Lent: Moving Further into the Reality of God

It may seem an odd thing, but every year I enjoy Lent just a bit more. At first glance it seems to be a season all about sin, confession, penitence, repentance, and penance. It can feel like we're all about finding out how bad we are and how sorry we ought to be. They're is room for that, but that dreary vision of Lent has very little Gospel, very little Good News, at all. Let's go a bit deeper.

Jesus said in John 3:17 that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." The message of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't "You're terrible!" The message is, "It doesn't have to be this way. YOU don't have to be stuck anymore." Or as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 10:7).

Sometimes we Christians miss the eternal perspective. We think, for instance, that the Salvation of Christ is something that happens after we die and once we reach Heaven. Or we think that the Salvation of Christ is about reforming our society in the here and now. When Christ saws, "The Kingdom of God is at hand" it means all of these! Salvation is about my own life here and now and the hope of Heaven after I die. Salvation is about a just, peaceful, and loving society here and now, and about Christ's coming again to straighten out all humankind. It is me and everyone. It is now and in the future.


In Advent we make room in our lives and communities for person of Jesus Christ. In Lent we make room in our lives and communities for what Christ is doing, namely altering our reality by overshadowing it with God's reality. In Advent Christ moves into our neighborhood (John 1:14, The Message). In Lent, God begins to move us into God's neighborhood. And then in Easter, we celebrate (in the present) the eternity of living in that neighborhood!

I think we can easily miss the Good News of this. We might be underestimating the power of God's reality now. Instead we buy into the world's reality. Our consumer society judges life based on what you produce (your career and income level) and what you consume (lifestyle). God's reality is based on who you are (intrinsic value) and how God is working in your for the benefit of you and others (mission and ministry). In a materialistic society, what we own or can buy is prized. In God's reality the gifts of God has given us and gives through us are most prized. In an imperfect world we become perfectionists or pessimists. In God's reality, we become a people of redemption and hope - all things can and will be fixed!


The good things of the Kingdom of God are unatainable in this life, because at Baptism, "this life" begins our eternal life. When Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is among you," in Luke 17:20 (emphasis mine), Christ is saying stop looking elsewhere! It's right here, now, with you, and with those gathered around Christ.

This Lent I hope and pray both you and I find the joy of moving a bit further into God's neighborhood, of buying into God's reality, and giving up that old life that is so unbecoming of the Children of Heaven.

"The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the Gospel."  (Mark 1:14-15)

A Reflection for Thursday, Lent 1, Year C

A depiction of 'Christian' fromm John Bunyan's Pligrim's Progress

"Strengthen us, O Lord, 

by your grace, 

that in your might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, 

and with pure hearts serve you; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, 

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 

one God, 

for ever and ever. 

Amen." 

The collect above is proscribed for the Thursday of Lent 1 by the Episcopal Church's book, Holy Women, Holy Men (p. 39). 

For reflection: In the ancient martial classic, The Art of War, Sun Tzu said "Know your enemy" (Ch. 3, last sentence). What spiritual enemies are opposing your life in Christ? How about the spiritual enemies your Christian community or Church faces? Name them. How may we face those enemies with God's grace and might, yet maintain a 'pure heart' in service to God? 

Read, reflect on, and pray Psalm 35. 

Do Episcopalians not eat meat on Fridays?

Fish and Chips - A Friday Favorite!

Many Roman Catholics abstain from red meat on Fridays, often choosing fish instead. Why is that? And do Episcopalians do that too?

The simple answer is yes and no. The longer answer follows…

The Book of Common Prayer is not just our worship service book. It’s our manual and handbook on devotion, spirituality, theology, and Christian practice. It doesn’t contain everything we might be looking for, but most people find in contains a whole lot more than they suspected. It is, in essence, our guidebook for practicing the Christian faith. (The Bible, of course, is our guidebook on what the Christian faith actually is.)

