In the church we mark time according to the calendar of the church year which centers on the events of the incarnation, life and ministry, suffering and death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The church moves in and out of the seasons of the church year as she continues her life and witness here on earth. At this time of the year, the church and her members, you and I, are in the midst of a somber, penitential season of Lent.

At Atonement we have been observing the season of Lent with our midweek Lenten sermon series entitled, Words of Life from the Cross. To aid our pious reflection on the words of life that Jesus spoke during his final hours on the cross, we have been looking at various pieces of artwork that correspond to each word. It is fitting, then, that we consider a detailed image from a famous piece of artwork for the newsletter article this month. The painting is, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by the Flemish Renaissance painter, Pieter Brugel (1559). The painting illustrates a common festival of the time that was celebrated in Southern Netherlands. The festival and the painting depict two sides of contemporary life.

The first way of life depicted in the painting is that of “pure enjoyment” (carnival) with little regard for the church and the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second way of life depicted is that of “pure religion” (lent) with little emphasis on the truth that trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ sets believers free.

The actual painting shows more than just the scene above. On the left side of the full painting is an inn and a crowd of merrymakers while on the right side is a church and a crowd of devout religious types. There is a beer drinking scene near the inn and well-behaved children gathering near the church. At the foreground of the painting a battle is about to commence between Prince Carnival and Lady Lent. It was a common event in community life throughout early modern Europe to enact a battle such as this in order to highlight the transition between the lavishness of carnival life and the fasting rituals of the church during Lent.

Sometimes Christianity gets associated with rules: “Fast during Lent! Worship the way we tell you! Do this! Do that! Others respond with the opposite extreme: “Party! Worship how you please! Still others reject worship entirely, saying, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian” [1] The painting criticizes this struggle over worship and the Christian life by turning it into a jousting match. On the one hand, some can go too far by requiring man-made worship laws. On the other hand, some can go too far by using their Christian freedom in the gospel as a license to live and worship however they want. Both of these groups fail to simply remember the Lord and gladly hear his Word.

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday which immediately follows the Sunday of the Transfiguration of our Lord. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of the Heavenly Father spoke to Jesus’ disciples saying, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” (Mk 9:7). Above all else, in the season of Lent, we are drawn to listen to the Word of God that proclaims Jesus Christ as our Lord. This leads us to hear of and worship anew our God who loves the world through the death of his beloved Son, our suffering servant.

In our Sunday worship and during our midweek Lenten services, we receive God’s gifts for us. We receive his promise of eternal life. Therefore, we ought to gladly hear and learn the Word of God that deposits these gifts of salvation for us. We do not need to mourn with Lady Lent or party with Prince Carnival.[2]

[1] To All Eternity: The Essential Teachings of Christianity, written by Edward Engelbrecht, Edward Grube, Raymond AHartwig, Jeffrey Kunze, Erik Rottmann, Rodney Rathmann, and Harold Senkbeil. (St. Louis: CPH, 2002), 21.

[2] Engelbrecht, To All Eternity, 21.

Dear Members and Friends of Atonement,

This month we continue our reflection on the various seasons and important festival days of the liturgical church year by considering Ash Wednesday (February 22) and the season of Lent. Although the middle of February is typically reserved for feelings of love and romance, around that time this year the church is prepared to consider her unfaithfulness. Her members contemplate how they have not loved God and obeyed his will as they ought. We reflect on our mortality—“from dust you came to dust you shall return.” We reflect on the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. Bring on the ashes!

We are not morbid people. We are not overly obsessed with chilling, ghastly thoughts of our transience. No, we spend necessary, beneficial time reflecting on the reality of our mortality. We do this so that we are prepared to receive the life that God has for us in Christ, and to receive it to its full meaning. And so during the time in between the day that the church remembers Jesus’ transfiguration and the joyful festival day of Easter, we embark upon our forty day pilgrimage of Lent. This year it just so happens that our observance of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is sprinkled with a dose of irony. Our solemn journey of reflection on unfaithfulness, lack of love for God, and mortality begins a week after Valentine’s Day.

The word Lent comes from the old English word for “spring.” As I once heard it put, Lent is “spring training” for the Christian as we are tutored in repentance, faith, and holy living. The season has been kept as a time for devotion and self-denial that comes forth from a faithful heart that dwells on God’s Word and draws life and hope from it. Beginning in the 4th century the observance of Lent originally became connected with a forty day fast prior to Easter. This tradition continues today as some Christians give up meat during Lent or surrender a vice like chocolate, coffee, or television. Still others, like Atonement, eat a meager meal of soup and salad while gathering together every Wednesday during the season for worship. While a fast of any kind is not necessary, it is certainly a helpful way to discipline the body and the mind upon the things of God and the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Should you decide to fast in some way, it may be helpful to consider Jesus’ words about fasting in his Sermon on the Mount, “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward” (Mt 6:16). 

The Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday and the imposition of ashes. In the Lutheran church the purpose of the imposition of the ashes is to call to mind the curse given to Adam by God after the Fall in Gen 3:19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Sundays in Lent focus on the themes of temptation, God’s mercy, the life of a disciple, the refreshment that God gives to his disciples, and the lordship of Jesus. In the middle of each Sunday in the season of Lent, it has become a common part of Lutheran piety to provide an opportunity for reflective worship during the middle of the week which is centered in the suffering and death of Jesus. This year our midweek Lenten sermon theme will be, “Words of Life from the Cross.” The series will incorporate different images and paintings that illustrate the words of life taken from various Gospel readings. Furthermore, to enhance our devotional reflection on this theme, a Lenten devotional booklet entitled, Words of Life from the Cross, will be made available to take for all who are interested on the table in the narthex.

May our Lord richly bless your contemplation on the penitential and contrite character of the Lenten season even while you reflect on God’s great love for you through the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ,

Pastor Josh