Lent Readings, 2020

The presence of Lent in the church calendar—40 full days of preparation for Easter—reminds us in the Biblical record, God uses the number 40 as a measure of time to bring God’s children closer: to heighten their thirst, to remind them of God’s power and provision in their daily lives, to encourage and pour into them before a hard season ahead.  Many of us live as if life is linear, as if our only chance to find meaning or joy is to work hard until we achieve it. Developing an annual practice of Lent allows us to recognize that joy and meaning often come through cycles of stillness, silence and solitude. Intense effort is useful, but so are moments of waiting and of sacrifice.

Each Tuesday I will post readings for the week ahead. Every day there is a poetic scriptural reading, ending each week with the Beatitudes. This Lenten season I am reminded that if I want to prepare myself for Christ’s coming kingdom, I would do well spend 40 days marinating in the words Jesus used to describe it. We diminish the power of God when we try to protect and expand our own power and security instead of looking to God for significance and peace. In the past, I decided God’s Kingdom was made in my image, so that the hardest workers and the kindest, the most intentional people won. The Beatitudes remind us that God’s values are different. God promises to be present, generous and sustaining to those who have no power, to those near the margins, to those who align themselves with the overlooked and against self-interest alone. 

In the Catholic Church I visit on Ash Wednesday, the priest reminds us that Lent is experienced most fully in three ways:

1) We sacrifice something in order to remind ourselves of thirst, of hungering after God, or to disrupt patterns that diminish our flourishing in Christ.

2) We willfully use this experience of disruption to push us toward Christ, placing Jesus in the front of our minds, or at the top of our day.

3) We turn our eyes from ourselves and toward others as we intentionally live more generously toward those in need during Lent.

For these 40 days, I pray you would be mindful of these 3 practices, and maybe use them to orient yourself toward God. Allow yourself to recognize the abundance in your life, and to lean in to the lean places. In my own experience of God, there is a connecting holiness—an embodied solidarity—that comes when I decide to stay present in my pain instead of escaping. The Torah and the Bible speak of a God who is willing to wrestle with us, to cry with us, to listen to our lament. These Lenten readings teach us that God is just as present when I cry as God is when I refuse to let the tears come because I have Jedi mind-tricked my spirit into only hoping for, or seeing, the good. This Lent, create moments of stillness so you can notice your own joy and heartbreak. Cry. Or don’t. But don’t believe the lie that crying is unfaithful.

The one place I want to be when I am present in my pain is near God. Given the chance to introduce himself, God says, “I am.” That’s my best name. I am the present one. The always here one. The never past or future tense one. The ongoing in the moment one. To be near God is to be awake for this life, for these current moments: joyful and heartbreaking and everything in between. Allow yourself to think about people who live with very little, and know that they often hunger for and understand God in ways hard for some to understand. May these readings be an invitation into presence, with yourself, with others, with the God of “I Am.”

Find stillness, and believe the Gospel.

To Ponder:

“God is that way with us, He wants to hold us still with Him in silence…They cannot all be brilliant or rich of beautiful. They cannot all even dream beautiful dreams like God gives some of us. They cannot all enjoy music. Their hearts do not all burn with love. But everybody can learn to hold God…We shall not become like Christ until we give Him more time.”                                                    -Brother Lawrence

“Maybe you search for understanding, but find only one thing for sure, which is that truth comes in small moments and visions, not galaxies and canyons; not the crash of ocean waves and cymbals. Most traditions teach that truth is in these small holy moments.”                                          -Anne Lamott

To Read:

Feb 26 Matthew 5:1-12

Feb 27 Proverbs 2:1-15

Feb 28 Ps 94:12-22

Feb 29 Micah 6:6-8

Mar 1 Matthew 5:1-12

Mar 2 Ps 90:12-17; 91:1-2

Mar 3 Ps 95:1-8