LENT
A sermon by Rev. Emily Jane A. Lemole
Readings: Joel 2:12-17, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Lent is a special time of preparation for Easter. The name comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “the lengthening of days” referring to winter’s short days stretching into spring's longer, lighter ones.
Historically, in the Christian church, "Lent" has been a forty day time for focused penitence, fasting, almsgiving and prayer.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter Sunday, when – in some Christian denominations - ashes from the previous year's Palm Sunday were used to make the sign of the cross on people's foreheads. With the ashes, Lent starts by reminding us not to take natural life too seriously – that it is brief, and we are all here for a short stay – some shorter than others. “The things of this world pass away, come let us in Him rest” – goes the hymn. “Remember, you are dust and to dust shall you return,” (Ecclesiastes 3:20).
However, we do need to become serious about our spiritual lives – and Lent affords us that opportunity. The Lord said deny yourselves – take up your cross and follow Me. What is our cross? Temptation. It's our cross. Because of continual conflict between our external natural life and the internal spiritual one, there is temptation. The battle is over our dual nature. We know from experience this is a tall order, considering our natural inclinations. When our conscience (God speaking through our soul) runs counter to our natural desires, we are torn between what we want to do and God’s will for us. Our love of self and love of the world clash with our love to the Lord and our neighbor.
Lent gives us a framework and a theme in which to practice what we preach... to bring to life those truths that happily stay inside in our heads and by doing so never take form – never come to life. Specific acts manifest our beliefs, and give shape and reality to them. In modern language this is called walking your talk. “All religion relates to life—and the life of religion is to do good,” Swedenborg teaches.
Lent can be the path to that good, which is of course the Lord’s. We can know all the theology in the world and still know only about God – without ever really knowing or experiencing God. This "staying in our heads" has been described as enjoying the menu but never moving to the meal. The menu can be fun to read, but it has no nourishment, reality, or usefulness by itself. It is only a preview of what is to come.
John the Baptist said, "Repent!" The word repent comes from the Greek word metanoia, meaning to turn around, change direction! Lent provides that time for repentance. It must begin with reflection and self-examination. Self-examination — especially as to our motives. Intention, Swedenborg says, holds the key to repentance.
From the Apocalypse Revealed:
“Actual repentance is to examine yourself, to know and acknowledge your sins, to hold yourself guilty, to confess them before the Lord, to implore help and the power to resist them, and thus to abstain from them, and lead a new life, doing all these things as of yourself. Do this once or twice a year, when you approach the Holy Supper, and afterwards when the sins, of which you have found yourself guilty, recur, then say to yourself, “I will not consent to them because they are sins against God.” This is actual repentance.” (Apocalypse Revealed 531:5)
To make ourselves guilty of every wrong or bad thing we have ever done is counterproductive, and only makes us feel helpless. The hells are happy when they make us feel hopeless. We need to recognize where we have failed, as identified in the penitent prayer. We need to ask for the Lord’s help and be confident that He can re-form us. Working on one quality or habit at a time is realistic for Lent. Taking on the hells is a daunting assignment until we realize we have the Lord, Heaven, and all the angels on our side.
As we read at the beginning of the service, Swedenborg speaks of worldly cares and external interests as being on a sensory level in a person’s life. When in this state, he says, we avoid and even object to thinking and talking about deeper spiritual matters. But when we are not overly concerned with worldly cares, and are living a good life, we see what is right and fair and spiritually good. What do we identify with, and to what are we attached?
We can’t deal with what we refuse to see, and don’t admit to. Looking carefully at our lives, especially our motives and objectives, what makes us happy, what makes us sad or angry, can be the key to realizing what lies beneath the surface of our lives, often appearing as perfectly fine and good. We can be asleep to our real intentions and essentially asleep to our spiritual life. The Lord gives us wake-up calls all the time — when we don’t get our own way, illness, loss in its many forms including aging. We can understand that difficulties are part of life. They are opportunities to deepen and observe the nature of our spiritual person. If we’re already awake when the alarm sounds, it’s a lot less startling and we’re better prepared for it.
