Christianity – church calendar/holidays

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so...today is the first day of Lent. Observing Lent wasn't on my radar at all this year, but I have observed it in the past.

First...what is Lent?

From Michael Horton at White Horse Inn:

I believe an evangelical celebration of Lent affords an opportunity to reinforce rather than undermine the significance of Christ’s person and work.

Lent is a 40-day preparation for the observance of Christ’s passion and Easter. It gives us an annual opportunity to trace the history of redemption. We learn that the number 40 is associated with a trial, a preparation, even an ordeal that leads either to blessing or curse in the stories of Noah, Moses, and Jonah. Recapitulating Adam’s trial and Israel’s 40 years of testing, Jesus was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, fasting instead of following Adam and the wilderness generation of Israelites in demanding the food they craved (Matt. 4:1-4). Resisting Satan’s temptation with God’s Word, Jesus was the Last Adam and Faithful Israel who fulfilled the trial not only for himself but also for us, as well as bearing the curse for our covenant-breaking.

Reformed folks take both sides of this. Not "you must or you must not: - but rather, "this is a matter of Christian liberty vs. no, it's not"

But...why do Lent?

I think that some observe Lent because their walk is lacking in other ways. When I was in a church that left me feeling dry and foundering, I observed Lent. I spent forty days focusing my devotional time on the coming Good Friday and Resurrection Day - it was time well spent. It took my eye off of what I was not getting in church, and what I already had In Christ.

Tim Challies has about the best take:

To those who plan to observe Lent, I wish you well and trust you’ll benefit from a time you’ve chosen to make special between you and the Lord. To those who plan not to observe Lent, I wish you well also and trust you’ll benefit equally from the so-ordinary, so-wonderful means of grace that are available to all of us all the time.

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Palm Sunday...

By tradition, churches celebrate this day by having the children parade up the aisles of the church carrying palm branches, symbolizing the palms that the people laid before the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem, on that day that began His last week on earth.

Also, by tradition, churches dry those branches, and burn them to ashes and save them all year, so that on "Ash Wednesday" the pastor/priest/man of the cloth can use them to trace the sign of the cross on the foreheads or hands of worshippers.

I've never done that - worn the sign of the cross, in ashes, on my forehead for the world to see. It's not that I'm shy about wearing a cross, either around my neck, or on my shoulder as a tattoo.

I don't know why.

The churches I've attended have been far out of the way from where I've worked, so it would have seemed easy to write off getting there before my early work time. Too inconvenient.

For a time, resisting "tradition" or the church calendar in such things felt too "traditional" or even "Catholic" so shying away for that reason could have been justified.

But at the end, I could have stopped at a church nearby work. I could have embraced history.

I think that the idea of the question...all...day...long..."why did you do that?" and "what is that for?" or "what does that mean?" felt too risky.

I love the Church calendar now. God created seasons, and changes, and the yearly rhythm. The church calendar embraces that rhythm and reminds us of the changing seasons. Each Holy Day reminds us of our redemptive history.

Anyway...this should have been written on Ash Wednesday...and this post should have been about Palm Sunday.

But that's not what went through my brain. Regret at not having the courage to wear ashes on the first day of Lent...

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How do these work together?

I started "The Daniel Plan" by Rick Warren (and others) - yeah, yeah...same old, same old.  But as something to work through, there might be some meat there.

Consider the introduction of the book.

Stewardship.  Stewardship over my body.

Friends, I’ve been a poor steward of my health and a terrible example for you. While we’ve been helping many around the world, I’ve ignored the problem here at home.

So today I am publicly repenting, and I ask for your forgiveness! God expects us to take care of the bodies he has given us, but I have not done that. Now, I’ve only gained two to three pounds a year, but I have been your pastor for thirty years. So I need to lose ninety pounds! Do any of you want to join me in getting healthy?

Committing to giving my body to God first, is a way of putting the physical focus on Him, away from me.

Yet, in this season of Lent, of preparation, of looking forward in time to the work of Christ on the cross...it seems like a good time to start this way of thinking about health.

My body is not my own, it was purchased by Jesus, with His blood.

Today we make the same common mistake Greek philosophers did thousands of years ago. Aristotle, Socrates , and Plato believed in dualism, 4 which included the idea that your mind (or spirit) is important, but your body isn’t important spiritually. They devalued the body. In fact, some Greek philosophers taught that your body is evil, so it really didn’t matter if you messed it up.

