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Sunday 6 March 2011

Giving up for Lent?

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I have volunteered to join Floss in her Pause for Lent posts each week till Easter - Easter now that's a festival I feel I can really celebrate (many of you know my feelings about Christmas!). However as I am not a regular church goer these days I thought I should check out exactly what is meant by Lent before diving in with my thoughts! Apparently according to the BBC website here Lent is the period of 40 days which comes before Easter in the Christian calendar. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ's sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. Lent is marked by fasting, both from food and festivities.
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Catholics are being urged to give up meat for Lent by the leader of their church here in England and Wales according to the BBC here and I know many people decide to give up things like chocolate for the period of Lent but I wonder is that really going to make me a better person or more in tune with God? Might it not be better to think about what we eat and where it comes from and whether or not there are those who are being exploited in its production and to strive to alter the terrible waste of food that goes on, the damage to the planet that occurs by intensive farming, the people in other parts of the world who are starving so that land which might grow crops for them is being used to grow crops either to feed cattle or to provide out of season delicacies for us here in the West? Lent is indeed a time for reflection but giving up chocolate is probably not the answer and I guess that what is more important is to think WHY you are giving up whatever it is.
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Easter in the Northern hemisphere comes in Springtime and so we can see it as a time of rebirth and renewal but what of those in the southern hemisphere for whom it comes in the Autumn at the same time as Harvest Festival?
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Rev Laurie Campbell on the Methodist Church website suggests that giving up Lent might be appropriate occasionally - now there's a thought!
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Refreshed by his experience of worship in New Zealand, the Revd Laurie Campbell suggests it would do us good to give Lent a miss once in a while. "In the Southern Hemisphere, the approach to Easter can hide itself under other church celebrations. In 2008, the first Sunday in Lent in St George’s Church, Auckland, was also Harvest Festival Sunday – quite a challenge for preacher and people. There was no hope of using new spring growth from the cold soil as a lead into the death and resurrection of Christ because it was early autumn and leaves were fading and dying. But I’m not personally a fan of celebrating Lent every year anyway. The repetition sometimes disables spirituality, especially if it is dominated by a tired liturgy or pious priests. Poor Jesus is rushed from childhood to death at speed every year! Let’s have a good Lent once every four years, and between time, let’s open up a wider range of readings from the biblical gospels between Epiphany and Easter." Do you agree?
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I leave you with a prayer:
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Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as longas ever you can.

John Wesley


PS - I have just discovered that I am ahead of myself here and this post should have been posted next week! Oh well - I did say I wasn't a regular church goer didn't I?!!

10 comments:

  1. A thoughtful - and thought-provoking post - thank you. A good prayer too - you can't do better than that, can you? Abby x

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  2. This is a great starting point - not at all a problem that it's ahead of Lent, because it sets us thinking, doesn't it?

    Have you encountered Tearfund's Carbon Fast for Lent? It encourages many of the things you feel are important. But, like the writer you quote, I couldn't do the Carbon Fast every year because for me it would become meaningless. I do want to do something for Lent each year, but I want each year to be different and therefore a fresh challenge to my thinking and my actions. One year I gave up packaging on fruit and veg for Lent, and pushed myself to cycle to the greengrocers instead of driving to the supermarket. That changed my whole life outlook, not just 40 days...

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  3. It's good you've given us plenty of warning - proper time to reflect on your thought-provoking words.

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  4. Love the prayer too! Thanks for sharing. xoRobin❤ Have a great week. Better early then late!!

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  5. I am not a church goer, but I certainly believe that if we could bring John Wesley's prayer into our lives the world would be a better place. Thanks for sharing them.

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  6. You are a really thoughtful lady, Jane.

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  7. This and your last post are very thought-provoking Jane. I have missed your wise words!

    You chose a great day for your walk by the Jurassic coast - stunning photos. What a wonderfully varied coastline we have here in the UK. Just beautiful!

    Jeanne
    x

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  8. Was very disappointed with South Riding. It finished so quickly that I felt that I had missed a few episodes in between. They crammed so much into that last one.

    As for lent, I wish I could give something up but I know that I would never be able to stick to my resolution...maybe that's why I don't make New Years ones! dev x

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  9. I'm early, too, for A Pause in Advent - at both SandwichINK.blogspot.com AND SandwichINK.com. :) I really appreciated your sharing that prayer by John Wesley. My granddaughter is studying his time period, and him, in history and I've been helping her review for her test. It's perfect timing for us. I'll have to share this prayer with her. Thank you. :)

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