Anyone going to celebrate lent?

[Davidius]

The lenten season is also where Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wed.) comes from. Do all the sinning you can before Ash Wednesday, etc.

To be fair, Mardi Gras (especially in its current form) came from a misapplication/misunderstanding of the purpose of the observation of Lent. Whereas the popular understanding of Lent is that you are to give up something sinful in order to spend more time with the Lord, the correct historical understanding is that you are to abstain something good (such as food, marital relations, fermented beverage, etc) in order to get something better (ie: more concentrated time in prayer and fellowship with God).
.

So it was originally gnostic?

Our church is doing a whole special thing:

Lent is traditionally a time when Christians reflect on Jesus Christ and who he is – and what that means for us as his followers. This year we’re going to do that together, as both our churches consider being God’s Holy People.

Whether you’re normally part of a homegroup or not, join us on Wednesday 6th February at 8pm in St Johns for a special Ash Wednesday service as we ask ourselves what it means to be God’s Holy People.

I am giving it a miss.

We should reflect all year long on Jesus Christ and who he is.

 

[raekwon]

The lenten season is also where Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wed.) comes from. Do all the sinning you can before Ash Wednesday, etc.

To be fair, Mardi Gras (especially in its current form) came from a misapplication/misunderstanding of the purpose of the observation of Lent. Whereas the popular understanding of Lent is that you are to give up something sinful in order to spend more time with the Lord, the correct historical understanding is that you are to abstain something good (such as food, marital relations, fermented beverage, etc) in order to get something better (ie: more concentrated time in prayer and fellowship with God).
.

So it was originally gnostic?

I'm not following the "fasting = gnostic" connection here.

 

[tcalbrecht]

I've never been part of a church that "pushed" Lent or even encouraged her members to observe the season in any particular way. Cases like that do indeed unnecessarily bind consciences.

If a believer feels moved, though, to observe the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter as a time of fasting and prayer, I see no issue.

Such a statement implies some sort of external force. What is it that would "move" a person to observe Lent personally?

(See below for an example.)

Fasting and prayer should flow out of a heart overflowing with love and gratitude for Christ's work of salvation in you. Not because it is a certain time of the year.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps one's gratitude for Christ's work of salvation is always present (as it should be), but particularly acute at this time of year.

I'm missing the connection between "being moved ... to observe the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter as a time of fasting and prayer" (which means a particular external season) and what Lady Augusta has written (which is contrary to any externality).

So, what external force is it that "moves" you to perform such activities during certain seasons of the year?

 

[Me Died Blue]

I'm missing the connection between "being moved ... to observe the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter as a time of fasting and prayer" (which means a particular external season) and what Lady Augusta has written (which is contrary to any externality).

So, what external force is it that "moves" you to perform such activities during certain seasons of the year?

I got the impression he was using the word "moved" in the sense of motivated, rather than forced or obligated.

 

[caoclan]

As an ex-Roman and ex-Seventh Day Adventist and ex-PCUSA'er and newly Reformed Christian, I've got a lot to learn and rethink (but not like Robert Schuller's "Rethink" Conference)!

 

[raekwon]

I'm missing the connection between "being moved ... to observe the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter as a time of fasting and prayer" (which means a particular external season) and what Lady Augusta has written (which is contrary to any externality).

So, what external force is it that "moves" you to perform such activities during certain seasons of the year?

I got the impression he was using the word "moved" in the sense of motivated, rather than forced or obligated.

Precisely. Motivation can come in a myriad of forms, internal or external (all under the onus of a sovereign God, of course).

 

[DMcFadden]

I work with a guy who practices lent even though he doesn't attend church services anywhere. He's giving up beer (he's 19) and weed. I wonder if it counts to give up sins for lent? It just seems so ridiculous.

How positively post-modern! Maybe he will read the Bible before going to bed with the girlfriend he lives with or light a candle while he reads his horoscope in the mornings.

 

[DMcFadden]

Whadya mean you don't celebrate Lent???? We started by celebrating Canival yesterday in Sunday School and I was chosen to play Jimmy the Shepherd in this years passion play.

Seriously though, I don't celebrate Lent. Why would I? I'm a Sagittarian.

Forgive me, I gave up honesty for Lent. (No, really!)

Jimmy the Shepherd??? You, sir, have a wicked sense of humor.

Why would I? I'm a Sagittarian.

Yech! I'm a Leo and we don't observe it either.

Although I'm told that Billy Mays is selling a new product on television that you roll over your clothes. At only $19.95, he swears it removes all of the lent.

 

[Pilgrim]

Lent, if pushed by the Church, is an unbiblical, unwarranted, binding of a Christian's conscience to observe a day that has not been commanded in Scripture. Also, In my humble opinion, if it is recognized as some special time in the Church it is a blatant violation of the Regulative Principle of Worship.

Just my , but I think we should be zealous for the Lord's Day and stop twiddling with the Popish stuff our Puritan Divines railed against.

