“Enough already.  I don’t want to hear about Lent. Things are tough enough already.  Why does the church need to add to the bad news?”

Lent has arrived, and with it, the traditional question, “what are you going to give up?”  Chocolate, beer, Facebook...the possibilities are legion. But for many of us, the whole year has been one of self-denial.  The economy may be beginning to show signs of recovery, but the effects of the recession continue with low wages, limited employment, and uncertain housing, compounded for some by the lack of seasonal jobs thanks to an unusually mild winter. We’ve tightened our belts, and now we’ve run out of holes. How can the church demand that we give up even more?

The tradition of giving up something for Lent probably has its roots in the early church tradition of fasting in preparation for baptism at Easter.  However, over time that fast morphed into giving up sins as a form of spiritual training, and then into giving up some form of excess as a means of self-discipline. There is certainly value to that in a culture of indulgence, but cast off from its spiritual moorings it all too easily becomes a new form of self-focus.

By contrast, the true focus of Lenten fasting is turning away from those things that distract us from following Christ. And at a deeper level, entering a place of scarcity - voluntarily or involuntarily - enables us to experience a taste of the sacrificial love of Christ, who, in the words of the letter to the Philippians,   “though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited, 

 but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.” (Phil 2: 6-8, NRSV).

Of course, joining Christ in that attitude of self-giving is not simply a matter of giving up chocolate for six weeks (especially when we know we will be able to over-indulge in it come Easter Day!); rather, it is about making space for the life of God within us.  In fact,  making that space may be as much a matter of attitude as of action.  That is, as we invite God into that place of scarcity, whether it is one we have chosen as a Lenten discipline, or one imposed by economic reality, we may find ourselves unexpectedly filled.