The Bible tells us the exact opposite. Your body is holy because God made it, and everything God makes has a purpose. We are to bring glory to God with our bodies, so we can’t compartmentalize our lives and think that we can divorce our bodies and live as if only our spirit matters. God owns your body!

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This is a repeat - the reminder of fulfilled prophesies is precious to me always.

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Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

“God sent me before you to preserve for
you a remnant in the earth, and to keep
you alive by a great deliverance.” Gen. 45:7

“…Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors….”

Today you will be with me in paradise

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him. Psa. 91:15

″And it shall come to pass that
everyone who calls upon the name of the Lordshall be saved.” Acts 2:21

Woman, here is your son…here is your mother.

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Psa. 22:9-10

“If anyone does not provide for his relatives,
and especially for his immediate family,
he has denied the faith and is worse than an
unbeliever. 1 Tim 5:8

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
Psa. 22:1

“He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless
and above reproach before him” Col. 1:22

I am thirsty

If your enemy is hungry, give him
food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water
to drink. Prov. 25:21

They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave
me sour wine to drink.
Psa. 69:21

I tell you the truth, anyone who gives
you a cup of water in my name because you
belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
Mark 9:41

It is finished.

“The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.” Jer.:13:31

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need
to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins,
and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their
sins once for all when he offered himself. Heb 7:27

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth. Psa 31:5

“…and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?” John 11:26

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This year again, wheat is what I'm focusing on (I contemplated the "processed food" thing but that's a little too much to take in)

For Advent I went through "God is in the Manger" -

For Lent, I got "God is on the Cross" - another devotional that includes writings from Boenhoffer.

The first day of Lent:

"...And take up their cross...”

That cross is already there, ready, from the very beginning; we need only take it up. But to keep us from believing that we must simply choose any arbitrary cross, or simply pick out our suffering as we will, Jesus emphasizes that each of us has his or her own cross, ready, appointed, and appropriately measured by God.

~~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

If we choose our own suffering...is it a cross? Does "our cross" necessarily mean that we're suffering for God or the Gospel? Or is it just...suffering?

The idea that GOD has already chosen our path for us, has already appointed our "cross" - our way of suffering for Him, is comforting. It means that He is in control, He knows the path, He saves, He delivers, He KNOWS, and He has a purpose.

In our suffering, WE have a purpose.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

~~~1 Corinthians 1:3-5

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we sang this in church this morning.  I'm still fairly new to the liturgical calendar and it resonates with me.

Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

1 Lord! Who throughout these forty days,
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with Thee to mourn our sins,
And close by Thee to stay.

2 As Thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
Oh, give us strength in Thee to fight,
In Thee to conquer sin.

3 As Thou didst hunger bear and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By Thy most holy Word.

4 And through these days of penitence,
And through Thy Passion-tide,
Yea, evermore, in life and death,
Jesu! with us abide.

5 Abide with us, that so, this life
Of suffering overpast,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last!

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Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

(...)

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a newcovenantwith the house of Israel and the house of Judah,

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the newcovenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

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I post these Scriptures each year on Good Friday, looking at the last words of Christ, and reflecting them into both the Old and New Testaments. These words were true when they were written, true a year ago and just as true today.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

“God sent me before you to preserve for
you a remnant in the earth, and to keep
you alive by a great deliverance.” Gen. 45:7

“…Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors….”

Today you will be with me in paradise

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him. Psa. 91:15″

And it shall come to pass that
everyone who calls upon the name of the Lords hall be saved.” Acts 2:21

Woman, here is your son…here is your mother.

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Psa. 22:9-10

“If anyone does not provide for his relatives,
and especially for his immediate family,
he has denied the faith and is worse than an
unbeliever. 1 Tim 5:8

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
Psa. 22:1

“He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless
and above reproach before him” Col. 1:22

I am thirsty

If your enemy is hungry, give him
food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water
to drink. Prov. 25:21

They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave
me sour wine to drink.
Psa. 69:21

I tell you the truth, anyone who gives
you a cup of water in my name because you
belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
Mark 9:41

It is finished.

“The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.” Jer.:13:31

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need
to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins,
and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their
sins once for all when he offered himself. Heb 7:27

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth. Psa 31:5

“…and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?” John 11:26