A Season for Silence

Pastor’s Epistle—March, A.D. 2019 C

40 days.

40 days to turn and be turned.

40 days when we try, as best we can, to still the mad rush of events around us, to seek out silence and simplicity, to deny ourselves some measure of those frivolous purchases and pleasures which serve only to distract and divert us from the deeper truths of reality.

We need Lent now more than ever, it seems.

What began as a time of instruction and preparation for those awaiting Baptism at the Easter Vigil has become a broader season of repentance for the entire Church: a time for re-turning, re-orienting our lives toward the bloody Cross at Calvary and the open Easter Tomb. It is a journey of 40 days, sans Sundays, which are always reserved for the feast.

40, in the Bible, is a weighted number, connected to the 40 weeks it typically takes for a pregnant woman to come to term. Thus whenever we encounter 40 of anything in Scripture we must read this as a period of struggle, growth, and tribulation—which ultimately leads to new life and new birth. The 40 days of Lent promise Resurrection.

The pillars of Lent are the ancient spiritual practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Fasting, mind you, is much more than simply avoiding certain foods, just as prayer is more than words and almsgiving more than money.

We shall explore each of these topics in greater depth at our midweek Lenten vespers, along with two others: reading and repentance. The Word of God has always been held sacred in our faith, and there is bitter irony in the fact that as the availability of the Scriptures has grown, our familiarity with them has fallen. As for repentance—well, according to Luther’s 95 Theses, repentance ought to be nothing less than the entire life of believers. We are forever turning, and being turned, to Christ.

Lent is a season for instruction and for worship. There will be many classes, many services—and at their heart a single Truth. Bring your questions, bring your worries, bring your doubts and all your cares. Leave the world aside for a season. We shall return to her, resurrected, soon enough. For now we must travel far and deep.

So let us make our preparations. Let us celebrate Fat Tuesday, and come with solemnity to Ash Wednesday. Let us select devotionals to read and spiritual guides with whom to walk. Let us light candles and incense. Let us pray in word and in deed, and most especially in silence. Let us set aside the frets and woes of this frenzied world about us as we commence the long walk together to the Kingdom and Cross of God.

Let us have Lent once again.