So far, this Lent has been a bit different than any of the others I have observed.
I have not really settled on a particular discipline, neither in terms of adding a specific spiritual practice nor in abstaining from any particular food or drink item, or any specific pattern of fasting. Rather, I have been making sporadic choices to abstain in particular situations, whether it be a dessert that I suddenly have a desire for, or for a soft drink or tea during the week.
I have been rather lax in my reading for philsophy club, so I have resolved to keep up in my reading of the Odyssey. Perhaps that committment will result in an interesting blog post about connections I begin to experience between Lenten themes and Odysseus' journey home.
Today, however, I believe I have received a certain clarity about the particular focus God is calling me to this Lent. Truthfully, it has been coming for a while now, but it was brought into focus for me as I read Part I of Marva J. Dawn's Sexual Character: Beyond Technique to Intimacy this morning. I have wanted to read this book ever since I first saw it in her list of works on the cover of Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the 21st Century Church, and today I am confirmed in my desire to read it.
So many of the same threads run throughout her works; her clarion call to listening to the authority of God and the place of God's Stories in the shaping of the countercultural character of God's people are but two that resonate with me. And so, I'll end this post with this passage from the ending of Part I of Sexual Character, which has to do with more than just sexual character, but with Christian character in general, and the responsibility of the Church, and every member of the Church in participating with God in the formation of Christian character via the engagement of Christian ethics:
"The main task of ethics is to enable us to ask better questions about the issues of our day. An ethics of character is especially helpful because it gives us tools to ask new questions out of its comprehensive inclusion of means and ends, rules and narratives, models and virtues, personhood and community. Especially important is the fact that an ethics of character enables us to ask new question out of the grace of God. We seek virtues and behaviors, not because we ought to, should, or must, but because they are modeled for us in Jesus, whose Spirit empowers us to follow in his way. We choose to live according to the design of the Creator becasue he invites us to the delights of such truthfulness. Moreover, we can invite others to participate in those choices, too, because we know that thereby they will be happier, more fulfilled, more whole.
This book is just a beginning. I pray that you will go beyond it to ask better question about sexual character, to develop a Christian community that nutures godly sexuality, to offer hope to those who are drowning in our society's toxic sexual milieu."
That's so Lent.
God, ever being, do Lent in us.
And, lift us by your Spirit to behold the face of your Son, Jesus, Christ,
so that we may be made into his likeness, from glory to glory,
and be shining lights in the darkness of the world around us.
We remember your Son's blood shed for us, and pray in his name,
the Name of our Salvation: Jesus, the Christ.
Amen.
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