C089 3/10/57
© Project Winsome International, 1999
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LET'S KEEP LENT!
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Mark 8:34-35
I think it was Mark Twain who said everyone talks about the weather, but no one ever does
anything about it! I have a hunch that if Mark Twain were living today, he would make a similar
observation about our observance of Lent. It is often talked about, but very few of us do anything
about it, at least when it comes to allowing it affect our lives.
I suppose one reason for this is that traditionally we have come to think of Lent as primarily a
program of the Roman Catholic church. In our resistance against some of the overtones which
have been given to it, we have ignored almost completely a practice which Protestants in general
and Baptists in particular could well afford to follow.
As Baptists, we are rather proud of our doctrine of individual freedom and I certainly am not
suggesting we toss that doctrine out the window. To reject the freedom of the individual
conscience under God would be taking away one of the great foundation stones upon which our
Baptist faith is built. But in some ways, we have been guilty of emphasizing that one truth to the
exclusion of many equally important truths, one of which is mentioned by John in our text.
"Deliberate self denial for the gospel's sake."
The Cross in Our Life.
The important word in that last sentence is "deliberate". The cross for Jesus was a matter of
deliberate choice. It was something He did when He could have done otherwise. He willingly
chose to die for the sake of others that, through His death, they might have life.
If we're going to understand the meaning of the cross in our life, we must see it in that context.
We must realize that when we take up our cross as disciples of Christ, it means we are
deliberately choosing something which could have been avoided. The picking up of a burden we
did not have to carry unless we chose to.
When we approach Lent in that spirit--when we approach this period of self-discipline and
renewal as a matter of deliberate choice--when we "Keep Lent", not because we must, but
because we may, then it opens for us a whole new vista of life which remains hidden from our
eyes as long as we continue to wander about in the valley of self-indulgence. Of course,
There Is Danger in Keeping Lent.
There is always the risk that we will allow the means to become the end. That's what happened
in the early years of the Christian church.
Historically, Lent finds its roots in the experience of Jesus who fasted forty days in the
wilderness. And if, even for a moment, we have ever wondered whether Christ could have any
sense of compassion for our human frailties, any veil of doubt is quickly brushed away as we
witness those forty days in the desert when he battled self into submission.
Whatever His struggles might have been, one thing is sure:
they were real and not theatrical.
Therefore, we do not have a Savior who stands aloof from our struggles, indifferent to the
warfare that rages on within us for, in the liquid beauty of Paul's matchless phrase,
"He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities."
When the early Christians saw the superb self-mastery of Jesus, they sought to follow His
example. Through prayer and fasting, they struggled to conquer self. At first it was a purely
personal thing. It was something they did deliberately out of a sense of longing for a deeper life.
Then, about 150 years after the death of Jesus, a liturgical movement gripped the infant Christian
church. The ecclesiastical leaders took the experience of Christ in the desert and made a ritual of
it. They established specific times of fasting and penitence. They adopted rules of abstinence
and minute details of observance.
As so often happens when people try to ritualize a spiritual experience, the means became the
end. By taking an experience and making it a custom, it ceased to be an experience. Over the
centuries, Lent gradually deteriorated into a rather mechanical method of gaining indulgence and
special merit.
"Inventing Lent."
Following the Reformation, some of the more earnest churchmen began to recognize the
importance of this pre-Easter period of physical and spiritual preparation. Gradually, Protestants
joined hands with their Catholic brothers in "re-inventing Lent"as it were, allowing it to provide
an opportune time for the enrichment of their spiritual lives.
Today millions of Christians, from almost every segment of the church, deliberately choose to
deny themselves during Lent. For this one special season they attempt something in the way of
Christian discipline which will help them learn the mastery of self.
It is in that spirit that I say to you this morning,
"Let's Keep Lent."
Let's look upon it as a period of penitence and renewal. A period of self-discipline and denial
which will prepare us for a life which is vastly richer and deeper than we have known before.
