The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word meaning “lengthening” referring to the lengthening of daylight hours that takes place in spring. The impressions of Lent in my early memory, however, are of darkness. It was dark going to church for the evening services. Dark in the church with no light streaming through the stained glass. Dark even when we had filmstrips in the parish hall as Lenten instruction.

My whole impression of the passion story is of darkness–at the Last Supper, in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the trial before the High Priest and especially the darkness that covers the land between Noon and three during Jesus’ crucifixion. Darkness seems to be the right image for Lent.

There is a scene in Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” where Scrooge tries to force down the cap of the Ghost of Christmas Past in order to shut out his light. That’s what people tried to do when the Light of the World came to us. They didn’t want to receive him or even listen to him. It’s still happening. The Lord’s message of love, compassion, forgiveness, and service doesn’t always go over well. Just watch what happens when one person takes a parking space somebody else decided was theirs. Sometimes, sadly, it’s even “Christians” trying to extinguish the Light.

Lent is a time of repentance, a time to turn away from the darkness of selfishness, hate, anger, violence–all the negative things that blind us. All are called to Christ.  Let his light shine, and we shall be saved.

Read Psalm 80:19  and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne