We’re now a full week into Lent. This is not necessarily the
most popular time of year. In fact, it’s a season of the church calendar that
the majority of people would like to skip over altogether. Why would we want a
time to focus on being unpopular, being unliked? Why would we want to spend
time considering how Jesus was persecuted and rejected even in his home town,
where he should have felt safest?
We want to spend time in the season of Lent simply because it
is a season. And seasons are journeys. Just as we might consider our beautiful
Manitoba winters – they’re cold and snowy, but we know the variances have
meanings too. We knew in November that the daylight would decrease and the
temperatures would drop. We knew in January that the arctic winds would blow,
that the snow would continue to pile up. And we know that next month the sun
will seem brighter, the snow denser, the thermometer will (hopefully!) show
less extremes. We know that the land needs a rest from its work in this season
of winter. We know that some work will continue underneath this blanket of snow
– very soon we’ll see the first of the crocus buds popping through the ground;
the bulbs were active all throughout the season, even though we did not witness
anything happening.
Lent is a season like winter. It’s unpopular, but it is a
journey. And there are things happening beneath the surface that will produce
life and light and goodness – but we have to be patient and allow them to grow
at their own pace. Dry seasons allow us to celebrate the gift of the rain; wet
seasons give us the joy of watching things grow; cool seasons grant us time to
harvest what has grown, and cold seasons grant us time to respect a restful
reality. Of course, there are negative aspects to all seasons as well, dryness
means dust, wetness can be too abundant or provide plenty of breeding grounds
for mosquitos, cool seasons remind us of death and decay, and cold – well, as
the song says “baby it’s COLD outside!”
Yet we are called to live within the seasons that God has
given us. And as Christians we have been given not only the seasons of nature,
but also the seasons of the church. And so we’re in a dark, contemplative
season now. We’re in an unpopular season where we challenge ourselves to
self-reflection and self-sacrifice. It’s no wonder that this is a season that
the secular world does not enjoy, that is a world that would prefer to be
seasonless, always in positive spaces.
But Lent is a season. And Christians are a seasoned people.
We know that to delight in the joy we must truly know the sorrow; to reach the
mountain top we must first walk through the valleys.
Walking through these valleys is not an easy thing to do; it
takes strength and true hope and firm belief. It takes things that the secular
world does not always have, which is why the world tries to avoid it. Walking
through the valleys of life takes faith – it takes community – it takes all of
us working together to support one another in the Christian life. Walking
through the valleys during the season of Lent means facing ridicule from
friends, or being misunderstood by family. It is not an easy task; it is not
meant to be an easy task. But it is a worthwhile task.
Our common journey this Lenten season becomes worthwhile when
our spiritual practices deepen and we strive to establish an even closer
relationship with God. It is worthwhile as we are willing to dive deeper into prayer
with and for one another. It is worthwhile when we show ourselves and the world
around us that our commitment to Christ is not dependent on what is popular or
easy, but instead is dependent on what is true and right.
When we journey through this valley, this Lenten season, we
are admitting that our lives are incomplete without God’s influence. We are
admitting that being liked by the world is less important to us than loving,
and being loved by, God. We are celebrating that even though the world may
reject us, God has accepted us as his own. We are learning to be children of
God no matter where we are, no matter what the world is doing around us.
In our journey through all seasons, we are training to be so
spiritually grounded that the change of seasons does not faze us. We are
learning to be so present to God and to one another in this season, in every season, so our faith will never be
shaken. We are praying that the house that is left to us is a strong one, built
on a firm foundation of faith, from where we might all declare in earnest: “Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
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