No Short Shrift to Lenten Season

Spirituality Column #171
February 16, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

No Short Shrift to Lenten Season
By Bob Walters

Shrovetide? Fastnacht? Pancakes, anyone?

How about … Mardi Gras, Carnival, aka Shrove Tuesday?

This week begins the ancient Christian season of Lent, 40 days of fasting, self-examination, prayer, and penance observed by Roman Catholics and traditional Protestants beginning Ash Wednesday (Feb. 17) leading up to Easter. Orthodox Christians begin Lent two days earlier on “Clean Monday.”

“Shrove” means “give a full hearing” or “hear confessions.” The faithful cleanse their souls by confessing their sins Shrove Tuesday prior to Ash Wednesday (“short shrift” means “not fully hearing”). “Fastnacht” means “night before fasting” and also is a German/Dutch yeast donut. Eating pancakes in Shrovetide used up fat and eggs which were verboten during Lent. “Easter eggs” likely originated to celebrate fasting’s end.

What some of the faithful often did (and still do) – human nature being what it is and with 40 days of abstinence looming – was party their brains out during Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) or Carnival (“end of meat”), misbehaving on a magnitude worthy of 40 days of penance.

Easter in 2010, for everyone, is Sunday, April 4. Western and Orthodox Easters usually are on separate dates. This has to do with the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Hebrew, Julian and Gregorian calendars, Passover, ecclesiastical dates of the Vernal Equinox, and the Paschal Moon. Google “Easter Date” if you’re thirsty for more.

In the West, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox March 21. This year April 4 follows a March 30 full moon.

Scheduling Easter would have been easier if someone had simply written down the date Christ was crucified. Scholars tend to land on April 3, 33 AD. No one is sure.

But that brings up a huge point: the New Testament never mentions observing dates, feasts, seasons or holidays, or even the Sabbath, as a condition of salvation.

Humanity’s great gift of eternal communion with God through the fully-divine, fully-human person of Jesus Christ is not a matter of temporal festivals. Redemption, salvation and eternal life are entirely matters of 24/7/365 faith in Christ, which we exhibit by obeying the two great commandments – loving God and loving others.

That could explain why dates for Christ’s birth and death aren’t known. Christ very plainly tells us salvation is about faith (Luke 7:50, Ephesians 2:8), not records.

I believe God hides – and can be found – in our hearts, not on our calendars.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) isn’t knocking church traditions and urges Bible Christians to study more church history, even though reason suggests there are no dates in eternity.