Since moving to Houston, one of the things that I have liked the least is the traffic. Not only is it terribly thick, filled with rude drivers, but it also seems that everyone is in a hurry. Depending on the time of day, the thickness of the traffic lessens, and some Houston drivers are actually courteous, but the hurried pace never seems to let up. Around here driving the speed limit means that you are in the way and holding other people up. Truth be told, this is probably not just a Houston thing. No matter where you live you probably face the temptation and pressure to move at the world’s rhythm and pace or get left behind. The season of Lent however is a time that calls us to cease being shaped by the hurried rhythms of the world and instead to reflection on the rhythms of the story Christ calls us too.

We are called in the Lenten season to a more robust participation in the story of Christ. The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday calls us to reflection on our essential creatureliness as well as the finite, fragile, and fallen nature of our humanity. Throughout the forty days of Lent we have the opportunity to reflect on the story of Christ and our place within it. In this I believe that we come to more fully identify with Christ, more fully participate in the mission and story of Christ, and are more fully shaped into the image of Christ. We are people who are shaped by the things we do, what we watch, and what we listen too whether we realize it or not. Practices such as giving something up (whatever that might be) are meant to aid us in our reflections and serve as a reminder that spiritual formation does not happen magically but must be decidedly embodied. These embodied practices teach us that our ultimate dependence is upon Christ alone. And Lent reminds us that such embodied formation takes time, patience, discipline, and reflection. And time, patience, discipline, and reflection ultimately become the spaces that the Spirit is able to work within, shaping us into the image of Christ.

Those of us who are prone to impatience may just wish to skip all the discipline and reflection required of Lent and just go straight to Easter Sunday. But if we do this, if we fail to reflect on our creatureliness and our finite, fragile, and fallen humanity I fear that we put ourselves in danger of not being truly prepared for Easter or anticipating it in all its truly redemptive fullness. In essence we need the whole narrative, not just part of it. We can’t leave parts out because they may seem hard or unpleasant. Take for example the lectionary passage from Ash Wednesday in Joel chapter two. What we find here in the first two verses is not very pleasant. In short, judgment is coming:

Joel 2: 1-2 (NIV)

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,

for the day of the LORD is coming.

It is close at hand-

2 a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and blackness.

Like dawn spreading across the mountains

a large and mighty army comes,

such as never was of old

nor ever will be in ages to come.

The next few verses describe what the “day of the LORD” will be like concluding in verse eleven, “The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” It would be quite disheartening if the story stopped there, but it doesn’t. In the rest of the chapter, after a time of turning back to the LORD we find that the people of God have been restored in verses eighteen through twenty-seven, with the LORD promising that,

26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,

that I am the LORD your God,

and that there is no other;

never again will my people be shamed.

 

The restoration at the end of the chapter is surely more pleasing to reflect on than the judgment at the beginning or the struggle of turning back to the LORD in the middle. I’m sure no one else would do this but as I initially read the first couple of verses of Joel chapter two I found myself uncomfortable and rushing to the end. In a similar way it would be tempting to just skip Lent and go straight to Easter but we can not. Lent is a time where our reflections on our creatureliness, humanity, and the Christ story prepare us for and produce in us an anticipation of Easter Sunday. But here we begin to see that Christ radically demands that we deny our whole self and give up the prerogative of writing our own story. Beyond this he calls us to take up a cross and follow him in his narrative. In this Christ writes our story – his story becomes our story – yet we know his story leads through the desert and a cross. If this is Christ’s story then it must be our story as well.

The question we must ask at this point is: are we ready? Are we really ready? Are we prepared for Easter Sunday? We must be prepared for and in anticipation of Good Friday (the day of crucifixion) before we are prepared for or can properly anticipate Easter (the day of resurrection). If we are to identify with Christ, participate in his mission and story, and be formed in his image we can’t jump to the end. Instead we must personally and corporately reflect upon and embrace the whole story. We need a time of disciplined reflection, a time of allowing the lectionary passages to lead us through the story of Easter, a reflection that prepares us and produces within us more and more a sense of anticipation for that which is to come and which is ours only in Christ alone – resurrection. Lent offers us this much needed time of reflection and opportunity to embrace the rhythms of the whole story of Christ.

submitted by Russell Almon, Houston TX, former Crosspoint member