Loud Loft

Lord's Table Elements

So I decided to give up not drinking for Lent this year. Yeah, its a bit unusual but it's not like I drink all the time anyway. In fact, if I have one beer a week . . . that's a lot. So it was a challenge for me to commit to drinking 40 beers over the 46 day period of Lent. I decided that if I was going to go down this path I might as well  go whole hog and try to work in the observance of the Lord's Supper as often as possible. That's especially interesting as I'm pretty opposed to the daily observance.

That's mostly because I think that since I don't hold to the transubstantiation camp that it's just another thing that will become a ritual and quickly loose it's meaning.

Anyway, I had the beers and I had these tasty chips so I figured why not? So, for all but about five or six of the days of Lent - when I had my time of observing the commitment I had made "for" Lent, I also observed the Lord's Supper.

"This is my blood and this is my body"

I figure that the Shiner and gluten free chips are a &%^# of a lot closer to the wine and bread that were on the table when Jesus initiated this little shindig with his friends than the juice and wafer that is offered at church..

It actually became a meaningful experience for me. I don't see the point in continuing it every day of the year but, for the season of Lent, it was a good thing to pause, take a sip of a refreshing beverage, crunch down on a tasty, salty chip and consider the sacrifice of my lord and savior a few thousand years ago.

A sacrifice that changed the world and one that continues today to effect the lives of people around the world.

Lent was good for me this year. I enjoyed thinking about my commitment over the 46 days and it did cause me to focus more on how I can be the hands and feet of Jesus to this world . . . and I still like Shiner too.

A passionate endorsement of Lent . . .

That title should really read “A passionate endorsement of Lent by somebody who really isn't that passionate about Lent” but that just seemed too long and made me think of some other long titles like THIS or THIS  and that's not really the point of this post.

So, Dear Reader, you ask what is the point? If you've read any of my prior posts you know the answer to that is usually “it depends”. I tend to cover lots of ground and this post will be no exception.

Still, the general theme I'm working with is Lent, how people observe it, why I'm “meh” about it all and why I'm going to give it a whirl this time.

So, Lent is a 46 consecutive day period of the church calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes the day before Easter. During that time, the folks who observe Lent commit to “give something up” for 40 of those days. The Catholic Church, being ever the pragmatists and the architects of this shindig, give you a break on the Sundays during this time to go crazy and partake of that which you've elected to give up.

I'm not certain of the reasoning behind that but certainly giving up something for six days in a row is a little bit easier to bite off than forty six days in a row . . . I'm just saying.

Anyway, the point is not so much in the thing that you give up as it is in the frequent reminder you encounter as you come up against the choice of continuing to abstain or to break your vow. The reminder is there to cause you to consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the place He holds in your life, an issue that you need to deal with, His forgiveness that is awaiting your request, His grace that you need to accept, how to show that forgiveness and grace to others . . . and the list goes on.

Lent is a time of intentionally creating a situation that will generate an attitude of contemplating. The “what” you are contemplating is intensely intimate. It's no one's business but your own. The “why” of Lent is to just give you a tool to consider the “what”.

As a recovering Southern Baptist, growing up I didn't hear much about Lent. Well, who are we kidding I didn't hear squat about Lent. It's something the Catholics do and those people are strange what with the candles, the robes, the incense – not to mention that whole Pope thing in Rome.

But at Irving Bible Church, where I go, this is the third year we've observed Lent as a community and I love symbolic gestures as much as the next guy. Not to mention the parades, floats, clowns and bands. Wait, that's Mardi Gras which is the blow out binge that wraps up midnight on Fat Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday and is designed to let you indulge in whatever you're giving up in spades so that it lessens the pain. I mean really, when you're coming off a two day binge, the last thing you want is more of the same, not that I would know anything about that . . .

Back to IBC. We do the Ash Wednesday service, we have a special website that walks you through each day, click HERE to see it,  you can subscribe to get a daily text message (text lent to 313131) sent to your phone, we have a Twitter account, IBClent that you can follow, each worship service is intentionally planned to reflect the tone and mood of the season and we make it kind of a big deal.

So, this time for Lent, I've decided to give up not drinking. That's probably not the most common way of approaching it but, hey it's my way and my blog, so you will have to come up with your own.

I thought of this while sitting in the bar of a local Italian restaurant on Monday afternoon with a good friend. The number of times I've found myself in a bar drinking in the middle of the afternoon reminds me of that old joke told in geek circles. “There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary numbers. Those who do and those who don't”. If you don't get that joke consider yourself normal. If you do get that joke you probably spend way too much time indoors and need to go work on your tan.

Anyway, this was the first time for me and it was the result of the both of us sitting through a blitzkrieg of meetings that had rendered us null and void. I pretty much slammed the first Shiner Bock so that I could take my time on the second and savor this sweet nectar of Texas. We chatted for a while about things and another friend called (who had also been in the same set of meetings) who soon ended up there with a glass of wine in their hand.

After awhile, we all made our way back to work, I took care of some things and finally left for the house around 7:00. This was the Monday before Ash Wednesday and I was going to have to either fish or cut bait on this Lent thing. I'm typically opposed to joining things and having such a structured thing as Lent looming before me actually made me more annoyed than excited.

But, let's face it, anything that you do that can cause you to stop, ponder, think, contemplate, remember, ask forgiveness for, seek direction, worship, honor, glorify our Lord and risen Savior is a good thing. Even Lent.

So, each day, when I think about the cold Shiner in my fridge at home I will stop and consider His incredible gift of grace, when I pop the cap I will give thanks for His mercy  and when I bring the cold bottle to my lips and savor the taste I will remember the sacrifice He made for me on the cross and that He is my Redeemer and Savior.

I'm still kind of “meh” on Lent but that's changing. I really do like the idea of Lent, especially when I can come up with a way to do it that reflects the personality that God gave me. Cheers.