I’ve spent some time over the past week or so addressing questions that come up about the season of Lent. So today instead of the “normal” newsletter, I’m just going to drop some of the frequently asked questions and some answers here.

Question One: Why Lent if Jesus never mentions doing Lent?

Lent is a season of the Church that has developed culturally in our practice of the faith. This is not a bad thing. There are plenty of things that are not mentioned in the New Testament that we use in worship – musical instruments, for example, and confirmation. The Church adopts practices that help Christians in their discipleship. While these cultural practices are never required because they are not found in Scripture, they are still normally good practices that help us lead lives that are centered around Jesus.

Question Two: It’s 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, but you say that Lent is 40 days?

Theologians never claim to be good at math. It’s just not our thing unless the answer is 3, 7, 10, 12, or 40. But seriously, this one is because of an early Christian prohibition on fasting on Sundays, as it is the day of Easter. Read that again, “prohibition”. As I read up on it, you could actually been brought up on church discipline in some eras for NOT eating. This all comes from the Gospels, like Mark 2, where Jesus says that the wedding party cannot fast when the bridegroom is with them. Since we are “with the Lord” on Sunday (especially in the Lord’s Supper), we don’t fast. So because of that, a 40 day fast couldn’t include Sundays – so it’s 40 days, separated with 6 Sundays.

Question Three: Why fasting?

Traditionally, Lent had a 3 part “to do list”: Fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. During Lent you were supposed to a.) eat less, b.) give more, c.) pray throughout. Unfortunately, we’ve largely dropped the last two in our modern expressions of Lent. The history is that this started because people were normally baptized just before Easter (the night before). In the early church, they mandated that people fasted for a day or two before they were baptized. This got lengthened out to a 40 day practice because that number of days mirrored Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness. It was finally set in “stone” by a pope in the 500’s AD who established the clear practice of Ash Wednesday 46 days before Easter.

Enjoy learning about these practices?

You should join our Sunday morning Bible study starting this Sunday. Bible study runs from 9:30am to 10:30am. Our topic for the next 6 or 7 weeks is going to be “The Liturgy,” and we’ll talk more about our worship practices and why we do what we do; what it is supposed to do and mean to us; and how we can be more intentional and connected during our time of worship together.