PeaceBang
The manic mind of the minister -- Auntie Mame Meets Cotton Mather. Blogging about Unitarian Universalism, UU Christian spiritual practice, occasional cultural and political ravings, and the inner life of ministry. PeaceBang is the alter ego of a small town pastor serving an historic New England Unitarian Universalist congregation.
A Sardonic & Serious Take on Lenten Discipline
March 5, 2008 on 8:13 am | In Just Funny, Theological Reflection, Theological Reflection (Biblical) |A snarky Catholic pal sent me this card, which cracked me up and reminded me of a Boston Globe article I read about ten years wherein Boston Catholics described Lenten disciplines such as giving up popcorn and potato chips for forty days, and they weren’t kidding:
I love this. It’s such a perfect commentary on our contemporary idea of sacrifice as compared with the old practices of penitence and deprivation that would lead to spiritual insights we seek in the Lenten season. Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert… I think I’ll, um, refrain from buying lip gloss for forty days!
My Lenten discipline this year has been to be in a relationship that began, in an officially seriously committed way, just days before Ash Wednesday. For a long-time single, incredibly strong-willed and independent woman with extremely high expectations and a total inability to (a) hide her emotions or (b) speak her truth to any man in her life in a circumspect manner, this period has definitely been time in the wilderness wearing a hair shirt. Lent of 2008 will always be memorable as the year I gave up privacy, sole governance of my home, my sense of an inevitably solo future, my refrigerator, my schedule and social plans, and (on a happier note) the popular myth that I am far too prickly a pear for any human being to abide with in close quarters.
Not true, saith the LORD. Even when Jesus was being tempted by Satan (the Adversary), he had angels to attend to him. Lent may be about spending some time in the desert of self-denial and facing our demons, but it is also a time of feeling angel wings hovering ’round, and knowing their tender ministrations to be just as real as the awful stuff Satan is whispering into our ears.
For those who are offended by the whole idea of Lent, let me share with you that for me, penitence is not about punishment and Calvinistic ideas of existential unworthiness. The penitence we embrace during Lent is, for me, the confession of a dignified soul knowing that it can be more whole, a spirit incarnate in one human body vowing that it can receive healing and be an instrument of God’s peace, and the faith of a heart saying to itself that it deserves both to love, and to be loved, better.
16 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^
I gave up Snark once. (Actually, I did that the first year I had a blog, I think.) It is not something I would do again as it made me realize that snark is an important part of the way I think and communicate. Not having snark made dealing with the unpleasant things in life much more painful. It made me realize how much I value snark and how central it is to how I face the world, not just as a way of being funny, but as a way of turning bad things into funny good things.
Giving up something we value is a good practice for testing the strength of our other muscles and learning to use new internal tools. I regard giving up things for a time as a valuable thing, and I figure lent is as good a time to try that as anytime. [I remember that! And that reminds me of the year I tried to give up self-righteous indignation for Lent! And made it for about twenty minutes! But it made for a great Ash Wednesday sermon several years later! - PB]
This is, of course, a very secular take on Lent.
But it works for me.
CC
who forgot this year. But should probably pick something to give up and start.
Comment by Chalicechick — March 5, 2008 #
I live in a religiously divided family–my wife is a proffessional Catholic religious educator. Imagine our Lenten conversations! Anyway, I thought you might enjoy this take on the subject.
WHAT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS SHOULD GIVE UP FOR LENT, IF THEY OBSERVED IT, WHICH THEY DON’T, MOST OF THEM
Pews without padding, Nature Conservancy Calendars
Volvos, polysyllabic verbosity
Herbal tea, austerity
National Public Radio, unread books in fine bindings
Isms (sub set)
Liberalism, Buddhism. Humanism
Marxism, Feminism, Taoism
Vegetarianism, Conservationism, Transcendentalism
Atheism, Consumerism, Sufism
For Christsake, Libertarianism
Joys and Concerns, pretension
Committee meetings, Habitat T Shirts
Pot luck tuna casserole, black and white films with subtitles
Petitions, sermons, tofu and brown rice
Drums, theology
Season tickets to anything but baseball
Liturgic dance, poetry readings
Pride (sub set)
Pilgrim Pride
Gay, lesbian and transgender pride
Pride of intellect
Pride of lineage
Pride of lions
The pride that cometh before the fall
Bistros, pledge drives
Advanced degrees, spirituality
Coffee hour, sensible shoes
Philosophy. choir rehearsal
Arrogance, animal sacrifice
Gender neutral hymnals, learned clergy
Natural fibers, string quartets
Whiteness, turquoise jewelry
Recycling, self congratulation
Acupuncture, bird watching a dawn
Yoga , Common Cause
God, doubt
Egotism,self denigration
Yesterday, tomorrow.
–Patrick Murfin
[*standing ovation with a hat tip to Allen Ginsburg* - PB]
Comment by Patrick Murfin — March 5, 2008 #
Patrick - that was clever!
Never having celebrated Lent, I wonder: isn’t it all symbolic? I mean, unless one is sacrificing on the level of Jesus, then who is to say that giving up Starbucks is less than giving up fish, alcohol, or sex?
If I observed it, I’d probably give up food (during the day) or the Internet. These would probably be the toughest to go without while offering the most spiritual reward.
Comment by h sofia — March 5, 2008 #
I don’t care what you say. I will never give up my Burt’s Bee’s Lip Balm! There are some things in this world I could do without… that is NOT one of them!
Comment by Michael — March 5, 2008 #
Oooo…can I give up committee meetings for Easter?
Comment by Elizabeth — March 5, 2008 #
I gave up cynicism, but let me tell you, that is hard to do!
Comment by Comrade Kevin — March 5, 2008 #
When I was in high school, my friend Christy’s mom put the following on their answering machine:
Hi, we can’t take your call right now. Christy has given up the phone for lent.
