SPRING CLEANING
Nathan Attwood
Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church
"Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 7:1.
After a particularly cold winter, the sun is starting to come out. I don't know about you, but for me, it feels like the season for spring cleaning. When the weather gets warm, I like to rake every leaf out of the yard, vacuum under the sofa, get the house pressure washed, wipe down the baseboards, cull the clutter, and get the dust out from all the corners and crevices. Of course, I try to keep things nominally tidy all the time. I always keep the floor vacuumed, the dishes out of the sink, the shower scrubbed, the grass cut. Those kinds of things are perpetual. But once a year, I like to interrogate my surroundings for deferred maintenance and overlooked grime. Once a year, I like to take the time and give the attention to addressing issues I've procrastinated in my home.
The Christian tradition has a very ancient practice for spring cleaning of the soul. It's called "Lent." Lent literally means "Spring." Lent is a season of forty days leading up to Easter. Easter moves around in the calendar because the calendar is based on the sun and Easter is based on the moon, so it's never exactly the same time each year. But it always falls in the spring. This year, Lent comes a bit earlier than usual, beginning this week, on Ash Wednesday, February 18.
I did not grow up keeping Lent. In my mostly Pentecostal background, Lent seemed like the kind of things Catholics do. I was always vaguely aware that Lent fell in the springtime and that people "give something up" for Lent.
As a theology student, I came to learn that Christians began celebrating Lent extremely early, just a few decades after Jesus ascended. In the early church, most new Christians were baptized on Easter. The bishop would go around to the churches on Easter and baptize anyone who had come to Christ in the prior year.
To be a Christian in those early years was very difficult. Christians were a minority. Persecution grew quickly. The first Christians took their faith much more seriously than the average church-goer (frankly, even going to church is something modern American "Christians" have begun to treat as optional). The first Christians spent the forty days before baptism on Easter in an intense preparation for a serious and committed Christian life. The new followers fasted for a full forty days. They dedicated themselves to intense prayer. They spent the whole season learning what was expected of a Christian to live a life following the teaching and example of Jesus--dedication to the church, prayer, purity of heart and life, generosity, care of the poor, courage and faithfulness amidst persecution, nonviolence to the point of death, forgiveness and reconciliation with all people.
Very quickly, the practice began that the sponsors of new Christians, the people who had led them to Christ, would go through the process of fasting, prayer, and preparation with the new believers to support them in solidarity. These sponsors discovered their faith becoming brand new and their love of Jesus being refreshed. Soon, the church as a whole took the forty day season leading to Easter as a corporate practice of fasting, prayer, and renewal. A key part of Lent from the very beginning has always been repentance--courageously admitting to God, ourselves, and others the ways we have sinned and fallen short, asking for forgiveness, and making changes to live holy lives.
We don't need Lent to repent, to pray, to fast, to make a moral inventory, to make amends, to recover our first love with Jesus. We can and should do those things all the time. We must do those things all the time. Just like I need to tidy my house and pull the weeds in my yard all year round. And yet, we all like sheep have gone astray. For two thousand years, Christians have found it very helpful to treat their souls like I treat my house in the spring, to have a season to vacuum under the carpet of their hearts.
Have you gotten out of the habit of going to church? This is the week to go back. Have you hurt someone with your words or actions in the past year? This is the season to apologize. Have you gotten away from a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading? Open that Bible and hit your knees today. Do you have a habit that damages your body or witness that you've been feeling the need to overcome? Maybe drinking too much, smoking, swearing, putting garbage into your mind with the media you consume? Forty days make a perfect length of time to break a habit. Have you been feeling like you should do something positive to help your community? Maybe volunteering at the food bank or building a wheelchair ramp for an elderly neighbor? Just been waiting to get around to it? Now you have your "round to it." It's Lent. It's time.
Lent is not an empty tradition, a burdensome, glum requirement. It's a tool. It's a calendar item that draws us into a movement with Christian brothers and sisters to collectively and individually address our need for a fresh, clean heart. I pray that you will use this Lent to focus on Jesus and that these forty days will refresh your soul.