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Last Sunday, we heard the gospel story of how Jesus spent forty days praying and fasting in the wilderness.  Inspired by Jesus, our spiritual ancestors in the early church sought to emulate his spiritual discipline. By AD 325, church authorities had formalized this period of prayer and fasting into the six week observance of Lent. The emphasis was not on individuals choosing what they would give up for Lent, but on the community experiencing Lent together. The whole community practiced a strict fast, only eating one meal a day after 3PM with no fish, meat or dairy. The solemnity and the rituals associated with Lent or the Great Fast as it was called, were seen as a way to unify believers in anticipation of the Resurrection.  

Over the centuries, the strictness of the fast began to relax and the communal observance—where a community fasted together—slowly faded. In their place new practices emerged - such as the idea that individual believers pick “something to give up” for Lent - and this has remained a fixture of Lent down to our own day. 

Nonetheless, Lent is more than about fasting. It is about discovering ourselves and our relationship with God. If we reduce Lent to a superficial exercise like giving up sweets for Lent, we may lose a few pounds but what difference does it make to our spiritual well-being? If we are going to give up something for Lent, teacher Maggie Dawn suggests we might consider giving up our caricatures and misperceptions about God which are not based in the truth of who God really is. 

Lent is also more than an individual practice of piety. It’s about growing together, united in our purpose to draw nearer to God. Although we are children of the Reformation which promoted a personal faith and the independent interpretation of Scripture, we are still members one of another,  and need each other to grow into the fullness of faith. 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes about how God has equipped each of us with various gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4: 8-18). We need each other, he writes, until “all of us come to the unity of the faith and maturity,” until we come, as he puts it, “to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” 

Paul also talks about speaking the truth in love. This has most often been applied to situations of conflict, where hard truths sometimes need to be said. But could not “speaking the truth in love,” also be about sharing our experiences of God with one another?  Could it not also include sharing the blessings we receive from the beauty of creation or from members of the human family - our neighbors, friends and even strangers we meet while out walking or picking up groceries?

As your pastor, I have asked myself, “how can we as the community of faith at Gloria Dei, journey through Lent together and not simply as individuals?”  I respect that the challenges of aging, night driving and schedules make it difficult for most members to participate in a traditional weekly Bible study or Lenten service of prayer. Are there other means I wondered, that would enable us to hear and learn from one another, on how God is speaking to us in our Lenten journey?

Listening to a video series by Maggie Dawn, I learned how a church in New Zealand created a Community Lent Book. The pastor brought several journals and invited members of the congregation to take away the journal for a few days and then pass it on to someone else. While they had the journal they could write down their thoughts, a prayer, a bible verse or copy out a poem that was speaking to them. [I would expand that list to also include a drawing—for those who prefer to draw rather than write—or a few lines about an encounter in Creation or with another person that you experienced as a token of God’s guiding love]. Then, every Sunday the journals were brought back to church and placed on a table and everyone was invited to read through them. In this way, individual members' experiences of Lent were interwoven together with that of others to form a community Lenten spiritual collage or tapestry. 

Inspired by the New Zealand congregation, three journals were distributed to Gloria Dei members on the first Sunday in Lent. They will be coming back this Sunday and going out again.  Perhaps, these journals will help us to think of Lent as a season in which God wants us to reflect on what we are willing to receive rather than on what we are willing to give up. 

What graces and gifts are being offered to us through one another as the the Body of Christ, as we walk with Jesus to Jerusalem?