For instance, did you know that the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) provides us a spiritual schedule? That's right. The BCP has a calendar that gives us a spiritual way of encountering the entirety of Christ’s life, the major themes of Scripture, and a diverse package of spiritual disciplines and practices.

In regards to spiritual disciplines, the Book of Common Prayer provides a  list of “Days of Special Devotion” (p. 17).  In this section it says, “The following days are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial: … Good Friday and all other Fridays of the years in commemoration of the Lord’s crucifixion, except for Fridays in the Christmas and Easter Seasons…”

Now here’s the trick. We are, according to our manual on keeping the faith, to observe Fridays with special acts of discipline and self-denial. This is not an optional observance. Optional observances are listed in the next section (p. 17-18). Our Friday observances, however, aren’t limited to abstaining from meat of Fridays. It's up to each of us in our personal conversations with God to determine how we will “commemorate” – that is, to commit to our memories together – Christ’s self-sacrificing love for us and his submission to God by his death on the cross, which are cornerstones of our salvation.

So, in this new year, what will your Friday acts of self-denial and spiritual discipline look like? 

Renewing Lent

Personally, I sometimes get stuck with the idea that Lent is a time for soul-bashing. There’s all this talk about sin, fault, guilt, failings, punishment, anger, wrath, and eventually a few words about forgiveness. Perhaps it’s that we’ve come out of a grey winter. Maybe it’s the Puritanism, Calvinism, and Middle-Ages pietism in my background or in the prayerbook. 

But When I read Scripture and when I look at the early Church, I get a completely different picture. Lent is about renewal. When Jesus talks about “repentance,” he’s saying we need to change course, make an alteration in our understanding. Jesus is saying “Stop and revisit who God has made you. Remember the purposes for which God has called you.” When I read the Old Testament I see this is exactly what God wants most of The People of God – to stop and remember who they are. Once we know who we are, behavior follows naturally.

I’m reminded this Lent, just as the prophets reminded the Ancient Israelites, that life with God is not about offering the correct sacrifice, saying the right prayers, or even about doing all the right things. Neither Lent nor Christianity is just about the do’s and don’ts. Life with God, real true life worth living, is remembering that an incredibly loving and good God made us, and we were made to be just like God (made in God’s image).

Now that’s something worth stopping to remember! You and I are created to a be “a chip of the old block,” an apple that hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Remembering who we are – God’s people, God’s children, seeing ourselves with God’s eyes – restores our vision of ourselves and life. It isn’t guilt, contriteness, and soul-bashing that God wants.

God wants us. Again. That’s Lent.

Lenten Abundance and Joy

From the early days of of the Church, fasting has accompanied the season of Lent. Jesus was in the wilderness, Moses on Mt. Sinai, and Noah on the ark each for forty days. In each story there is imagery of physical scarcity. So it's easy to see Lent as a time of scarcity, an upleasent time when all we talk about is the negative. Give this or that up. Get rid of your sins through repentance. Get rid of your comfort in church by kneeling more. Fast.

But scarcity is only half of what Lent is about. Lent is about emptying ourselves, surely. But Lent is also about being filled back up, too. What we are to be filled up with holiness or with love or with God's presence or with the Holy Spirit or with anything that is good, pure, righteous, and Godly. Thus fasting is not simply about doing without - it's about replacing what we've become dependent on (our idols) with whatever God has in store for us. 

The simple way we do that is to turn to God in some form of discipline whenever we crave what we are fasting.

One of the things I'm fasting is refined sugars since sweets are a comfort food for me. The other day I was craving ice cream as we drove past an ice cream shop. I tried to cleverly entice my wife to pull over and get some. She said to me rather glibly, "Shouldn't you be praying? Didn't you just preach a sermon about how you're supposed to turn to God whenever you crave something?" I was miffed. She was right. I didn't like it. I grabbed the Book of Common Prayer and begun chanting the Great Litany, which goes on forever. "I'll show her!" I thought. I was hoping she would be annoyed. She wasn't. She wanted to join in.

