Lent is coming and I don’t begrudge anyone their fasting.

But I’m tired of spending the “great 50 days of Easter” paying lip service to celebrating the gospel because I used up all my energy on making the 40 days of Lent miserable.

What if Lent was a time of preparation for joy, and what if we spent Eastertide doing everything from joyfully washing feet to throwing indulgent parties for the neighborhood?

Better still, what if we treated Good Friday with the same importance as Christmas Eve? I’ve always felt the occasion was especially suitable for prayers and preaching that hold nothing back about how terrible things have gotten, from the arrogance and apathy and prejudice that poison our capacity for compassion in the public square, to the literal genocide happening before our eyes.

What if Lent was less about patting our backs with personal piety and more about naming the forces of the human world that would deliver brutality instead of mercy and condemn an innocent to death. Then Eastertide could be about celebrating the liberation of the oppressed, rejoicing in mercy delivered to the despairing, and proclaiming the good news of new life that interrupts the old patterns of death.

That’s what I would like to find this Lent and Easter anyway, but it’s a tall order for one person. That’s why we need a whole community for this religion thing to work, and why those communities need regular help staying focused on it. The gospel is not an easy thing to carry.

Anyone else?

(T. Gartin | Facebook | February 13, 2024)