Curate’s Corner for February

I am posting my column from next month's newsletter as it is written. Perhaps the timing may seem a bit funny, but it is an opportunity to get a 'leg up' on what we are doing.

Lent? Already? Where has the time gone? Yesterday it was Happy New Year and the day before was Merry Christmas. Today it’s “OK, one more pancake, but after that, NO MORE!”

Actually, I like Lent. Not in the self-deprecating way, or the overly penitential (not to be confused with penitentiary), but in the it-all-leads-up-to-this way. I like the season because it is dramatic storytelling and it is the time when the Bible most feels like a story worth reading! From the temptation in the desert (Matt 4), the woman at the well (John 4), to the triumphal entry (Matt 21) on Palm Sunday, this story leads up to perhaps the most exciting moment in all of scripture: Jesus’ death and resurrection. We know the pieces of that story so well (the last supper, Judas’ treachery, Peter’s thrice denial, the cross, the darkness, the incredible empty tomb), but it is the story that precedes it that matters. Few of us felt like reading the final Harry Potter before starting the others, nor would we be satisfied only reading that seventh book over and over. In fact, that book only makes sense as the conclusion to what came before it. I feel that way about Lent. It’s a supershot of Christian adrenalin so that we can make the climb to our most important moment!

It’s hard to feel that way at the beginning of February, I know. It’s cold outside. As I write this, there’s snow and the forecast for Sunday is 10 degrees. We have just gotten over the birth story, and the Wise Men just showed up for their annual trip to the front of the church. You are no doubt saying “I’m not ready.” I don’t blame you. I feel about the same way.

But when are we really ready? When do we say to ourselves “Let’s do this! Let’s do church today!” or “Let’s make this the best expression of thanksgiving that we can muster!” or “ Let’s go out into the community and prepare the Kingdom of God!”? Never. Do we do this when the weather is warm? When the grass is green? How often do we really push ourselves to do the work in which we were called? Is cold and snow really an excuse?

As good Episcopalians, we know doubt uphold the traditions we were taught: give something up for Lent (preferably something decadent like chocolate or caffeine). If you’re like my family, you do the opposite, recognizing in Lent the opportunity to take something new on. I’m thinking of splitting the difference for Lent. How about ‘doing’ for Lent.

I know what you’re thinking: “doing? What’s that about?” or else “how does one ‘do’ for Lent?” or else “no, you don’t know what I’m thinking!” But anyway, my point is this: I’ll be doing for Lent. I’ll be standing and sitting and reading and helping and talking and listening and shoveling and writing and praying and teaching and loving for Lent instead of ‘being’. I’ll respond to the environment and watch for opportunities. Pretty hokey, I know, but not something any of us is really used to. We’re used to our traditions and our experiences and our memories and our we’ve-always-done-that’s and our descriptors: happy, friendly, kind, nice, well-behaved, appropriate, fun: that we so seldom use to describe the present or others. Lent is a time for doing!

Of course, we’ll be ‘doing’ with solemnity, but that’s sure better than being solemn.