So there we were, driving down the highway chanting the Great Litany as the highway droned under us and cars wizzed by carrying stressed and weary drivers. About halfway through the Litany it really became a prayer for me. I began praying with my wife, to God, for the world. The drone of the chant sank into my soul and the hubbub around me faded. God was here/now. My wife was here/now. I was here/now. I was spending time - really being present - with the two I love most in this world: God and my wife. How beautiful it was! And just think, I could have missed this richness for something as trivial, fleeting, and cheap as ice cream. 

Lent isn't about making ourselves miserable. It's about emptying ourselves, getting rid of the lesser, so that God can fill us up with what is GREATER. Don't miss out by letting Lent pass you by. Take time to fast. In the end, you'll find God has given you more than you started with.

- Fr. James+ 

Beginning Lent

The Christian spirituality of the English peoples (including Angles, Saxons, Celts, Brittons, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh) has long been tied to the seasonal changes of nature. Prior to the arrival of Christianity, religion on the British Isles included worship of the Sun, Moon, planets, and cosmic forces that marked day and night, summer, winter, spring, and fall. With the coming of Christianity and the conversion of so many of the English peoples, seasonal patterns became linked to Christian events. Christ’s birth (Christmas) was associated with the winter solstice, marking the end of the darkest time of year and the beginning of Light’s triumph over darkness. Christ’s resurrection (Easter) became associated with spring, a time of new life, of new birth rising from the dead of winter.

Between Christmas and Easter is the forty day season of Lent. The word “Lent” comes from the Old English “lengten.” It means “to lengthen” and refers to the lengthening of daylight hours as we approach springtime. Lent is a time preparation for the new birth of spring, for the spiritual Resurrection we participate in at Easter and ultimately for our resurrection to eternal life after our death.  

In his second letter, St. Peter, says to us, “What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” (2 Pet. 3:11b-12a) I encourage us to set aside these days of Lent as a special time of spiritual challenge, to strive to live holy and godly lives. Stretch yourself. Study, fast, examine your life, give selflessly to others in need, and pray often. As Jesus says, “Be perfect… as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)

Sometimes we will succeed. Sometimes we will fail. And yet neither success nor failure is the point. The goal of Lent is to become ever more aware of how God’s unconditional love, not righteousness or sinfulness, is the foundation of our daily living and the core of our faith.

The Season of Lent

The Season of Lent

            The Christian spirituality of the English peoples (including Angles, Saxons, Celts, Brittons, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh) has long been tied to the seasonal changes of nature. Prior to the arrival of Christianity, religion on the British Isles included worship of the Sun, Moon, planets, and cosmic forces that marked day and night, summer, winter, spring, and fall. With the coming of Christianity and the conversion of so many of the English peoples, seasonal patterns became linked to Christian events. Christ’s birth (Christmas) was associated with the winter solstice, marking the end of the darkest time of year and the beginning of Light’s triumph over darkness. Christ’s resurrection (Easter) became associated with spring, a time of new life, of new birth rising from the dead of winter.

Between Christmas and Easter is the forty day season of Lent. The word “Lent” comes from the Old English “lengten.” It means “to lengthen” and refers to the lengthening of daylight hours as we approach springtime. Lent is a time preparation for the new birth of spring, for the spiritual Resurrection we participate in at Easter and ultimately for our resurrection to eternal life after our death.  

In his second letter, St. Peter, says to us, “What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” (2 Pet. 3:11b-12a) I encourage us to set aside these days of Lent as a special time of spiritual challenge, to strive to live holy and godly lives. Stretch yourself. Study, fast, examine your life, give selflessly to others in need, and pray often. As Jesus says, “Be perfect… as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)

Sometimes we will succeed. Sometimes we will fail. And yet neither success nor failure is the point. The goal of Lent is to become ever more aware of how God’s unconditional love, not righteousness or sinfulness, is the foundation of our daily living and the core of our faith.