Why Lent NEEDS to be 40 days

Lent is a season in the Church that is marked by prayer, fasting, almsgiving and repentance. This is the season that is very popular among clergy types, mainly because it encourages everyone to do things that clergy types desire people to do throughout the year - Lent just makes these things socially acceptable. 

There are more than enough posts and resources that explain the significance of the 40 days of Lent (or more, depending on who is counting). There is all sort of traditional and biblical connections to the number 40 and those are rich metaphors to consider when thinking about Lent. But there are many significant numbers in the tradition and Bible (basically the numbers 1-42, 50, 70, 120, etc.). So why 40 for Lent? Why not 12 days? Why not 30? 

Perhaps the reason Lent needs to be 40 days is because that is how long it takes to move into the desert of our souls and wrestle with our demons. The ancient Desert Christians thought that going into the desert was literally where the demons lived. As such, they would go out in order to 'battle' these demons on behalf of others. Demons are tricky, they can hide very well from us and maybe this is why the desert Christians did not feel they could wrestle with demons while still living in town. It takes a while to find demons, it makes sense to move in and dwell on their 'turf'.

Because our demons are masters of disguise in order to find them we have to unmask a lot of who we are. This task takes time. It is difficult to unmask all parts of ourselves to discover what is our true self and what are the demons lurking in us, wreaking havok. Forty days may be the amount of time it takes to do such work. 

Everyone starts a Lent fast strong, but after a few days (as we move closer to our inner demons) the fast gives way. We forget why we embarked on this task to begin with and it it just easier to let the masked remain. May we fight the good fight and wrestle with our demons for these 40 days. 

It may also be worth noting that the desert Christians not only believed the desert was were the demons lived, but it was also where the angles lived. Just as the presence of God was with Moses, Jacob and Jesus in the desert, so too God will be with us in our desert time. 

Could Sunday School be Like a Gym?

There is a YMCA not far from my house and I have seen the different classes that are offered there. While Zumba or Hot Yoga are not my things these classes were more than well attended. It makes sense that in a gym people are brought together to learn more about a practice, to workout, build a community group, stretch, move and even reflect on the past week's decisions (eating too much sugar) that affect the current moment.

It sounds like what Sunday School should be. 

Sunday School is a reflection of the advent of the current classroom model that guides most public schools. There is a teacher, people sit in rows, the teacher has the knowledge, there may be some discussion but the class is expected to really only think about things and this thinking about things is thought to change behaviour in the week.

This model is not all bad. In fact it was Sunday School environment that educated many children to learn to read. Whatever good has come from the current model we the Church are indebted to it, however this model seems tired. 

I wonder what it would look like to reframe Sunday School less like a classroom and more like gym classes? 

There could be a class that practices meditation. There could be another class that practices Bible study. Another works on Theology. Another practices fellowship or accountability. Another that practices prayer in all sorts of ways while another Sunday School class might be focused on practicing silence and/or solitude. The class possibilites are endless and diverse. We are only limited by the courage of the people. 

I don't know how to reform the classroom Sunday School model into one that looks more like a gym. Perhaps I need to just create a new set of classes, call it Sunday School, but treat it like a gym - not a classroom.

Do you know when has the night ended and the day begun?

From the wisdom of the Jewish Tradition I offer up this story that I heard over the weekend:

A Rabbi once asked his students, “how do we know when the night has ended and the day has begun?” Immediately the students thought that they grasped the importance of the question. There are, after all, prayers that can be recited and rituals that can be performed only at night. And there are prayers and rituals that belong only to the day. It is therefore important to know when the night has ended and day has begun. So the brightest of the students offered an answer: “When I look out at the fields and I can distinguish between my field and the field of my neighbor’s, that’s when the night has ended and day has begun.” A second student offered her answer: “When I look from the fields and I see a house and I can tell that it’s my house and not the house of my neighbor, that’s when the night has ended and the day has begun.” A third student offered an answer: “When I can distinguish the animals in the yard – and I can tell a cow from a horse – that’s when the night has ended.” Each of these answers brought a sadder, more severe frown to the Rabbi’s face – until finally he shouted: “No! You don’t understand! You only know how to divide! You divide your house from the house of your neighbor, your field from your neighbor’s, one animal from another, one color from all the others. Is that all that we can do – divide, separate, split the world into pieces? Isn’t the world broken enough - split into enough fragments? No, my dear students, it’s not that way at all! Our Torah and Jewish values want more from us. The shocked students looked into the sad face of their Rabbi. One of them ventured, “Then Rabbi, tell us: How do we know that night has ended and day has begun?” The Rabbi stared back into the faces of his students and with a gentle voice responded: “When you look into the face of the person who is beside you and you can see that that person is your brother or your sister, when you can recognize that person as a friend, then, finally, the night has ended and the day has begun.” 

My our Lent be a season of unity and not further division.