Flip the calendar to a new month and you find a new liturgical season! Hello March and Hello Lent!
Today is the eve of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent, for normal people who do not live by the liturgical seasons, includes six weeks of waiting and preparing for the big, beautiful day of celebrating Christ’s resurrection. It takes six weeks to get ready for the monumental moment when Jesus’ tomb was found…wait for it…six weeks later…empty.
But today is pancake Tuesday. Historically on this day, Christians uses up much of their food in order to begin a fast on Ash Wednesday. Any lard lounging around was made into pancakes. At our house tonight, we are enjoying pancakes sans the fasting. Because what a great way to mark the beginning of a season but pancakes? A food my whole family loves morning, noon or night. Pancakes can be boring, or they can be sweetened up with chocolate chips or sugar. They can take on a healthy look with a handful of blueberries swimming in the batter. Even better, pancakes can transform into a blanket for sausage. Who wouldn’t want to be a blanket for sausage?
Pancakes are a love language, maybe, and today they are a way of eating our way into Lent. We are eating extravagantly into the season that leaves behind extravagance. I do love Lent. As a pastor, Lent is a time I try to minimize meetings to make room for heavy listening to Jesus, stripping away what is not important as much as I can.
It could be Lent is the picture of how I could live every day and every season all year long, but of course I don’t. Lent is a kind of permission to say no to the shiny things, no to the busy things, no to the steady stream of things. Lent is a time to say yes to the one who gives us life. And it all begins with pancakes around a table with the people who matter so much to me. Possibly, these next six weeks will help them glimpse what matters most in our lives and what does not. Pancakes matter. Sitting around a table matters. Worshipping together tomorrow matters, even if it is one of the few days my whole family will worship together.
We mark this day, Ash Wednesday Eve, with fluffy and extravagant pancakes. We mark tomorrow with grimy ashes. No extravagance. Just Jesus.
Lisa Lewton 