Downtown Cornerstone Blog
Feb 22
2012

Celebrating Lent

News, Teaching | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the season of Lent (forty days leading up to Easter, excluding Sundays). This ancient Christian season is about preparing ourselves to rightly celebrate Good Friday and Easter, days that mark Jesus’ death for sin and victory over the grave. I love this season. It’s a season that reminds us that we are part of a much bigger story than our own, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses from millennia past. It’s a season that reminds us we are mortal. It’s a season that reminds us our only true hope is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its a season that reminds us it is OK to feel deeply about sin and suffering.

Our experience, appreciation and understanding of Good Friday and Easter is largely determined by how we prepare for them. That is what Lent is for. As with any tradition, Lent can become meaningless but it doesn’t have to be. For me, growing up, Lent meant little more than not eating meat on Fridays. It can be more. It is more. Lent is a time to prepare our mind, heart, imagination, affections, conscience and will to lay hold of the great love of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ afresh. This preparation is primarily marked by the practice of repentance, reflection and confession. What follows are some thoughts to help aid in your practice and participation in this season.

What to Avoid:
  • Avoid making Lent an empty ritual, practiced for its own sake or to outwardly impress.
  • Avoid making Lent an opportunity to try out that diet you meant to start on January 1st.
  • Avoid thinking you can earn God’s favor through fasting, prayer or mere external observation.

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    What to Consider:
  • Consider Lent an opportunity to fast (food, alcohol, caffeine, dessert, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) from something you want in order to focus on what you truly need – Jesus Christ. Fasting is a withholding from something that is good, to get something that is better. Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and John Piper’s A Hunger for God are excellent and helpful on fasting.
  • Consider reading through one or all of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), giving renewed thought, attention and reflection to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Talk about this in community or your discipleship groups.
  • Consider reading a book(s) that ties into the themes of the season (e.g. sin, temptation, and sacrifice). Some of my favorites include, Respectable Sins: Controlling the Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges, Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore, Living the Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney, On the Incarnation by Athanasius or Pursuit of Holiness by AW Tozer. Let me know if you’d like any other ideas.
  • Consider Lent an opportunity to slow down, setting more time aside to unplug from the world in order to plug into God. Our culture celebrates being “busy”. Let’s use this season to celebrate being “in Christ”.

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    Also, be sure to join us tomorrow night, Thursday (February 23rd), for our monthly prayer night. We’ll be placing a particular emphasis on the season of Lent in prayer and repentance.