Would it be fair to say in general that the more zealous one is for the "church calendar" the less zealous one tends to be for the Lord's Day? (Of course there are many antisabbatarians who have nothing to do with the church calendar as well.)

 

[Pilgrim]

Whadya mean you don't celebrate Lent???? We started by celebrating Canival yesterday in Sunday School and I was chosen to play Jimmy the Shepherd in this years passion play.

Seriously though, I don't celebrate Lent. Why would I? I'm a Sagittarian.

Forgive me, I gave up honesty for Lent. (No, really!)

Jimmy the Shepherd??? You, sir, have a wicked sense of humor.

Why would I? I'm a Sagittarian.

Yech! I'm a Leo and we don't observe it either.

Although I'm told that Billy Mays is selling a new product on television that you roll over your clothes. At only $19.95, he swears it removes all of the lent.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Our church is doing a whole special thing:

Lent is traditionally a time when Christians reflect on Jesus Christ and who he is – and what that means for us as his followers. This year we’re going to do that together, as both our churches consider being God’s Holy People.

Whether you’re normally part of a homegroup or not, join us on Wednesday 6th February at 8pm in St Johns for a special Ash Wednesday service as we ask ourselves what it means to be God’s Holy People.

I am giving it a miss.

Wise move; I like your avatar Richard.

 

[Miller]

I work with a guy who practices lent even though he doesn't attend church services anywhere. He's giving up beer (he's 19) and weed. I wonder if it counts to give up sins for lent? It just seems so ridiculous.

How positively post-modern! Maybe he will read the Bible before going to bed with the girlfriend he lives with or light a candle while he reads his horoscope in the mornings.

Now I'm getting off topic, but it's funny you mention this. The same guy informed me a couple weeks ago that sleeping is a form of worship, and he was dead serious.

 

[CanuckPuritan24]

Up here in Canada we don't celebrate Lent. We celebrate 'Lint'. Everyone collects their pocket and dryer lint and we burn that after the days of lint have expired

 

[BobVigneault]

Don't burn the lint! I do celebrate lint for it's usefulness as an absorbent. Every time I change my oil, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I spill oil on my driveway. I save the lint from the dryer for just such a problem. I spread the lint over the oil, let it sit and then sweep it up. So here's to celebrating the ubiquitous lint.

 

[Stephen]

Anyone going to celebrate lent?

No, I am a Protestant.

 

[Stephen]

Don't burn the lint! I do celebrate lint for it's usefulness as an absorbent. Every time I change my oil, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I spill oil on my driveway. I save the lint from the dryer for just such a problem. I spread the lint over the oil, let it sit and then sweep it up. So here's to celebrating the ubiquitous lint.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Just seen a load of Papists walking around Belfast this lunchtime with an ash cross on their foreheads.

Mind you, if you don't hold to the RPW then why not?

 

[PilgrimPastor]

The Catholics celebrate lent, the Methodists, the Lutherans but I have not seen any Presbyterian churches celebrating lent. Is there a reason for this? Is anyone here going to celebrate it?

I have been told it is a time for reflection on sin and preparation for the celebration of Easter that is 40 days away. The Methodist church we are familiar with are having a service on Wednesday night. They said in the service you write your sins down on a peace of paper, they burn it and then you draw a cross on your forehead with the ashes. Is this right, wrong? I know it is Catholic but does that automatically make it bad?

We will be holding an Ash Wednesday service tonight at my church, First Congregational Church, Peru IL, and we will be observing Lent via an ecumenical (sort of ecumenical, 4 affiliated Congregational Churches, 2 independent Congregational Churches - us and one other - a Presbyterian Church and a Methodist Church) Lenten service held at a different participating church every Wednesday evening until Passion Week.

We will not be using ashes or anything like that. We will have some worship hymns, I will be delivering a sermon about repentance out of Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, and then we will celebrate communion and retire.

 

[JM]

When I attended a GOC there were over 180 days of different kinds of fasting, nope, I don't practice the "Great Fast."

 

[5solasmom]

I used to be quite into the church calendar, but like the rest of you, "I gave it up for lent"

Where do you find "the church calendar"?

 

[5solasmom]

Up here in Canada we don't celebrate Lent. We celebrate 'Lint'. Everyone collects their pocket and dryer lint and we burn that after the days of lint have expired

My 2 year old would be traumatized for life if we observed Lint. It's his firm conviction that lint should be feared just as much as spiders and tigers, if not more.

 

[SolaGratia]

My wife and I, both being raised Popish ate "ham" for breakfast for the Glory of Christ OUR LORD! AMEN!

 

[CDM]

Anyone going to celebrate lent?

Yeah, Papists.

 

[SolaGratia]

What kind of meat does the Pope eat? Nun

 

[Ivan]

I checked my belly button....no Lint this year....

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

The Catholics celebrate lent, the Methodists, the Lutherans but I have not seen any Presbyterian churches celebrating lent. Is there a reason for this? Is anyone here going to celebrate it?

