February 17, 2024 — Why Forty Days in Lent?

The practice of a forty-day preparation period began in the Christian church during the third and fourth centuries. The number forty carries biblical significance based on the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness, the forty days Moses spent on the mountain, the 40 days it rained upon Noah and the ark, and Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness. The forty days of Lent begin on Ash Wednesday and continue through holy week, not counting Sundays (which are reserved for celebratory worship).

As a period of preparation, Lent has historically included the instruction of persons for baptism, and many churches include a baptism in the service on Easter Saturday (the Easter Vigil). In times past, Lent would be a time of calling back those who have become estranged from the church. And in current times, Lent is the time when Christians look to deepen their piety, devotion, and readiness to mark the death and resurrection of Jesus. As such, the primary focus of the season should be to weave together our efforts of denial, repentance, penitence, and reflection as well as to explore and deepen a “baptismal identity”.

The forty-day Lent journey begins on Ash Wednesday and ends when the church begins the Triduum, the great three-day journey of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday (the Easter Vigil). Lent is a time we should take very seriously, for we do not get enough seasons in the church year where we can purposely focus on our sinfulness and our hope in the cross of Jesus.

Pastor Dave

February 16, 2024 — Why Purple, in Lent?

The traditional color for the season of Lent is purple.

To produce garments dyed the color purple was expensive: the 4th-century-BC historian Theopompus reported, “Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon” in Asia Minor. And because it was so expensive to produce the dye and to make clothing dyed purple, these garments became status symbols. A child born to a reigning emperor was labeled  “porphyrogenitos,” or “born in the purple”, which may have been a sign of their wealthy status or because the birthing apartment was walled in Purple.

The dye substance consists of a mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several predatory sea snails found in the eastern Mediterranean. As such, Purple is a kingly color, the color of royalty and the color of wealth. Purple is also, or has become, the penitential color for the Church.

Purple is certainly penitential in contrast to Rose, which is the color of Joy, worn on Laetare in Lent and Guadete sunday in Advent. But the only other person to wear Purple clothes in the New Testament was the rich man in the parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” (Luke 16:19). But his wearing purple is a sign of his wealth and self-righteousness.

In Mark 15:17ff they mention putting a purple cloak on Jesus as follows:

“And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on…”

They would go on to mock Jesus and then to lead him to his own death on the cross. Although they soldiers looked to mock Jesus by clothing him in purple, he went on to his glory on the cross. As such, we use the color purple in Lent as a reminder that Jesus is our true king.

Pastor Dave