A Little Bit About Lent
When I asked folks at Christ Community in Daytona Beach what important event begins this week the first answer from the congregation was “Bike Week”! Well I should have known better and maybe given more hints as to what I was looking for! I was thinking of Lent. We began a new series: Rediscovering Jesus, this weekend. It’s going to take us to and through Easter Sunday. Anyway I mentioned some books I’m recommending for this season:
1. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller.
This is an up-to-date book that is great for people with intellectual questions about the credibility of faith.
2. The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancy
This is a very interesting and helpful look at the life of Jesus from often fresh perspectives.
3. The Holy Bible.
This is the source! The biblical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the inspired accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. The version above is, of course, just one of many. Why not take a little extra time this year and this season to read or reread the story of Jesus in the Scriptures themselves?
Now maybe you have questions about what Lent is and some of the history so here’s a little help with that for those interested. Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. The word “Lent” comes from an old Teutonic word that simply means the Spring season. Lent begins on 25 February 2009 and ends on 11 April 2009, which is the day before Easter.
In the 16th century, many Calvinists and Anabaptists discarded all Christian holy days, on the theory that they were Roman innovations. That was their best information at the time, but today we know that they were wrong. In the late 19th century, ancient Christian documents came to light. The Didache from the first century, and the Apostolic Constitutions from the third century. Both give evidence of the Christian calendar and holy days. The Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions were written in the east, which denies it ever recognized the institution of the papacy.
In many cases, Rome was the last place to observe the holy days. For example, the idea of moving All Saints Day to November 1 did not reach Rome until 700 years after it originated in England, and the idea of celebrating Holy Week as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, was quite elaborate in Jerusalem before the early fourth century but did not spread to Rome until the 11th century. Advent began in medieval Gaul and spread to Rome from there. Lent, on the other hand, appears to have originated in the apostolic age. The Apostolic Constitutions attribute the observance of Lent to an apostolic commandment. We can’t verify that, but we also can’t disprove it. There is certainly no Biblical command to observe Lent nor is there any compelling reason not to. I think this time of the year can be a great time and even a special incentive to rediscover or, if you prefer, to deepen your understanding of Christ.
Larry is the senior pastor at 
Larry, thanks for the information and the ground-shaking sermon yesterday. I think a lot of us are reeling, a little, realizing how much we re-construct our (non-Biblical) image of Christ in order to fit into our world.
Also as a once-practicing Catholic, it is really cool to think that some of the parts of the church calender..like Advent or now Lent….really were perhaps not some shallow religious rituals, but were initially intended to be Christ centered spiritual disciplines. Perhaps as part of the Reformation, there were a few proverbial bables thrown out with the bathwater……again, thank you for challenging our thinking not only about Christ, but even some of our beliefs about church life that had been biased or incorrect.
What a grreat reminder about Lent! I am so glad you have chosen to remind us of the rich heritage we have. I hope we all take the next 40 days and meditate on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for the comments. One problem with looking into Lent is that if you research the word “Lent” some sources seem to speak about it as a package, in other words, not only the forty days leading to Easter but the very specific set of rules for fasts etc. instituted by a particular church, say for instance, the Roman Catholic Church. The result is confusing because particular rules and traditions may have no ancient roots at all and the research will point that out. However the idea that this season was noted and celebrated in various ways and in many places by the church in pretty ancient times is now established. What I was suggesting was not that we “observe Lent” as a set of rules or traditions prescribed in detail by Roman Catholic church but rather, as Patrick (not the Irish St. Patrick but Patrick A above) said, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. This is a particularly fitting time of year to turn our attention to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as we move through the forty days of Lent (Spring time) leading up to Easter. There is no mandate for how you do this but it makes sense to me, if you aren’t already reading the gospels, to set aside some time to do so this season.
Like Pat, as an ex-Catholic I tended toward throwing the baby out with the bath water. I never really investigated the purpose behind some of the traditions. I read a very good explanation of Ash Wednesday today and thought I would post it for others who may find it clarifying and meaningful.
“Today is Ash Wednesday, the day on the Christian calendar that urges us to remember our condition with countercultural audacity. The season of Lent, the forty days in which we prepare to encounter the events of Easter, begins by proclaiming the humble beginnings of creatureliness. The ashes of Ash Wednesday starkly remind us of the dust we came from and the dust to which we will return. On this day, foreheads are marked with a bold and ashen cross of dust, recalling both our history and our future, invoking repentance, inciting stares. Marked with his cross, we are Christ’s own: pilgrims on a journey that proclaims death and suffering, life and resurrection all at once. The journey through Lent into the light and darkness of Holy Week is for those made in dust who will return to dust, those willing to trace the breath that began all of life to the place where Christ breathed his last. It is a journey that expends everything within us. To pick up the cross and follow him is to be reminded at every step that we are mere creatures, and he is not.”
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
Oooh! I’ll be following the sermons online. Sounds like a wonderful series.
You’re a great pastor, Larry. Thank you for opening yourself so that God can work in and through you.
This doesn’t really apply directly to this post, but I found a great video on George Muller that I thought I’d let you all know about. This is a six-part video (about 10 min each) that is a really powerful testimony. You can find all six parts on Youtube by searching for George Muller. I found it to be of great encouragement, hope you all do as well. God bless.
Thanks Mr./Mrs. Anonymous! I read Muller’s book “A Life of Trust” years ago while out at a cabin in Ocala Florida. I often remember a section where Muller talked about becoming discouraged because he had spent so much time trying to get business men etc. to support his work in London but then he came to see that if God was in it, having called him to it he did not need a large network of human supporters. Psa. 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. He ended up with a healthy community working together but he had to first commit to going it alone with just God if need be. I’m just sort of remembering out loud prompted by your post. I’ll check out the videos. Thanks again
Hey Larry, thanks for recommending,”The Reason for God”. I just finished it this weekend. It is an EXCELLENT read. I really liked Tim Keller’s little story about trust near the end of the book.
“The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word “trust”. Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you begin to fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you are saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
Great to hear you liked the book. And thanks for reminding me about the analogy. You’ll probably hear it in a sermon someday! Larry