Unlike Christmas and Easter, I think it’s safe to say that Christians need never fear the commercialization of Ash Wednesday. Hallmark is not going to spend a lot money designing “Repentance Cards,” and shopkeepers will not suddenly start dressing their mannequins in sackcloth and ashes. There is no danger that big business will ever come up with a clever way make the Lenten Season marketable, because, to be honest, it doesn’t sell all that well even in the church!
Let’s face it; we don’t really look forward to Lent the way we do with Advent. In fact, if we had our druthers, most of us would probably prefer to skip it altogether, and move directly from Epiphany to Easter. But the church has always insisted that this period is an essential part of the Christian journey.
Our word “Lent” comes from the old English word for “spring”—a reference not only to what is happening in the natural world around us, but also to what should be taking place in the spiritual world within us. It is the time when the hard, buried bulbs of our souls prepare to welcome the full blossom of Easter.
Of course, as any good gardener knows, new life requires some assistance. The life itself may be entirely God’s gift, but the cultivation of it calls for work. There is some tilling and fertilizing to be done, some weeding and pruning of dead branches. This is why Lent has traditionally been seen as a time of repentance.
But unfortunately, what it has become in recent years is merely a time for remorse. We confess our sins and shortcomings; we acknowledge our frailty and failures … and then, six weeks later, we rejoice that “Christ is Risen!”
However, there is a huge difference between remorse and repentance. Remorse is simply saying, “I’m sorry for the things that I have done.” Repentance is actually starting to do things differently. To be sure, remorse is a necessary starting place, because we’re not likely to fix something that we don’t see as being broken. But acknowledging our brokenness is not the same thing as repairing it.
When we are finally ready to admit that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired … when we finally know that we cannot live with this suffocating ache of sin and suffering one moment longer … when we finally resolve that we are going to do things differently from now on, and that we are willing to work at actually changing the direction of our lives … then, and only then, will we be ready to receive the new life that the risen Christ offers us at Easter!
Let’s face it; we don’t really look forward to Lent the way we do with Advent. In fact, if we had our druthers, most of us would probably prefer to skip it altogether, and move directly from Epiphany to Easter. But the church has always insisted that this period is an essential part of the Christian journey.
Our word “Lent” comes from the old English word for “spring”—a reference not only to what is happening in the natural world around us, but also to what should be taking place in the spiritual world within us. It is the time when the hard, buried bulbs of our souls prepare to welcome the full blossom of Easter.
Of course, as any good gardener knows, new life requires some assistance. The life itself may be entirely God’s gift, but the cultivation of it calls for work. There is some tilling and fertilizing to be done, some weeding and pruning of dead branches. This is why Lent has traditionally been seen as a time of repentance.
But unfortunately, what it has become in recent years is merely a time for remorse. We confess our sins and shortcomings; we acknowledge our frailty and failures … and then, six weeks later, we rejoice that “Christ is Risen!”
However, there is a huge difference between remorse and repentance. Remorse is simply saying, “I’m sorry for the things that I have done.” Repentance is actually starting to do things differently. To be sure, remorse is a necessary starting place, because we’re not likely to fix something that we don’t see as being broken. But acknowledging our brokenness is not the same thing as repairing it.
When we are finally ready to admit that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired … when we finally know that we cannot live with this suffocating ache of sin and suffering one moment longer … when we finally resolve that we are going to do things differently from now on, and that we are willing to work at actually changing the direction of our lives … then, and only then, will we be ready to receive the new life that the risen Christ offers us at Easter!
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
8:16 PM
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