Lent is when I determine which addictions i may still have some control over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lent is around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year around this time, I\u2019m in the company of people who are talking about what they plan to give up for Lent. This practice of self-deprivation has its roots in Christian practices of fasting, a practice long associated with the season of Lent. Catherine Bell, the ritual studies scholar, offers this historical overview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[The] Lenten fast was originally more severe \u2014 only one meal per day and only after the sun had gone down, a regimen echoed in later Muslim practices. By the ninth century, however, this single meal had been moved to noon, and a light snack was allowed at bedtime; meat was still forbidden and at various times animal products like milk, butter, and eggs were also avoided.\u2026 By the 11th century, all Christians were observing relaxed versions of this penitential practice.\u2026 Penitence was certainly one of the main reasons for Christian fasting, but fasting was also an emulation of Christ\u2019s forty days in the desert without food or water and a method of disciplining one\u2019s physical desires.*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see from her description how things have slowly changed over time. This change in our behavior hasn\u2019t stopped. Some of us, holding tightly to the promise of the free gift of our salvation before God, regard such practices with suspicion. We wonder if such behaviors aren\u2019t born out of a felt need to do<\/strong> something to be worthy of Christ\u2019s gift. Others of us \u2013 the more traditional souls \u2013 follow an annual pattern. We abstain from the same thing every year. It\u2019s part of who we are in the season of Lent. But many of us, having not grown up with Lenten fasting as a practice and yet intuitively recognizing its potential benefit, cast about for things to set to the side for the next forty days (not including Sundays.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s among this latter group (in which I include myself) that I think our Lenten spirituality takes a decidedly American turn. As any trip to the bookstore will confirm, the American self-help impulse is so pervasive<\/a>, that it becomes impossible for us to imagine any deprivation without a corresponding benefit, beyond the simple practice itself. Get us talking about what we\u2019re giving up for Lent and the conversation will soon be nearly indistinguishable from what we were talking about regarding our New Year\u2019s resolutions! Four years ago around this time, I was making a similar observation and included one blogger\u2019s resolve to give up complaining for Lent<\/a>. I\u2019m not criticizing this shift in thinking. It is, however, a shift from what Bell describes regarding our Medieval forebears and I wonder if it has to do with what it means to live a life of plenty. Whereas Christians in Medieval Europe and (present day Christians around the world) couldn\u2019t always count on having enough to get by, we actually have too much, with nearly everything we might want just a voice command away (\u201cHey Alexa!\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n So for them, Lenten fasts were a real privation. For us, they seem to look more like a needed reduction: red meat, alcohol, chocolate, complaining. You get the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you think? Is this an accurate read on contemporary spirituality? Are you giving something up for Lent? If you are, what is it and why? You can share your plan anonymously and see what others are saying. Just type in the code \u201cE672\u201d here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong> I\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, if you\u2019d like to talk about this or anything else with me or Deaconess Kristin, we invite you to book us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feb. 27, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n