Vacation

Thank God for Lent. Today begins the season of Lent. In just a few moments I will invite all of you, in the name of the church, to the observance of a holy Lent. Lent, probably more than any other time in the church calendar, is something we are really expected to enter into in our daily lives. Lent is more than just a particular color of vestments on Sundays. Lent is even more than Scripture readings about the need for repentance. It’s a season, a span of days, forty days that we are told to keep holy. In fact, Sundays aren’t counted in the 40, so we might say that what we do on Sundays is the least significant part of observing a holy Lent.

Some people right now are looking forward to baseball season. Most of us are looking forward to the season of spring. Both are spans of time, seasons in life with daily activities, rituals and associated feelings. Have you been looking forward to the season of Lent? Looking forward to this season of holiness with its daily activities, rituals and associated feelings? Lent is here now; the wait is over. Can you express gratitude for the coming of the season of Lent? Can you thank God for Lent?

This is how I think Lent works for most of us, especially those of us who take this whole thing seriously enough to be here today, to have our foreheads disfigured by ashes and our mortality thrown in our faces: We know we “need” Ash Wednesday, sort of like an addict often needs to hit some profound absolute bottom before he or she can begin to claim the process of recovery. Ash Wednesday forces our human ego or ambition to a sort of spiritual rock bottom. You have nothing; you are nothing; your sin is overwhelming. From rock bottom, then, Lent is the process of working our way back to spiritual health. Our Lenten disciplines are the tools for recovery. It’s a forty-step program. Spiritual recovery takes forty steps. But the joy of Easter awaits us. And the better we are at maintaining the discipline of Lent, the more fully we will experience the spiritual renewal of Easter.

The analogy is not perfect, but this is part of Lent’s meaning for us. Self-examination and penitence do prepare us for Easter. And within this perspective, I suppose it is possible to thank God for Ash Wednesday and for Lent. A recovering addict may rightly be very grateful for whatever crisis and tools lead to recovery and new life. And most of us need and should welcome as heavy a dose of spiritual humbling as God can mete out. So thank God for Ash Wednesday and thank God for reminding us that we are dust. And thanks to the church for calling us to the discipline of a holy Lent. You will hear that call, that invitation, soon. Listen to it and take heed.

But I also have another image for Lent in mind this year. Another reason to thank God for Lent. Lent is a vacation. Lent is a vacation and today is the first day. Thank God for Lent! A vacation that has finally begun. Lent is an opportunity, for a span of almost six weeks, to step away from the strivings and anxieties of life. A six-week vacation from the strivings and anxieties of life. Lent is day after day after day of time to spend close with God. Leisure time, quality time, undistracted, uninterrupted time with God. Lent is a special season, like a vacation, when I can do so much more of what I want to do and focus less on the burdens of what the world thinks I need to do. It’s a chance to leave behind being harried and be holy. It’s a vacation. Lent is a vacation from ambition and anxiety, a vacation from oppression and fear; a vacation from the soul-numbing daily grind. Lent is vacation time to rest and to find restoration and holiness. Cool. And this vacation is a gift from God. I could never “afford” it or earn it. None of us can. But God offers Lent as a gift, free. But like any vacation, we have to take it. We have to go on the vacation. Each of us has things we need to let go of, to leave behind. Today, Ash Wednesday, will you accept the gift and go on vacation with God? Spend some time in self-reflection and consider what it is you need to leave behind, and then choose Lenten vacation activities that are full of grace and holiness for you. Do Lenten activities that bring joy and renewal. Relish this time in God’s presence. God is ready and waiting right now. Today is the first day of vacation. Thank God for Lent.