Do We Even Need Lent This Year?

“Ew, Lent!” 

~Alexis Rose

In 2020, we began quarantine and our year at home, in the season of Lent. In many ways, it feels like we never left! Christmas was a brief distraction but now we’re back where we started. (Like some demented, TikTok from hell that you just can’t stop watching.) 

I question, do we even need the season of Lent this year?

Today marks the beginning of Lent. Without being able to impose ashes on foreheads, today instead is simply known as, “The First Day of Lent.” The service for Ash Wednesday in the Book of Common Prayer, contains this invitation to a holy Lent: “I invite you…in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.” 

Forgiveness and turning away from unhealthy behaviors and back to God (repentance) is omnipresent in following in the way of Jesus and the way of Love. We should always be turning to scripture to locate our story in the cosmic story of God’s love. And we should be drawn towards a posture of prayer in conversation with the creator and in compassion for our siblings in Christ. But what about those other parts of Lent? 

Lent is a time for “fasting & self-denial,” the BCP tells us. This past year, we’ve already gone without so much! On the social side: sporting events, parties, dance parties, going to the movies, impromptu late-night food runs, sitting in coffee shops with friends, concerts, and so much more. And we’ve missed out on meaningful physical and spiritual moments in church, singing together, being with extended family for holidays, and even being present with loved ones when they died. 

Is more fasting and self-denial what we need? (Obviously there are many things we did not “give up” that get in the way of being present and noticing God — looking at you, social media and screen time. But let’s not be too quick to give up our primary means of connecting right now.)

We just read that Lent is a time for “self-examination.” A year at home, for me, has afforded more self-examination than I care for. Thanks, but I’m good. My journals are full.

Lent is also a time when we’re reminded of our mortality - a time to “remember that you are dust and to dust you will return” as the psalmist says. It’s why we smear ashes on our foreheads. But with so much death and suffering surrounding us - as we approach half a million dead in the US from COVID-19, can our prolonged state of grief, our collective fragile mental health take much more? A theology of suffering says that all loss goes to the same pool. For many, this pool overfloweth. 

Is another reminder of death really what we need? 

Lent is also a time of alms-giving. Many have lost jobs, income, or had to cut out excess spending to make ends meet. For those of us still able to support churches, causes, and non-profits we care about, we certainly can’t take on extra tithing. 

Is a call to give, really what we need?

So what can we do for Lent?

Perhaps these familiar ways of preparing for Easter will not serve us well this year. Perhaps it just needs… tweaking. 

Instead of almsgiving, what if we located abundance and chose to give from it? Perhaps it is our effort or time. What if we let calendar be king and said, “no” to that which stretches us thin? 

What if we didn’t give up anything but instead refocused it? (Giving up social media cold turkey just may not make sense.) However, take Instagram, for example: what if instead of projecting the mask of perfectionism, we used it to actually connect or re-connect with friends? Unfollowing those illusory travel accounts or those ubiquitous, converted-sprinter-van-life accounts would certainly help me focus on those I actually care about — whose updates are an invitation for connection. 

Meister Eckhart speaks of knowing God not through some churchy program, praying the daily office 4 times a day, or adding something to your busy life. Instead the mystic reminds us that “God is found in your own soul through subtraction.” What if we thought of “giving up” something in terms of just making space? What if, instead, we peeled away a few layers to let in more of the stuff of life? 

Whatever we take on, subtract, re-frame, re-focus, this Lent, let’s not do it alone! At ESF we’ll be posting regularly in our social media: stories of what your friends are doing (and you’re invited to share with us what you’re doing — or not doing!) so that you can practice it with them in solidarity in community. No one is posting to show just how holy they are and how you should be too. We post for connection, encouragement, and accountability.

We may be in an unofficial “Lent” long past Easter. What tools are you going to hone to be more resilient? How will you help overcome the isolation of others? How will you look within and outside yourself to your suffering community? Will you finally reach out for the help you’ve been so desperately seeking but never had the space to ask? Will you use your media, time, energy for building up someone in the love of the Beloved? 

Remember today: “You are dust.” But you are also stardust. You are wonderfully made. And you are, first and foremost, a beloved child of God.

“Get your Ash on the Quad” 2019 — ESF Intern, Paul Collins, MDiv pictured.

Ashes on the Quad 2020