The texts for last Sunday could have well been the texts for Easter morning. Dry bones 
breathed back to life in Ezekiel. Lazarus unbound from death in John. But here is the issue. It is not Easter Sunday. And so one cannot yet, if they value the pedagogy of the church year, just unleash the full potency of the resurrection. We cannot raise Jesus before he is ever put in the tomb. To say the tomb is empty now is useless in the chronology of the church year. It is only the fifth Sunday in Lent.
But there is the solution, right? The Sundays in Lent are not of Lent. The 40 days of Lent are counted without the Sundays. Every Sunday is a little Easter, celebrated on the day of Resurrection.
I know all of this and of course it is all true. But here is the problem. Most people do not practice anything different for the 40 days of Lent. A few come to a midweek service. Others perhaps give something up. But the practice of really focusing on the cross is not a common practice over the 40 prescribed days. And so the Sundays in lent necessarily become Sundays of lent if we wish to give the benefit of Lent to the majority of our people.
Yes, there where days and places where congregation actually fasted and prayed corporately during the forty days. In that setting, every Sunday can be a little respite in the midst of Lent. It can be an oasis for the parched penitents, But in most of the church, people only experience the plot of the church year on Sundays. And so, in my mind, the Sundays are of Lent despite what Lutheran Service book calls them. What about you?
I myself have always appreciated the “Sundays In Lent” concept—islands of Easter in the stream of Lent that resurrect in me a strong reminder of where I’m heading … an empty tomb—both Christ’s, and eventually my own. They’re akin to reading the last page of a mystery novel (which I shamefully do!) while in the middle of reading the thing. They help me “search for the clues along the way.” Celebrating those little resurrections is part of my observation of Lent.
Which comes to the heart of your concern, doesn’t it, Phil? These mini-Easters speak powerfully to me because they interrupt my Lenten practices. But what of those folks who aren’t observing … who aren’t practicing?
This is a great concern to me, also. And not only because a good chunk of my year focuses, professionally, on producing (and selling!) material for the observation of Lent. No, at the heart of the matter is my strong conviction that a personal encounter with Christ and his cross is at the center of all Christian faith. Which makes the practice of Lent—when we actaully plop ourselves right down there with the Christ and his cross, ready to encounter him—central to our faith-development. The transformational nature of Christ and his cross are tied to our yearly 40-day journey.
So … what can we do to offer up every opportunity for God’s people to encounter the Christ and his cross? What can we do to aid and assist in the observance—the practice—of Lent?
It would be crass for me to suggest that we order lots of products from Creative Communications for the Parish, which has specialized in providing God’s Church with Gospel-Based Lenten materials for more than 34 years …
But the fact of the matter may be that putting such materials into people’s hands … and twittering and tweeting them … and suggesting quality blog posts such as your own … and giving them every opportunity and tool to continue the venerable (dare I say gravely-necessary) practice of Lent—both in worship AND IN THEIR OUT-OF-CHURCH-LIVES—may be where a lasting hope for the observation of Lent resides.
For me it’s not a question of “of Lent” or “in Lent,” but “THAT Lent” continues, and continues to have it’s powerful effect on the lives and faiths of God’s people.
Thanks so much for opening the conversation, Phil!
Peace,
Pete
Once again, Phil, thought-provoking stuff. Like Pete, I’ve always gotten a lot out of the “in Lent” idea. But, then again, I was raised in a family that required me to give something up for Lent and attend midweek Lenten services. So I got the flavor of the whole thing from an early age.
So, I don’t know how to resolve the tension you bring up. But one thought occurred to me while reading your post: what struck me about last Sunday’s readings is how much they place the resurrection into eschatological perspective. Lazarus experienced the resurrection before Jesus did. So did the army of dry bones. Seems backward, but that’s exactly how the reign of God works. We get to live our resurrection before we die. Lent is just as much a part of this already/not yet experience as any other part of the Christian life. So perhaps there is an aspect of Lent that is both/and in/of.
In this sense, every Sunday is both a little Easter and an “eighth day,” as we so call it. But how to preach and enact that reality is the tougher question in a culture divorced from a liturgical sense of time, as you illustrate so well above.
Phil,
have you been reading Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s book, “Great Lent?” He makes the same observations.
In the Eastern Tradition, Sunday is always a celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ. Alleluias are still chanted (in fact, they are chanted even more during the weekdays of Lent) and the Gloria is retained. Sundays are always outside of Lent because they are a buttress to the faithful of where our Lenten journey is to take us.
Chris