Douglas Wilson’s Letter From America

On Being a Lentendud

Liturgy and Worship – Church Year
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, 23 February 2012

A few days ago I posted a little poem — one of my periodic forays into high art — about the affair of the sausages, as a result of which incident the Swiss Reformation began in earnest. It turns out that this poem and other related things generated some excitement on the Internet (and who does not believe that the Internet could always use a little more excitement?)

The poem was simply an application of some of the warnings contained in a joint statement that Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church developed together. “We stand gratefully in the Reformation tradition which courageously freed the saints of God from those enslaving regulations related to saint days, penitential seasons, and superstititous fasting . . . [we] warn our people to likewise remember these lessons from the history of the church.” Emphasis added, and you can read more on all this both here and here.

Of course Lent can be observed without sinning, and without falling into gnosticism. It can also go the other way. But staying away from the central problems takes a particular kind of spiritual insight. Those who don’t observe Lent, as I don’t, don’t believe the game is worth the candle. Those who do believe it to be worthwhile are certainly free in Christ to have at it. But as they do, it is (I believe) essential for them to take great care that they not allow the traditions of men supplant the authority of Scripture (Matt. 15:3). In my view, this work is frequently not even attempted, which is why I kibitz about this subject from time to time. Let me give just a couple of very simple examples.

In the Bible, there certainly are times of fasting that may go public without any problem, as when an asteroid is going to land on Kansas City, and the president has asked us all to fast and pray. This is the kind of repentance that the inhabitants of Nineveh showed (Jonah 3:7). But whenever fasting is part of a cyclic, spiritual exercise, when it is an ongoing spiritual discipline, Jesus required that it be a secret between you and God.

“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:16-18).

In short, if everybody on Facebook knows what you are not doing for Lent, with fifteen minute updates, along with a snapshot of the burrito you are not eating, you already have your reward. Cultivating a right heart on this is fundamental to Christianity. Understanding this principle is basic. When people are running around yelling about the asteroid, religious showboating is not the great temptation. But if it involves praying the synagogue, giving alms with brass accompaniment, and fasting with a wan countenance and wry commentary, and so forth, Jesus told us very explicitly how we are not supposed to behave.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why those who are observing the fast ought not to despise those who aren’t — because the fellow who looks like a lentendud might be fasting just like you, only more obediently.
A second observation is this. If you are a member of that great and growing American regiment that is into high food finickiness, then you should understand that your temptation might be to use Lent to ramp up your natural inclinations, instead of mortifying them. Our nation has a long history of food weirdness, and this really must be taken into account. We have not done well with the Scripture’s indiscriminate blessing of processed corn, refined sugar, meat with dubious points of origin, wheat germ, and tofu (1 Tim. 4:4).

This means that a number of folks might need to be going the other way. C.S. Lewis once spoke of those who, when confronted with a flood, break out the fire extinguishers. If you want to use a penitential season to mortify something in your life, then you might ought to pay attention to what actually needs to be mortified. Otherwise, you will just be digging your own particular groove deeper.

Fasting ought not to be “more of what you usually do,” and if what you usually do is worry over food too much, then you need to take care. What I mean is this. Suppose you have a thing about really “healthy” bread, the kind with the Ponderosa bark still in it. Your natural inclinition will be to go into a penitential season resolved to operate within all your existing categories. But wouldn’t eating Wonder bread with Skippy peanut butter for forty days be perhaps more to the spiritual point?

There are of course other arguments and considerations — exegetical, historical, theological, and more — that could be brought into a discussion of Lent, but it is not necessary to go into everything. Scriptures do give us real liberty in such things. But we are not at liberty to be enslaved, and to disregard of some of the principles cited above is a fast track to such entanglement.

All that said, have a merry Lent.

>The Hopes and Fears of All the Years

>The Coming of Our Lord in 2010

As we celebrate and remember the coming of our Lord into this world, to redeem it as its Prince of Peace, we do so against the backdrop of war and rumours of wars, of portending calamities and crises. It has ever been so, yet it will not always be the case. For the Prince of Peace has not only come, He has risen and been invested by God the Father with authority to rule over all the nations of the earth. All His enemies are being put under His feet. Peace, His peace, is gradually, ineluctably, coming.

The peace of Christ does not come in a vacuum; it does not come from above as an alien imposition. It comes incarnationally. It comes from the inside out. It comes from within as sinful men, women, and children hear the Gospel of God’s mercy and grace to them in Christ, and believe. United by faith to Christ, by the Spirit, they are dead to the old life of sin, of pride, vainglory, anger, selfishness, wranglings, disputations and quarrelling. They have risen with Christ and are alive in His love, joy, peace, gentleness, longsuffering, and peacemaking.

As the number of Christian families grows, Christian communities eventually emerge, then towns, then regions, then nations. The peace of Christ comes from within, where sin is quenched and righteousness breaks forth. The Kingdom of God comes from within in the human heart then moves relentlessly and unquenchably outward, changing everything. The yoke of Christ is light because the heart is made light; it is easy because the heart no longer rails against its Lord.

Thus, we assess the Kingdom not by its empirical manifestations in 2009th year of our Lord. We assess the Kingdom by faith. Not by what it is now, but by what it will become as gradually and carefully, all His enemies are placed under His feet. As we look around, we do not see all His enemies subdued–in fact their brassy trumpets boastfully bray in many places–but we do see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, we know the future. We know not only what is happening, but what is going to happen. We look forward to the 2010th year of our Lord with great joy and hope.

For we know that this coming year, thousands upon thousands, myriads upon myriads of men and women around the world will come to faith, having been born again by the Spirit of God. No man can stop or prevent this. They will weep the bitter tears as over a first born’s death; they, looking for the first time upon Him whom they have pierced, will be broken. But their mourning will be turned to shouts of joy as they understand and believe for the first time that His blood and death atoned for them, and His righteousness stands for them, and that, therefore, God has overlooked their sin. Because they now believe in Christ, He is not ashamed to call them His very own, much-loved brethren.

And we know that this year myriads of children will be born into Christian homes, and sealed with the marks of His covenant. They will never know a time when they were not loved and cherished by all the adults around them. Grace will dwell in their families, and their houses will be houses of healing. Their days will be filled with smiles, and laughter, and joy. Whilst they will soon realise that there dwells within them a dark beast of sin, they will also be taught to call upon Him for mercy and deliverance every day of their lives. The homes into which they have been born will be to them the very means of grace to bring them to faith and repentance.

There will also be an inexhaustible army of labourers and servants of the Lord–in Christian schools, in hospitals, in ministries of mercy and solace, being the very healing and serving hands of Christ Himself in a needy world. There will be faithful Christians serving in police forces, armies, courts, magistracies, bringing light and salt to a deceitful and desperately wicked world. How wonderful it is to be living in these days.

We eagerly anticipate the 2010th year of our Lord. These are in truth the years of Jubilee. Maranatha. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.