Please leave a message and she’ll call you back after Easter.
Comment by Rebecca — March 5, 2008 #
Here, here! Great post, PB. I’m benefitting from this Lent also.
Comment by MamaG — March 5, 2008 #
But isn’t it actually about fasting, rather than ‘giving up?’
I think that it is about ‘planting seeds’ to deepen one’s faith and awareness. For me, it isn’t about’giving up’ M&Ms (although M&Ms and Hot Tamales played a part one Lent), it is about cultivating an awareness of my actions, both large and small, and cultivating a deeper awareness about the distinction between want and need. It is about recognizing how thoughtless actions permeate my life. It is about contemplating how this gets in the way of my awareness of God’s presence in my life.
BJ
Comment by BJ — March 6, 2008 #
Good grief…if we were to reduce every discussion with “well JESUS did it this way (read: preach, proclaim the good news, interact with those around him, fast, etc.) then any other way of preaching, penance, interaction, etc., that doesn’t match his standards is no good, right?
Who is to judge that one individuals giving up a seemingly trivial item for a period of time constitutes a “ridiculous” attempt at penance, and a opportunity for others to laugh? Yes, Jesus fasted on water for forty days…do we have to do exactly as he did to have it “matter”? Of course not!
This small, seemingly inconsequential acts of giving up little “treats” are not ends in themselves…if they serve the purpose of reminders to the individual of the grace of a loving God, and gets them to focus for even a minute or two on that (i.e., maybe certain individuals loved to snack on candy or potato chips every day, and each day that they forced themselves not to do so they actually thought for a minute about spiritual issues beyond the moment..what is wrong with that?). The issue at hand is not WHAT you either do or “give up” for Lent, the focus should be on how these small gestures have you focus on the meaning of the Easter message, no matter how small.
This attitude (which quite frankly I find a little arrogant) that knocks people for sacrificing in terms of small gestures reminds me of individuals who love to mock the devotional practices of individuals such as keeping holy cards or holy statues in their homes. Silly superstition, the uberrational believers among us love to say…the fact of the matter is many on this planet live their spiritual lives not through a hypercerebral study of faith (which unfortunately too many Anglo-Saxon mainline Protestant denominations do), but through a real, incorporeal experience of faith lived out through small gestures of little sacrifices, simple devotional prayers, holy objects that focus their practice, etc.
Let’s not too “pharasaical” in dismissing or giggling about the faith practices of others, as somehow being unworthy or inconsequential. And quite frankly, you never know what may have changed in the heart and soul of the individual that gave up chocolate for Lent.
[Did you read the post in its entirety, Tom? Or did you just hone in on the snark at the beginning and decide to react in a gush of judgmental chastisement and MAJOR projection, taking far too seriously some light-hearted comments about what I thought was a damn funny cartoon? The substance of the post was not in my *mild teasing* about giving up popcorn or M&M’s. You’ve gone into some serious judgment yourself, there, buddy, and blown off the only part of my post that was truly a theological reflection. - PB]
Comment by tom — March 6, 2008 #
Oops, sorry, some spelling errors there, along with omissions.
I meant to write at the end that we should not be too “pharisaical” in dismissing the faith practices as being inconsequential or unworthy.
Comment by tom — March 6, 2008 #
Peacebang—as someone in a tradition that observes Lent (Episcopal Church), we are taught that it’s not what you choose to give up that really matters. It’s the fact that, each time you choose to stop and turn away from whatever it is, you are reminded that God is in the details of your life.
So M-n-M’s, wine, sex, or snark—it really doesn’t matter. The intention is the important part.
We are also taught that it’s not cricket to comment on what other people choose to give up for Lent—except out of their hearing—but that just may be the Episcopalian distaste for judgment showing through.
Comment by Wormwood's Doxy — March 6, 2008 #
The Lenten practice that I always remember from my Catholic school days is the year that my sworn enemy, the obnoxious Cheri, and I consciously gave up fighting with each other for Lent. It actually worked. We didn’t stay friendly for *very* long after that, but it was longer than we had ever gone before. I think we were in third or fourth grade. [That’s awesome. You just know that’s going to work its way into some reader’s sermon! - PB]
Comment by martinet — March 6, 2008 #
Sorry, PB, I generally love all of your comments and writings, but I have to say that I did read the entire original post. IMHO, the juxtaposition of the tone in the first two paragraphs with your personal reflections of a deep, profound experience of a your own particular sacrifice in your last paragraphs (beautifully worded, by the way) really does appear to me as if you are presenting the latter as being more profound and spiritual than the former (the whole potato chips and lip gloss “thing”), and therefore being a bit dismissive.
But, I understand now by your comments that is not what you meant, so my apologies, but I do stand by my earlier comments, and believe that it is perfectly reasonable to infer what I did by reading the entire post as I did before, with the contextual interpretation that I gave it.
Comment by tom — March 7, 2008 #
I gave up Catholicism for Lent one year… and at the end of Lent, I was having so much fun, I never took it back!
Comment by Mars Girl — March 7, 2008 #
I too used to joke that I gave up being Catholic for Lent one year, and it has worked for me every since…but seriously, Lent is an important spiritual exercise if undertaken with depth (as is the case with any spiritual exercise). Growing up, giving up candy/TV/etc. for Lent was a token, almost mindless-cultural thing. It had no meaning for me. It wasn’t until a nun teaching centering prayer at my Unitarian church, years later, explained to one attendee that refraining from meat on Fridays during Lent was meant as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with Jesus as he endured his time in the desert that I appreciated the practice. Of course at one point in time, meat was a luxury itself and giving it up voluntarily for Lent had more meaning before the days of the McFish sandwich
and cheese pizza.
Comment by NDM — March 11, 2008 #