A Baptist Discovers Lent

I am grateful to be writing for At River’s Edge this week. Here is a peek:

Growing up as a girl born Baptist, Easter was something that we celebrated with triumphant music, Easter-egg hunts, and ham.  We were excited for Easter, but Easter always caught me by surprise.  Maybe it snuck up on me because I never knew what day it would be falling on.  I didn’t know how to look for it, except for in that brief space between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.  Even then, I didn’t know what to do with that space.

I have a feeling though, that what I have been missing out on all of these years is the invitation to participate.  I don’t know that I ever participated in Easter beyond waving palm branches on Palm Sunday.   We Baptists celebrated resurrection–specifically Jesus’ earthly resurrection and our future heavenly resurrection.  Celebrations are good.  But we were mostly celebrating something that happened a long time ago or would happen someplace other than here.

I don’t remember being invited to participate in this death and resurrection here and now.

Is that what the season of Lent is about?  An invitation to participate in death and resurrection?  (This is an honest not rhetorical question.  This Baptist girl is still learning about rhythms and the depth of ritual.)  Isn’t that what Jesus invites us to every day?

To read more, come take a look.