A Lenten Blog, Day 3  

Live Lenten Lives 

We’ve come to that part of the Church’s year called “Lent”. 

As a young Methodist I had no idea about Lent. We celebrated Christmas above all else, and Easter. Good Friday was a bit morbid, but Easter Sunday was cool because we got chocolate. In those days it was little better in quality than cooking chocolate, but hey - we didn’t know any better. Chocolate easter eggs made sitting in church worthwhile!
Occasionally some preachers would reference the eggs in a children’s address or sermon, saying that they symbolised the NEW LIFE that came at Easter when Jesus was resurrected from death. As a child I didn’t care much about new life. From those days to these I love chocolate. 

Anyway, that was it, as far as the Church Year was concerned. Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Santa, hot cross buns and chocolate eggs. At United Theological College I was introduced to other seasons in the Church’s year. I had known about Pentecostals for years. In 1970 an American Pentecostal who was leading the Gordon Methodist Youth Group led me to faith in Jesus. But I had no idea about the Day and Season of Pentecost until UTC. All final year students got to preach once at Friday chapel. I got to preach on the Day of Pentecost, and why the 120 gathered disciples spoke in languages strange to them.

And at UTC I was introduced to the seasons of the Church Year that lead up to the great festivals of Christmas and Easter: Advent, during which we remember Jesus’ first Coming and await his 2nd; and Lent. The word “Lent” is derived from an old form of the English word “lengthen”. In the northern hemisphere at this time of year the sky is lightening earlier,
and the days are lengthening. But in Sweden, where I learnt how very long the days become, the word for Lent has nothing to do with this.
Instead, the Swedish word for Lent is “Fastan”, “the Fast”. Like Ramadan is for Muslims, Lent is traditionally for Christians a season of fasting and spiritual discipline. It is based on the remembrance of how Christ has suffered for us.

Yet for some reason Protestant Christians seem to prefer to fast from fasting as their Lenten discipline. A number of Protestant European countries have retained the Catholic tradition of feasting before Lent: 

• Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, in France
• Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday in England
• and delicious fastlagsbullar with cream marzipan and icing sugar in Sweden. But then, instead of fasting during Lent people simply carry on feasting!

When I was a Lutheran pastor in Sweden over 20 years ago, one of my weekly duties was to lead devotions at a weekly afternoon tea called “trivselträff”, lit. “enjoyment meeting”. After devotions there were always 4 or more different kinds of delicious biscuits and buns, washed down by wonderful Scanian filtered coffee. From mid-February to April fastlagsbullar made their appearance.

During Lent I started restricting myself to coffee only - a small enough sacrifice I would have thought. But the ladies of trivselträff were scandalised that I was not eating fastlagsbullar. It made no difference that I told them that we were in Fastan; they were much exercised that pastor was not eating properly, thus endangering the proper enjoyment of the meeting!

How many of us have tried fasting at some time or another? For many years I’ve engaged in a short fast from Thursday evening, the time of the Last Supper, to Friday mid-afternoon, when Christ died. It’s called a Wesleyan fast, and it does several things:

• reminds me of Christ’s Passion, suffering and death.
• reminds me that life is not about satisfying my own appetites.
• And of course it benefits my body.

I’ve only travelled in the foothills of fasting. The bible speaks of a number of people, including Jesus Himself, undertaking 40 day fasts. Neither is this practice confined to the biblical era. I have a friend, a woman who started her own church in West Ryde, who has completed her own 40 day fast. The Chinese Christian Brother Eun claims to have completed a 73 day fast.

In recent times we have become more creative with fasting. Decades ago I was introduced both to the practice of fasting and to the great Christian agency called World Vision by participating in their 40 hour Famine. Those who fasted, mostly rich young western Christians, got an idea of what it is like to go without. By fasting they raised money for those who were REALLY doing without.

Some years ago another friend awoke in the night with the words “Lent Event” ringing in her head. Her minister at that time, a wise and godly man, realised that this was from God. And so began Lent Event. The idea with Lent Event is that during Lent you do without something, eg. filtered Swedish coffee, or fastlagsbullar, calculate what that would have cost you if you had indulged and donate that sum of money to Lent Event.

And one of my contacts on LinkedIn, Rev Dr Rachel Mash, Coordinator of Green Anglicans, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s Environmental Network, has introduced me to the concept of a Lenten Carbon Fast.

Tomorrow I’ll continue with Lent, Carbon fasts and the biblical genesis for the whole thing.