brokhoff

[4] Brokhoff

HOME Mission History Worship Sermons Photos Contacts Directions Links