Happy Ash Wednesday!

That phrase sounds a little weird. Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent, which is supposed to be marked by an attitude of sadness as we remember the human experience of our Lord Jesus, brought to a tormented climax by his death on the cross.

In “Letters from the Land of Cancer” Walter Wangerin shares intimate moments from letters to friends as he nears the end of his life. In 2006-7 his cancer slowed, which gave him time to reflect on life and to write. He shares that in such times we have two choices: “Wail, plead, beg, make deals with friends and with the Infinite. Sink into despair… Or else, prepare.”

Lent is a season of preparation. We are saying good-bye to the old life, to old expectations and old values and old ways of doing things. As much as we may be fond of our old life, it is not God’s way, not the life that God has for us. Or we may be glad to be rid of the old life, but we still mourn it because it is familiar. And change always involves some pain. So we mourn the passing of the old life.
For those who don’t understand the meaning of the Resurrection, who feel oppressed by the religious establishment, there’s no such thing as a good Lent or a Happy Ash Wednesday. Might as well party like there’s no tomorrow on Fat Tuesday because you have to put a lid on it when Lent starts and no one wants you to be happy.

But for followers of Jesus, we claim Lent as a time of preparation, knowing that leaving behind the old life lets us welcome the Kingdom of Heaven in which the good and loving King of kings and Lord of lords reigns first in us and ultimately in our world. He has broken into our world in the Incarnation, proclaimed the Kingdom in his life and teachings, bought our redemption through his death on the cross, and become the first of a new humanity in his resurrection. Those who mourn will be comforted. We know our mourning will turn to dancing. In fact, NT Wright says that we should mark the week starting with Easter with champagne breakfast every day! Pull out all the stops! Lent should be preparing us for a time of celebration that obliterates any sense of sadness or mourning and makes all the Christmas festivities pale in comparison.

So “Happy Ash Wednesday”!

happy new year

On Sunday we celebrated the lunar New Year with my wife’s family. It’s an annual event: hanging around with extended family, nourishing our tree of relationships through conversations and a days’ end feast. I talked for a while with my wife’s brother-in-law about how he’s helped to start the first school-based healthcare clinic with dental services in northern California (http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=71604). Why did he do it? Because God gave him a second chance at life.

A year and a half ago he fell off a ladder in his garage and his wife found him unconscious in a pool of blood. To look at him today you’d never know that he went through several hours of surgery and has enough titanium in his skull to build a small mountain bike. He’s retired from his dental practice but puts in two mornings a week at the school clinic so that under-served kids from economically disadvantaged homes can focus on their studies without also contending with dental pain. (He’s still trying to recruit enough dentists to help so that each dentist only needs to put in 1 morning a month.)

As the great theologian James Cameron says in the movie “Avatar”, everyone is meant to be born twice. God wants to give all of us a second chance at life (see John 3:1-5). For those of us who have been born again, what are we doing to be a source of life to others? Whether you celebrated the New Year on Jan. 1 or Feb. 14 (or both), that’s a New Year’s resolution worth working on.