Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and marked the beginning of Lent even though, for many of us, the season really begins the day before with the celebration of Shrove Tuesday, before beginning the sombre journey of the 40 day lenten path to the cross.

Ash Wednesday and the journey of Lent is something I am becoming known for and I’ve been championing it in my public life since back when I used to work for Life FM. It’s great to see that being recognised. Just this week I was on Newstalk ZB’s Sunday show, Total Recall, to talk about how Lent might be helpful even for those who don’t hold to a Christian faith. I was also on New Zealand’s Rhema on Tuesday to chat about Shrove Tuesday, make pancakes and discuss the significance of Lent. I’m also on there today and each Tuesday and Thursday throughout Lent. Today I’m on Southern Star to talk about the significance of Ash Wednesday yesterday. Alongside all that I led a small Ash Wednesday time of contemplation at TEAR Fund yesterday and was due to lead a small Ash Wednesday service for my own church community last night, but we called it off due to many families being ill. I was scheduled to do that but had also been asked by two other local churches (outside of my Wesleyan Methodist movement) if I would be available to lead their Ash Wednesday services, but I had to turn them down as I was already taken up with ours.

I don’t point that out to blow my own trumpet but to express some joy in being known for this time of year because it is my favourite time of year and because I have put quite a bit of effort in over the years to make it more known and accessible in evangelical circles where it has been little known.

In my view Easter is the central piece of the Christian calendar and the rhythm of the Church. While the world around us (and many of us along with it) gives more weight to Christmas, it’s significant to point out that the weight of the New Testament heavily leans towards the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as being central to who we are, rather than his birth. This is reflected in the four biblical gospels where only two mention the birth of Jesus (with one of them, Matthew, doing so very quickly), while all four give plenty of weight to his death and resurrection. That’s not to minimise his birth and the preceding time of preparation in Advent, but to simply note that it is Easter that sits in the center of who we are. It then makes sense that a time to journey towards Easter and really give ourselves time to prepare for it would be a worthy time. Lent is that time.

As with Christmas, it’s easy to get to Easter without really thinking about it and then have it gone with hardly a breath to take it in. This happens a little less at Easter than Christmas as Christmas comes with all the added preparations of gift giving, organising family for the day, and in New Zealand it comes with preparing for long school holidays, end of year functions and making sure all the ducks are lined up well at work etc etc. While Easter doesn’t have all those it’s still easy for it to come and go in our busy lives with hardly a thought.

Lent gives us time to pause and focus on three things in particular. Modeled on Jesus’ 40 days in the desert and used by the early church as a time to prepare people for baptism, which was traditionally done on Easter Sunday as part of the Easter Vigil (the first service of Resurrection Sunday between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Resurrection Sunday), it brings to the fore fasting, prayer, and charity. Ultimately we engage in these things as a way to submit to God and open our lives to the shaping of his Spirit by His grace. They are therefore a ‘means of grace.’

Fasting

We fast not simply for the sake of giving something up, but to submit to God and ‘put off’ things that may have taken a hold of us in a way that is not healthy and in so doing we seek to take up rhythms that open our lives to God. This is an act of justice towards ourselves, seeking newness and rightness in our own being. In our culture of over consumption and immediacy this has value whether we are followers of Christ or not.

Prayer

During Lent we engage in an intentional rhythm of prayer where we recognise our need for the Divine. In prayer we put aside our desire and need for control and give ourselves over to God. In prayer we declare that we were designed to be in union with the Divine and we embrace that. It is an act of justice, making things right between us and God – restoration.

Charity

In charity we submit ourselves to being used by God in his story of restoring and redeeming the world. We recognise what is wrong and use our resources to reflect His hope and give glimmers of life in His Kingdom. It has an act of justice, making things right in a broken world and seeking to offer his healing where we can.

Yesterday it all began with Ash Wednesday, a time of confession and remembrance of our mortality. We heard the word said to us ‘remember o’mortal that your are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ It told us that we are going to die and that ultimately we are not God. These are sombre words but they are also freeing words. They free us to walk the journey of Lent and to knit fasting, prayer and charity into our lives as something we take beyond the cross and into the newness of life found in the resurrection.

May this journey of Lent be one of significance for you and in submitting to God through it, may you find newness of life and a sense of wholeness that can come when we give up.