Invitation to Lent

Robert Webber in his book Ancient Future Time writes of Lent the following.  Does Webber’s experience reflect your own in the Protestant and evangelical church? How can we recover a Lenten spirituality without failing into the trap of empty ritual?

For most people coming from my background, an Ash Wednesday service and Lent are quite foreign and somewhat threatening. The Christmas cycle is much less threatening because Christmas themes are so prevalent within our culture. Also, because the secularization of Christmas is so apparent, most Christians are attracted to the possibility of rising above the materialism of the Christmas culture. Consequently many Protestant churches now practice Advent, and more and more churches are open to Epiphany. But Lent is another matter. Lent appears to be dark and foreboding. It reminds Protestants of the Roman Catholic practices-ritualism, works fasting, vigils, and the like. Haven’t we been saved from all of that? Didn’t the Reformers free us from having to do works and pilgrimages and such things?

No one would question that some Catholics have abused the real meaning of Ash Wednesday and
Lent . . . Perhaps we laughed inside and thought to ourselves, just another mark of an external, ritualistic religion. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Only God can judge the heart. Aside from all that dare we ask: Does something lie behind that symbol that has the potential to make our journey into Easter more meaningful? After all, what do we do for Easter? Most Protestants don’t’ make any spiritual preparation for the annual celebration of the death and resurrection . For example, when I was growing  up the only preparation for Easter made in my home – a deeply committed Christian home at that – was the planning and purchasing of new clothing. Easter was a weekend event. Preparing for Easter for seven weeks was unthinkable, ludicrous, even pagan. But now I am constrained to ask: Who is the pagan? Yes, it is wrong to go through the motions of Ash Wednesday and Lent in a mechanical, uninvolved way. But it is also wrong to ignore any kind of preparation for the Easter event. Happily there is an alternative for both Catholics and Protestants: Recover the true spiritual intent of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten spiritual pilgrimage (100).