LENT: Repentance
This was our focus for the first Sunday of Lent.
The Lenten season is the 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a time of preparation and repentance in which we remember Jesus’ suffering and anticipate his resurrection.
The question you often hear is, “What did you give up for Lent?” For centuries, Christians have observed Lent by fasting or other acts of self-denial. But often this tradition becomes mere ritual, or even a source of pride. We want to recapture a spirit of faith in this season.
Lent is a time of particular focus on repentance, which does not mean that we atone for our own sins, or even that we feel deep shame for them. Repentance is our response to the fact that Jesus atoned for our sins and bore our shame. In everyday language, repentance means to “change your mind” … to reconsider how we are living our lives in light of our calling in Jesus.
So during Lent, we deny usual comforts as a means to deepen our sense of union with Jesus. We give up things that lie at the heart of our consumer lifestyles because we want to be consumed with God. We want to experience something of Jesus’ suffering in the wilderness so that we may exult all the more in his resurrection on Easter morning.
But it begins in ashes. On Wednesday we marked our foreheads with ash as a symbol of our humanity and mortality. Repentance begins with humility.
In the book of 2 Chronicles, God instructs Solomon in a prayer of repentance ". . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (7:14)."
The prayer that is called for here is not prayer for others; it is penitential prayer for the faith community. It is not a call for others to repent; it is a call for us, God’s people, to repent. It is our land that needs healed; it is our wicked ways from which we need to turn; we are the ones who need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face.
Our Hymn of Response: Give Me Christ Or Else I Die
Gracious Lord, incline thy ear; My request vouchsafe to hear;
Hear my never-ceasing cry; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Wealth and honor I disdain, earthly comforts, Lord, are vain;
These can never satisfy: Give me Christ, or else I die.
All unholy and unclean, I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Thou dost freely save the lost; In thy grace alone I trust.
With my earnest suit comply; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Thou dost promise to forgive, all who in thy Son believe;
Lord, I know thou cannot lie; Give me Christ or else I die.
The Lenten season is the 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a time of preparation and repentance in which we remember Jesus’ suffering and anticipate his resurrection.
The question you often hear is, “What did you give up for Lent?” For centuries, Christians have observed Lent by fasting or other acts of self-denial. But often this tradition becomes mere ritual, or even a source of pride. We want to recapture a spirit of faith in this season.
Lent is a time of particular focus on repentance, which does not mean that we atone for our own sins, or even that we feel deep shame for them. Repentance is our response to the fact that Jesus atoned for our sins and bore our shame. In everyday language, repentance means to “change your mind” … to reconsider how we are living our lives in light of our calling in Jesus.
So during Lent, we deny usual comforts as a means to deepen our sense of union with Jesus. We give up things that lie at the heart of our consumer lifestyles because we want to be consumed with God. We want to experience something of Jesus’ suffering in the wilderness so that we may exult all the more in his resurrection on Easter morning.
But it begins in ashes. On Wednesday we marked our foreheads with ash as a symbol of our humanity and mortality. Repentance begins with humility.
In the book of 2 Chronicles, God instructs Solomon in a prayer of repentance ". . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (7:14)."
The prayer that is called for here is not prayer for others; it is penitential prayer for the faith community. It is not a call for others to repent; it is a call for us, God’s people, to repent. It is our land that needs healed; it is our wicked ways from which we need to turn; we are the ones who need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face.
Our Hymn of Response: Give Me Christ Or Else I Die
Gracious Lord, incline thy ear; My request vouchsafe to hear;
Hear my never-ceasing cry; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Wealth and honor I disdain, earthly comforts, Lord, are vain;
These can never satisfy: Give me Christ, or else I die.
All unholy and unclean, I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Thou dost freely save the lost; In thy grace alone I trust.
With my earnest suit comply; Give me Christ, or else I die.
Thou dost promise to forgive, all who in thy Son believe;
Lord, I know thou cannot lie; Give me Christ or else I die.
posted by Will | 1:35 PM
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