Lent: what's the point?

Recently I've been exploring more "Orthodox" church traditions - as a teenager I went to a fairly informal church and made a great effort to shun hymns, ignore tradition, say the most modernised version of the Lord's prayer I could manage, and basically assumed that any church that didn't use music written post-1980 was obviously spiritually dead.

We learned about Lent in school but not really further than as a time for giving up things - I'm not sure I knew what the point was - perhaps just to prove our endurance. Certainly giving up chocolate led me to mainly feel very pleased with myself and utterly deserving of the enormous amounts of chocolate I received on Easter Day - just when did Easter become about chocolate?

Lately, however, I've become curious in various church traditions, wondering where they came from. Having a number of friends from different Christian traditions, and knowing the sincerity of their faith, I've tried to be a little more open to different ways of doing things. Recently I attended a retreat at the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, which is a High Anglican monastery; at first I found their worship - psalms in plainsong, repetition of creeds, responses and so on - a little odd and even uncomfortable. Eventually I began to see the humility and even the originality of such an approach; how many Charismatic churches would sing phrases like "The wicked have hemmed me in" in worship? We often neglect the "lamenting" side of the psalms. I also appreciated the humility of the singing when I seem to see a lot of Christian musicians showing off!

There is a danger associated with traditions and rituals - that we begin to see them not as the expression and demonstration of faith, but as faith itself - making our faith about what we do and when we do it - and not about a relationship with God. Lent can easily fall into this trap - we consider ourselves holy because we've given up chocolate or taken up blogging. Surely we don't fast because fasting in itself makes us holy, but because fasting allows us to refocus on God, who alone can make us holy?

So why bother with Lent? Shouldn't we be led by God and not the calendar? (In that case, shouldn't we stop celebrating Christmas and Easter too?)

Even our earthly relationships involve rituals - perhaps we meet on particular days, or do particular things together, we celebrate birthdays, we often eat together or drink together, and we often share peculiar in-jokes that must look as odd to an observer as church often looks to a non-christian. I had a group of friends with whom I used to eat take-aways, and we actually had jokes based around "It's a bit noisy, shall we go upstairs?" and "How about some garlic bread?" Hilarious, I'm sure you'll agree.

Why rituals? Possibly because at times we're frail human beings who need an excuse to get together, and who enjoy the familiarity of "patterns" of behaviour - eating the same food, playing the same games, telling the same jokes - it may be strictly unnecessary, but serves to make us comfortable with one another. Sometimes we need special days, like birthdays and other celebrations, to remind us to celebrate each other and spend time with each other. It'd be a poor son or daughter who only said thank you to their mother on Mother's Day, but it's still a good day to remind ourselves - and more importantly, our mothers - of our gratitude.

There is room for the old and familiar in a relationship with God; if we are growing, we aren't just gaining new things, but building on the old things - hanging onto a tradition may be no bad thing (even some of the least traditional churches meet on Sundays), but obviously it must be in its proper place - it is good to have a season in which to fast, but counter-productive to order people to fast without giving them the slightest idea why they are fasting. I remember the words of Jesus when asked why his followers didn't fast:

Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
(Matthew 9:14-17, NIV)

There are times when fasting is appropriate, and times when it isn't. Paul understood there was freedom from legalism, knowing that certain types of food or breaking the Sabbath could not make someone unclean - but he also realised that it was petty to argue over such things. He says,

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Romans 15:5-9

So as a closing remark, do what you want with Lent. To paraphrase Jesus's words on the Sabbath, man was not made for Lent but Lent for man. In this time as with any time, I want to use this time to press closer to God.