Today is Ash Wednesday. I hope you have made a plan to get smudged. Ash smudges remind us of our mortality and that we all end this life on earth as ashes and dust. As we contemplate that somber Debbie Downer reality, we begin our 40 day spiritual trek toward the cross and eventually the empty tomb. I have always loved and hated Lent for its long winter night of the soul, but I have never finished this reflection marathon without a deeper sense of who I am and whose I am. It is worth the effort. It is worth the surgical deep cut. It is worth the sense of wonder and awe that comes from walking with Jesus in his desolate and lonesome valley.

We typically start Lent with Joel’s beautiful words of invitation to return to God from our gloom (Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17), or Isaiah’s challenge to choose the fast that pleases God and not you (Isaiah 58). But today we will submerge ourselves into Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and see what Lenten practices we might glean from this lectionary passage. Lenten disciplines include fasting, Scripture reading, confession, repentance, service, meditation, and worship. Many of us are looking for a list of Lenten-Do’s as a way of growing stronger in our faith. Many of us would do well to focus on Lenten-Don’ts. But in any case, let’s see what Paul advises his church in regard to being better and stronger representatives of Christ as a blueprint for a different kind of Lent this year.

2 Corinthians 5 (Common English Bible)

²⁰ So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” ²¹ God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God. 6 ¹ Since we work together with him, we are also begging you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ² He says, I listened to you at the right time, and I helped you on the day of salvation. Look, now is the right time! Look, now is the day of salvation!

So our first task is to acknowledge the blessing of God’s grace and how immediate God was in his response to our need. Look! Look! God proclaims that the day of salvation is here. As representatives of Christ, we must call others to reconcile with God. Now is the time!

³ We don’t give anyone any reason to be offended about anything so that our ministry won’t be criticized. ⁴ Instead, we commend ourselves as ministers of God in every way. We did this with our great endurance through problems, disasters, and stressful situations. ⁵ We went through beatings, imprisonments, and riots. We experienced hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. 

If you have suffered for your witness, take heart. Paul and his followers went through it all and more. That is the cost of doing and being the Gospel.

⁶ We displayed purity, knowledge, patience, and generosity. We served with the Holy Spirit, genuine love, ⁷ telling the truth, and God’s power. We carried the weapons of righteousness in our right hand and our left hand. 

Here is your list of Lenten practices:

Seek to always display purity in every thought, word, deed, and post. Yes, every post.

Increase your knowledge of God every day by reading your Bible. I’ll cover Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but you’re on your own for the rest of the week.

Be generous! Share your time, your resources, your money, and your presence with others.

Genuinely love other people with the help of the Holy Spirit. You’ll need the Holy Spirit for some of them.

Only tell the truth. This truly is the hardest 40 day challenge on the list. Thank goodness we get Sunday’s off.

Access God’s power. God will enable you to accomplish these Lenten practices if you let him.

Use God’s righteousness as tools of engagement. After all, this is the Lord’s work. We are just the representatives.

⁸ We were treated with honor and dishonor and with verbal abuse and good evaluation. We were seen as both fake and real, ⁹ as unknown and well known, as dying—and look, we are alive! We were seen as punished but not killed, ¹⁰ as going through pain but always happy, as poor but making many rich, and as having nothing but owning everything.

As I said to my running partner recently after finishing a hot and humid Half Marathon, “We’re not dead yet.” Paul’s example of persistence in witness will serve us well as we seek to include others in our Lenten endeavors this year. If that list seems impossible, focus on just one or two and go from there.

May God grant us a Holy Lent.

My Friend Tim