This is the time to take inventory — to see who we are, what we love, and how our choices are determining where our life path leads. We are what we love! By following the example of Jesus in His time of temptation in the wilderness, we can carry our crosses or temptations to a quiet place absent the world, as the wilderness was absent the world. This is a place for observing what is in our hearts, asking forgiveness and a changed heart. This is hard, hard work and we will not like what we see. Swedenborg does not paint a pretty picture regarding our natural state.
The Lord has made us so that we can choose to change — to change patterns of our thoughts and habits of life so that He can change our hearts. What we start out doing because we know is right, can be transformed into doing what is right, because we love it.
We cannot deal with what we cannot see. Instead of the magnifying glass with which we enlarge other’s faults we need a mirror on our own souls — to see what we love — and what motivates all we do. We can’t hit a target we can’t see — and Lent can identify that target.
Lent gives us a focus and construct to do this. As we take on a specific habit or mind-set we might also reflect on what the opposite of that negative quality may be.
Gossiping. stop. >> Speak kindly of others
Lying. stop. >> Tell the truth
Resenting. stop. >> Be grateful
Fearing. stop. >> Trust
Father Richard Rohr, a well-known Franciscan priest, said, “God loves us not because we are good, but because He is good."
Lent is not a time for earning God’s approval or God’s love. (It is there no matter what). We don’t earn points or impress God by our good behavior. Adding one more activity to our already hurried lives isn’t the answer. The meaning lies in a different kind of activity, a Spiritual Practice, or purposeful, mindful, behavior to reflect our deepest longing for knowing and being known by God.
Giving Things Up
Giving things up is a central theme of Lent. Those things to give up are habits of thought and life that block the way on our spiritual journey to God, thoughts such as: I lead a good life, I’m a good person — I don’t rob, steal or murder. This doesn’t apply to me. Or, habits of mind such as self-righteousness, denial, criticism of others, complaint, and justification. And habits of the body — undisciplined living that undermines health and well being.
In a book called "From Sacrifice to Celebration, a Lenten Journey", Evan Howard describes the essential giving up present in Lent.
“Disciplining our will and desires is a spiritual matter with physical implications. In the United States, the seductions of countless advertisers make discipline difficult. The excesses of commercialism invite us to live beyond our limits, increasing our vulnerability to addiction. The way to freedom is found in reorienting one’s will and desire toward God. In the words of John of the Cross, 'It is not the things of this world that either occupy the soul or cause harm, since they enter it not, but rather the will and desire for them.'”
Howard continues:
“The longstanding tradition of fasting or giving up harmful attitudes or actions during this season is meant to increase our discipline. Self-denial is an exercise in letting go. But it cannot be done alone. God’s help is necessary. Just as our fasting will falter unless spiritually empowered, so our attempt to live as Christians will fail unless divinely guided. We cannot accomplish some goals without maximum commitment. Growth in Christian life is one of them. Lent declares that commitment without reliance on God is futile.”
We can fast from many things besides food.
Fasting
Fast from complaining, and feast on praise
Fast from negatives, and feast on affirmatives
Fast from unrelenting pressures, and feast on unceasing prayer
Fast from hostility and feast on tenderness
Fast from bitterness, and feast on forgiveness
Fast from self-concern, and feast on compassion for others
Fast from the shadows of sorrow, and feast on the sunlight of serenity
Fast from idle gossip, and feast on purposeful silence
Fast from judging others, and feast on the Christ within them.
The poet Robert Herrick wrote this poem,
To Keep a True Lent
Is this a Fast, to keep
the larder lean?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d t go,
Or show
A down-cast look and sour?
No: ‘tis a Fast to dole
They sheaf of wheat
And meat
With the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife
And old debate,
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.
Enter Mary and Martha
What do these sisters have to teach us to guide and deepen our Lent? We all know the story of Mary and Martha, and how they differ from one another. Martha represents that part of all of us that lives in the demanding daily practical world doing what needs to be done, and like Martha, is probably anxious and troubled about many things. This is the Martha life that is filled with the stress of not enough time, too much to do. We can easily label someone as Martha or a Mary. A practical person of action versus a reflective listening receptive one. But each one of us carries both within. Conflict comes when the worries, real and imagined, run wild without the spiritual guidance of Mary’s heart.
Let’s see what Jesus pointed out to Martha, the anxious and troubled one. He didn’t criticize her work, only her priorities, and her attitude. We can hear Him say with love, Martha, Martha — as if to coax her gently back to see that “the only necessary thing” must not be put off — must not be disregarded or seen as extraneous in the practical world of getting things done. Here is a lesson for Lent. We must recognize the need for the Mary in us, longing to experience God, longing to sit and listen and learn and love Him. To stop the busyness, the noise, the activity, long enough to hear His voice, to feel His presence; long enough to know His peace. There is no worry in Mary’s heart. She has chosen the better part — she is listening, she is still, the clamor of daily life has been selectively silenced by her choice to sit quietly.
It’s not that our Martha won’t still have much to do. The work never goes away. But now the work has been given meaning, purpose, and perspective. There’s much to do to be useful and serve each other with love, but Martha’s worry and resentfulness can be transformed to full gratitude and peacefulness.
How do we develop the Mary part — how do we sit at the feet of Jesus? Lent gives us a golden opportunity to begin a practice and create a plan for our Mary. We will never find time — we must make time — to be with God — to meet with Him. First things first! “Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven…”
We all need a quiet place — a sacred space to sit at God’s feet with a quiet mind and open heart. Carving a meditation and prayer time out of a busy life can be challenging. However the Lord gives us 24 hours a day and we with our Martha hearts find it difficult to give back even a half hour. This God time must be created with purpose – an act of will — (really God’s urging in us). Not just when it’s convenient or when we feel like it. It’s a standing appointment. Fully evolved spiritual people have found this appointment with God to be essential.
Martha was troubled. Martha was worried.
Worry and resentment are a part of all of our lives. Anxiety arises over troubles real and imagined. As Joanna Weaver points out in her book "Having a Mary Heart In a Martha World":
"Jesus didn’t say we might have troubles. He said we will. But He also said, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.” The Bible tells us over and over again not to worry. Twenty-five times in the New Testament alone."
What do we worry about?
40% are things that will never happen.
30% are about the past.
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue.
10% are about health, which gets worse with stress.
8% are about real problems that can be solved.
Worry demonstrates our lack of trust in the Lord’s providing for every one of us, every moment in our lives. Worry distorts our priorities, and first things not only don’t come first but are forgotten. Anxiety with its basis in fear, can ruin one’s physical, mental and spiritual health. As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that working for you?” Well, actually worry doesn’t work.
And one antidote?
In Philippians St. Paul urges,
“Think on these things”:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Doesn’t sound like the evening news, does it?
Here are the Mary things to remember for Lent:
Scheduling time for prayer, meditation, for reading the Word, singing, chanting, whatever quiets the inside and outside of our lives, and turns our thoughts and affections to the spiritual. This cannot be an add-on at the end of the day or when it fits in, but the most important time. Perhaps first thing in the morning, to thank the Lord for a new day—and set its course on God’s guidance; and before bed to reflect on the day and learn from it. An old English proverb says, “Prayer is the key to the morning and the lock of night.”
And others:
1. Ask the “Lord to create in us a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within us.” Observing Lent says with our mind and heart, “Show me your way, O Lord. I’ve had enough of mine!”
2. Lent defines a time for us to examine our hearts. We want to be cleansed of selfish desires and only worldly interests. The Lord has promised this and it can happen little by little — not an all-at-once heart transplant — but day by day allowing the Lord’s will to replace ours.
3. Mary and Martha paint a picture of our natural life and spiritual life and how they best work together.
4. And finally, the writings of Swedenborg emphasize the importance of self-examination, especially as to our motivation. And they give us the key to Scripture, unlocking the treasure of truths waiting to be loved and lived.
I’ve written a few rules of Lent for myself:
1) To look carefully at the state of my soul, without excuses and the illusion of my own goodness
2) To make a regular appointment with God--and show up!
3) To listen, as Mary listened, in prayer and meditation.
4) To carry that into an active life of use and compassion.
A very tall order!
Won’t you join me in writing your own rules for Lent?
Amen