I have been told it is a time for reflection on sin and preparation for the celebration of Easter that is 40 days away. The Methodist church we are familiar with are having a service on Wednesday night. They said in the service you write your sins down on a peace of paper, they burn it and then you draw a cross on your forehead with the ashes. Is this right, wrong? I know it is Catholic but does that automatically make it bad?

We do not celebrate Lent.

Several years ago, someone asked me, "What are giving up for Lent?" My reply was, "Talking to Papists!"

 

[Storm]

Is Lent For Presbyterians?

Today is "Ash Wednesday." I don't know what that means, really, but I think it's odd/funny that yesterday was "FAT Tuesday!" It's like, "Hey, let's go eat like pigs, drink ourselves silly and be really, really bad so we can confess everything tomorrow and be clean." I don't get that reasoning...but didn't G.K. Chesterton say something like, "Everyone should get drunk at least once a year. If the excessive wine doesn't do him good, the confession the next day will!" Or something like that...

My wife grew up Lutheran. We are now Evangelical Free, but really just followers of Jesus. At any rate, she gives something up each year from Ash Wednesday until Easter. It's usually bread. I don't think she does it just for spiritual reasons, but I bet there's something good about sacrificing something she loves and considering the feelings that go with that...

Your thoughts?

 

[PilgrimPastor]

Today is "Ash Wednesday." I don't know what that means, really, but I think it's odd/funny that yesterday was "FAT Tuesday!" It's like, "Hey, let's go eat like pigs, drink ourselves silly and be really, really bad so we can confess everything tomorrow and be clean." I don't get that reasoning...but didn't G.K. Chesterton say something like, "Everyone should get drunk at least once a year. If the excessive wine doesn't do him good, the confession the next day will!" Or something like that...

My wife grew up Lutheran. We are now Evangelical Free, but really just followers of Jesus. At any rate, she gives something up each year from Ash Wednesday until Easter. It's usually bread. I don't think she does it just for spiritual reasons, but I bet there's something good about sacrificing something she loves and considering the feelings that go with that...

Your thoughts?

I think that for all of the excesses of Catholic theology we should be careful to be too sarcastic and reject the possibility of learning from one another. I am against the "Fat Tuesday" mentality as much as any protestant but perhaps their may be something beneficial to the ideas of "redemptive suffering" as we identify with our savior.

Certainly this is not a means of obtaining grace as Rome teaches BUT what of personal piety and reflection? What of the woman stricken with debilitating arthritis from childhood for whom the idea of identifying with Christ in His suffering may in some way offer a sense of solace and redemption to her pain? (this woman is one of my parishioners) This is the difference between theoretical and practical theology... praxis and practice...

I have a disdain for what many Catholic doctrines do to the hearts of Catholic people - placing them under a legalistic burden and leaving them in the chains of a radically different God than the one found in the pages of Scripture BUT again, in our haste to flee Rome should we not at least be willing take our valuables with us - even if only one suitcase full?

I just presided over a very uplifting Ash Wednesday service that I am sure was just as much a real blessing to those present as it was to me. We sang hymns of redemption and I delivered a sermon about repentance not being stricken from our vocabulary but being a way of entering into a right relationship with God with our desperate need for grace in plain view.

As we see our need for repentance our need for grace is also illuminated. As we stand under the fount of forgiveness we become participants in the grace which God has given to us as we learn to share it with others. In other words, repentance is not about hanging our heads low as we recognize our sin but a door to a shared experience of grace in and through us.

Then we shared communion and departed. It was a good service.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Don't burn the lint! I do celebrate lint for it's usefulness as an absorbent. Every time I change my oil, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I spill oil on my driveway. I save the lint from the dryer for just such a problem. I spread the lint over the oil, let it sit and then sweep it up. So here's to celebrating the ubiquitous lint.

Do you then take up the sweepings and make the sign of the oil company's logo on your forehead?

 

[Semper Fidelis]

The Catholics celebrate lent, the Methodists, the Lutherans but I have not seen any Presbyterian churches celebrating lent. Is there a reason for this? Is anyone here going to celebrate it?

I have been told it is a time for reflection on sin and preparation for the celebration of Easter that is 40 days away. The Methodist church we are familiar with are having a service on Wednesday night. They said in the service you write your sins down on a peace of paper, they burn it and then you draw a cross on your forehead with the ashes. Is this right, wrong? I know it is Catholic but does that automatically make it bad?

Hey, thanks for reminding me it's Lent! I grew up Roman Catholic.

I remember, in the third grade, my Mom packed a bologna and cheese sandwich for my lunch on a Friday during Lent. I remember eating it and the fact that it tasted like sawdust in my mouth because I was so guilt-ridden.

Oh, to be free from the shackles of the elementary principles of this world. What a joy inexpressible!

I know that not all Christians treat the season with such rank idolatry but I just wanted to express my gratitude to God for delivering me from such.