Our Motivation
I suppose one reason for keeping Lent is that somewhere, deep within us, there lies the vague
premonition that we are not getting out of life all we should and could. That there is a fuller,
richer meaning to it. That life as we know it is somehow, somewhere, some way missing its vital
edge.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this hard problem. It would be nice if some wise
prophet could draw up an elaborate system of religious rules--spelled out in minute detail
disciplines we could meticulously follow for the next forty days--being assured that by do doing
we could gain the life abundant.
But such is not the case. We are not all alike. What is the need of one is not the need of another.
What is the answer for one is not the answer for another. That's why I do not come to you this
morning with some specific sacrifice to suggest for Lent. The cross Jesus asks you to carry is
peculiarly your own and demands a sacrifice that is a sacrifice for you.
Let me see if I can develop this idea a little further, and in a way that will help make your Lenten
sacrifice a spiritually stimulating one.
In a very broad sense, all of us tend to fall into two general physical categories which medical
men call hyper-thyroid and hypo-thyroid. The range of normalcy within these two classifications
is very broad. As a matter of fact, anyone with a basal metabolism rating anywhere between -10
to +10 is within that range of normalcy. But only an infinitesimal number of people actually rate
0 on their basal metabolism meaning they are neither plus nor minus in their thyroid condition.
So broadly speaking--in the really general sense--all of us tend to fall into one of those two
categories and we are more-or-less hyper or hypo-thyroid.
The hyper-thyroid is an activist. He or she is energetic, vigorous, alert, agile, sometimes even bustling.
The hypo-thyroid is a non-activist. He or she is sluggish, quiescent, contemplative. They are not
lazy or slothful, but they definitely have to drive themselves into activity, because by nature they
are non-activists.
Now, the fascinating thing about all this is that our response to the challenge of the Christian life
in many ways--and I hasten to qualify this statement because any generalization like this can be
dangerously misinterpreted--but generally speaking, our response to the challenges of the
Christian life tend to reflect our physical characteristics.
In other words, the hyper-thyroid--the activist--finds it relatively easy to respond to a call to do
some worthwhile service. But the hardest thing in the world for her to do is to sit serenely in an
attitude of worship. Meditation and quiet soul-searching seem like such a terrible waste of time
to her, because there is so much to do and she is anxious to get it done.
On the other hand, almost any task is a hard task for the hypo-thyroid--the non-activist. The
challenge to service falls heavy on his ears and he resents being told there is a job only he can do,
so if he doesn't do it, it will never get done. But he's quick to respond to an appeal for the
contemplative life. That's "duck soup" for him. He "eats it up" and is eager for a life of
meditation and quiet tranquility.
Now there's nothing "wrong" in either case. Two totally different types of people are simply
responding to Christian stimuli in ways which reflect their physical characteristics.
However, God has wisely given us a kind of built-in spiritual barometer so that even though we
do the thing that comes relatively easy for us, both the activists and the non-activists among us
seem to sense there is something more to life than either of us is experiencing and there is a way
of life vastly richer and fuller than our present "partial" existence.
Sometimes we try to resolve this conflict between what we are and what we feel we ought to be
by criticizing those who are different from us. We hear the activists call the non-activists "lazy"
and the non-activists call the activists "shallow." But these are just rationalizations, and
dangerous rationalizations, too. The hard facts of the case are that each of us, be we activists or
non-activists, must have both of these elements if we are to experience the abundant life. It is not
a case of "either/or", but "both/and".
Our Actualization
It's here that self-discipline, which is the true essence of Lent, becomes important. For the
hyper-thyroid who expresses his Christian faith in constant bursts of bustling activity must learn
that superficial activity--go-go-go--is not adequate for life unless it is balanced with a sense of
direction that can only come through the discipline of the contemplative life. Through prayer and
thoughtfulness, the activists must learn the art of peaceful, unhurried living.
On the other hand,
meditation,
prayer,
faith and
thoughtful soul-searching
are useless unless they are translated into holy activity for the world good. If the hypo-thyroid
becomes a maudlin dallier, then she, too, misses life at its best. She must see that bovine
complacency simply has no place in a world so full of tragic need, and her sense of inner-sureness and tranquility must be balanced by a life of active service. For, as the book of James
makes clear: "Faith without works is dead."
