“What Are We Giving Up For Lent This Year?”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
In a scene from the movie “The Blues Brothers”, the brother Jake, who just got out of the state penitentiary at Joliet, Illinois, and brother Elwood, are trying to elude the police because of Elwood’s many outstanding warrants for traffic violations, when they crash through the front of a shopping mall and proceed to wreck everything in sight. As they pass a car dealership, Jake remarks, “The Oldsmobile’s are in early this year.”
Well Lent is early this year with Ash Wednesday coming on February 17th. Lent is a blessed time of year—a time of reflection, a time of penance, a time for remembering what God has done for us in Christ our Lord as we ponder our sin and the Cross that lies at the end of Lent for us. But why should we pause to reflect on those things for forty days?
A priest was on a retreat to a monastery in Ireland, and one morning, came across one of the brothers and asked, “How are you?” The brother responded, “There is still a bit of the devil in me!” So how do we get rid of the devil? We don’t, we can’t, no matter how hard we try to live according to God’s Word, no matter how we try to delude ourselves into thinking we really don’t sin, no matter how we try to shelter ourselves from the world, no matter what we are “willing to give up” during Lent or other times. Which, by the way, when I am asked what I am giving up for Lent always respond, “Will power!”
No, there is nothing that you and I can do, on our own, to conquer the devil. Ah, but our Lord and Savior has conquered him and put him in his rightful place. Yes, we must still battle him as St. Paul reminds us when he writes: Eph. 6: 10-12, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Yet, this is certain, our Lord and Savior by His death and resurrection has freed us from the tyranny of sin, death and the power of Satan. In Him, and Him alone, do we find life now and for eternity!
So how will we observe Lent this year? We will observe it as we focus on our Lenten theme of “The Sign of Jonah.” A Lenten hymn which brings out some of the spirit of Lent is: “Lamb of God Pure and Holy.” This ancient hymn of the Church points to some of the feelings we have at Lent with the words from the first stanza of # 434, LSB: Lamb of God, pure and holy, Who on the cross didst suffer, Ever patient and lowly, Thyself to scorn didst offer; All sins Thou borest for us, Else had despair reigned o’er us: Have mercy on us, O Jesus! O Jesus!
Have mercy on us and teach us that it isn’t what we do that makes Lent important, but what You have done. And when we are tempted to think otherwise, may we remember these words: Fast from fear; Feast on Faith; Fast from despair; Feed on hope. Fast from depressing news; Feed on prayer. Fast from discontent; Feast on gratitude. Fast from anger and worry; Feed on patience. Fast from negative thinking; Feast on positive thinking. Fast from bitterness; Feed on love and forgiveness. Fast from words that wound; Feast on words that heal. Fast from gravity; Feast on joy and humor. You see it really isn’t about what we give up that counts!
Your brother in the Lord,
Pastor Jeffrey Potter
