Tuesday, February 28, 2006

LENT!!

Lent starts tomorrow!

Yes that's right tomorrow is Ash wednesday. I never understood the church seasons or the various holidays other than Christmas and Easter, until my junior and senior years at Houghton. I have now come to embrace the Christian Calendar as a means to focus and live the Christian life throughout the year. After reflecting on the Christian Year for a little while now I have come to realize that Lent is by far my favorite season and Easter my favorite holiday.

I love the stark, somber mood that inhabits lent as we "descend to the cross with Christ" as JD Walt said in chapel the other day. We start our descent on Wednesday with the imposition of ashes (tomorrow will be my second time) and maintain our time of reflection through prayMer and fasting until Easter Sunday when we loudly exclaim CHRIST IS RISEN!! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!

Praise the Lord!! Amen!

I hope to post some lenten thoughts throughout the 40 days (not counting sundays), but we'll see how that goes as I have a NT Theology paper due for Dr. Witherington in a month. But for now, I just wanted to share my joy and excitement that Lent is here and Easter is coming.

Isn't it a great reminder of the reality that we live in. Just as before Easter the earth cried out for atonement, so it is after Easter that the earth cries out for the return of the King.

And so my soul yearns within me, and crys out even more during this time of year - MARANATHA - Come Lord Jesus!!!
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2 comments:

rebequinha said...

I was reading somewhere that at one point in time, the word "Hallelujah" was omitted from the church's liturgy for the entire season of Lent. So after the Ash Wednesday service, in which we turn from our sins, repent in sackcloth and ashes, take up our cross, and follow Christ, the season of penitence, of grieving for our sins and our brokenness and the pain they cause to God, truly begins. And it is not mixed with celebration - there is no jumping the gun and bringing in Easter early, no skipping to the last pages of the book to find out the ending before we read through the twisted conflict and the pinnacle of climax when it seems that all is lost. Then "Hallelujah" is brought back in on Easter morning, when we proclaim together, "Hallelujah! Christ is risen!" "He is risen, indeed!" I thought that was extremely interesting, and powerful - can you imagine how amazing and meaningful that simple word would be after 40 days of not uttering it? I get chills just thinking about it...

8:59 AM, March 01, 2006
rebequinha said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
9:01 AM, March 01, 2006

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