Well, by now, if I know anything about human nature, each of you has catalogued yourself. Like
the woman who was told by her doctor, "One problem with women is that they always
personalize things." To which she replied, "I don't!" Well, to be perfectly fair, we all
personalize what we hear. That's the way we're made.
I have a notion that, if not consciously at least subconsciously, at the mention of the
contemplative life the activists among you said, "Same old stuff. Let's quit all this spiritualizing
and get on with the work."
And, with the mention of a life of service, the non-activists among you gave a tired sigh and
mentally complained about the demands the church is constantly placing upon you.
But you see, the purpose of Lent is to help all of us to rouse our sluggish soul from sleep. For
whether we be activists or non-activists, there is one whole side of our life which needs
developing. We will not succeed in stretching that shrunken half of our soul without a struggle.
We are all very like the little bugs who live beneath the rocks. Whenever their rock is
overturned, they run for cover. They don't like to be disturbed. And neither do we!
None of us likes to be disturbed.
None of us really likes to submit to discipline.
None of us really likes to change our attitudes.
By and large we are a race of "rut-walkers." We fall into an agreeable groove of doing things and
trudge along in it forgetting that:
"A rut is little more than a grave with the ends kicked out."
And yet, while none of us likes to change, we are constantly being reminded by that faint whisper
within that we need to change. Life at its best is passing us by. And that's where Lent comes in.
For forty days we are challenged to submit to some act of self-discipline which will open the
door to that better life which Christ promised we could have. For forty days we are challenged to
experiment in what we ought to be doing all the time -- Learning more and more of what it means
to be like Christ in the mastery of self.
I don't know a great deal about gardening. I'm afraid I wasn't blessed with a green thumb. But I
do know this: Flowers never reach their rarest beauty so long as the soil about them is clogged
with weeds. And even as the gardener, by weeding her garden, makes it possible for her flowers
to fully bloom, so, too, in Lent we are challenged to reach down into the garden of our heart
where grows the Rose of Sharon, and painstakingly pluck out the weeds of worldliness which
would choke off its life.
But what is even more important, during Lent we seek to add to the soil of our soul those
spiritual ingredients which are lacking and without which this fairest of all flowers will never
fully grow.
Is it not true that those people who have really blessed us are those rare souls who by painful
pruning and careful cultivation, have allowed their Christian character to develop fully? Of
course! These are they who have outgrown their "natural" inclinations and by rigorous self-discipline have balanced their lives. They no longer live "partial" lives and every association
with them leaves us richer. So --
Let's Keep Lent!
In asking you to do that this morning, I'm not making any pecific demands. The details of the
sacrifice are up to you. I simply want to suggest that when Jesus said:
"If any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross",
He was referring to a real cross.
It was a cross which meant death for him and, likewise, it will mean death for you.
Death to everything that keeps you from Him.
Death to all entanglements that make it difficult, if not impossible, to follow Him. Death to
that side of your being which needs to die.
The details of this sacrifice are up to you. But may I give you one broad hint? Search out that
area in you which is most resistant to change. Which "gets your dander up" at the mere thought
of things being any different than they are. Where your violent reaction--your quickness to
argue the point--is conscious proof of the unconscious fact that here is something which has
become far too important to you.
Pick out the area of your life which is most reluctant to change and get to work there. For while
it's there you will have your greatest struggle, it's also there you will have your greatest victory.
The meaning of Lent is that you are to take up your cross--the thing which will cost you
something--and willingly, deliberately, courageously bear it up the hill of your own private
Calvary so that, in the end, Lent will culminate in a glorious Easter.
"Let me keep Lent!
Let me not kneel and pray,
Forego some trifle every day,
Fast...and take Communion...and then
Lend tongue to slander,
Hold ancient grudge, deny
The very Lord whom I would glorify.
"Let me keep Lent!
Let my heart grow in grace,
Let thy light shine 'till my illumined face
Shall be a testament read by all men
That hate is buried,
Self crucified, new-born
The spirit that shall rise on Easter morn."