Finally, Lent...

probably not the most common response to the beginning of this season of repentant reflection.
And yet so important for the structure of the Christian life.

Structure? What has that to do with the Christian life? Isn't that stifling, stuffy, boring?

Yes, much, no,no, no.

Being a pain in the tush Lutheran (that means I have no patience for the "lutheran" that has no concept of what makes us distinct from others in the "christian" camp), structure is not foreign or enemy.

Structure is part of anything in human experience. It is part and parcel of God's gifts to us in the church. God recognizes our need and meets it beyond our wildest expectation.

While many despise the "organization" called church - whichever brand you despise this week - it is an organization, or perhaps an organism, created by God. This life, the Christian life, is not just me and Jesus. And while God did not institute the specific governance of his church, whether episcopal, presbytery or congregational polity, the gathering of his people is his doing.

The structure of the church year, its calendar, while not divine, is of use to us scatterbrained creatures. It serves to keep us focused. It serves to prevent fixation. In other words balanced.

Advent gave us time to wait. Wait for the incarnation. God made flesh.

We have now also celebrated Christmastide and Epiphany, celebrating the human life of God the Son.

And now Lent. Earthy. Not so frilly and fine. Notice the change in the church's music. Darker - like us! A time to contemplate our just desserts. And to be thankful, that God chose - insisted rather, to give us life in place of death.

Like Advent a time to get ready. This time not for God made flesh but for man made God-killer!

And for God made man saver. We await the darkness of Good Friday - when Atonement was made for man. Not by our own grubby hands but by... God. He made this happen so much does he love us.

Of course Good Friday would be incomplete without the proof of Easter - he is who he claimed to be.

The ritual of moving through the church year keeps us alert to the rythym. The rythym of God serving us with his gifts. Receiving the whole council of God through the seasons of the church.