Monday, March 3, 2014

Will You Take Up Something for Lent?

If you check out Facebook this week, there are a lot of people giving up something up for Lent.  Yes, there are quite a few who have said their FB “goodbye,” because they will be giving up Facebook.  Thousands, maybe millions, will be giving up chocolate, french fries, coffee, swearing, late-night snacks, food during the day, or some such other thing.

And they will do it in the name of fasting. You see, the idea of giving up something for Lent has taken on a certain cultural cache. I think it actually is sort of a strange phenomenon in our culture of overindulgence and excess and materialism. 

On the surface, I guess I see it as a good thing.  It seems for sure that self-denial, even of menial or luxuriant things, is a much overlooked virtue. So I really do applaud all of those that, in the name of God or their faith, are trying to give up something for Lent.

But I think we also need a word of caution right now. Don’t let your giving something up for Lent replace an actual relationship with the living God. And don’t let your sense of piety over giving up something for Lent keep you from taking a hard look at what God really wants us to be doing. The Good Book - the Holy Bible - actually has something to say to us about this.
This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families. (Isaiah 58:6-7, The Message)
So, I say just be careful. Really careful. Yes, it is great to do something for God. It is great to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us. But we must do it for the right reasons. Don’t get caught up in the cultural trend of giving something up without also trying to take something up. We give things up to make room to take things up. Might I suggest that you give up something that is getting in the way of your relationship with God.  Give something up that is getting in the way of the Kingdom.

Give up chocolate.  Give up chocolate that is made on the backs of the working poor.  Give up choclate that enslaves children and puts them in dangerous working conditions. Give up Hershey.  And take up Fair-Trade chocolate.

Give up Facebook.  And take up a pen and piece of paper and a stamp, and write a note to a teacher, a friend, a loved one, someone sick, or someone lonely.

Give up TV.  And take up conversations.  Take up stronger relationships.  Take up the Bible.  Take up prayer.
Give up oppression.  Give up resentment.  Give up fear.  And take up justice.  Take up reconciliation.  Take up love.

And yes, mark your forehead with ashes – not to take up shame and guilt.  Mark your forehead with ashes – and take up your inheritance as a child of God.  Take up your task to do the work of Christ.  Mark the start of your journey to the cross, so that when you get to Easter, you can look back and know that this Lent, you did something with God.  Then sing “Hallelujah, The Kingdom has come.”

No comments: