It’s Friday…
so…
We are officially now in Lent… as of last Wednesday…
So what are you giving up for Lent?
Hold that thought!
Let me tell you a story I heard about Lent…
So there was this wee priest from Boston at a conference in Paris… during Lent…
Because it was Spring he decided to take a walk…
It was a bit chilly still and there was a chance of rain in them there clouds (woops, wrong story)… but yes, it looked as if it could rain..
So he put on his, as my Gram would call it, his overcoat, and made sure it was buttoned up nice and snug, so as to please his sainted mum, who assuredly was smiling down up on him (ah, no, but people have their ideas!)…
Anyway, there he was… a dapper figure of an American strolling down those Parisian boulevards…
And as he passed one dark alley, he was suddenly seized and dragged into the foreboding narrow, smelly fissure between two worlds… well kind of…
No, this is not a Sci-Fi story, but tell me how America compares to France?
Anyway… this priest was confronted by a grubby man at least a half of him taller than himself holding a rather large knife…
“Give me your wallet or it’s your bloody life!”
The priest was more confused than anything, and so he said in his mixed Bostonian Irish accented English, “Now son, you won’t be need’in to be do’in dthat!”
The man was surprised that he didn’t show any fear, so he grabbed him by the collar and put the point of the knife tip on the tip of the priest’s nose, said in a whisper, “I am serious, you little bloody conceited American!”
“Well, you won’t be gett’in rich off me, as I have but enough for a pack of cigarettes (this was before they cost an arm and a leg),” the priest told him.
“I will invest it and maybe by the end of the day it will have grown some… now hand over your wallet!”
The priest sighed, and said, “Very well.” So the robber let go and the priest began unbuttoning his overcoat to get to his wallet.
The thief took in a loud fearful breath when he saw the priest’s cleric’s clothes and pectoral gold cross.
The thief then quickly stepped back and said, “forgive me father, I didn’t know! Keep your wallet.”
The priest asked, “Do you truly want to be forgiven?”
It was then that the poor man’s life story poured out of him and he explained in a way that most likely would have filled that pages of a large Victor Hugo novel and might have even rivaled Les Miserables!
The priest was filled with pity and right there and then had him kneel and do that which was needed to receive absolution. He told him to check in with a priest he was friends with at a mission in the city, and he would help him.
But before they left each other, the priest, after all that excitement, needed a smoke desperately, but being trained right—by his sainted mother and the seminary, offered first a cigarette to the now-reformed and forgiven thief…
The man replied, “No thank you, Father, I have given them up for Lent….”
The End.
It is like the man in a wheelchair who finds a genii in a Persian rug who grants him 3 wishes. What does he ask for? Living in the desert, he first wants a 50 ft yacht, then a million dollars in gold, and then a never ending supply of beer in his refrigerator.
Huh? Exactly! (It was an X-File episode if you must know!)
This while sitting in a wheelchair… this with the genii asking if there really wasn’t something else instead… and is he sure there was not a better wish he could think of…
Lent… oh yeah…
So is Lent for self-improvement? How you doing on your New Years resolutions so far?
See what I mean?
To put it in the simplest terms, Lent is to show us JUST HOW MUCH WE NEED a REAL SAVIOR.
What I mean by real, is not a therapist. Not a friend. Not a support staff (Jesus with His angels).
A triage surgeon in the middle of WWIII! And you are bleeding out!
So how do we do this? This Lent thing…. stuff? Simply by depriving ourselves of things we think we need, and / or truly need.
Fasting always meant food, and I mean meals, not just chocolate, unless you are one of those people that consider it one of the 3 square of the day…
Yet, it does not solely have to be food. Cigarettes for sure is one that fits the bill.
The point is to train our flesh that we can live without, so that we can be better able to control ourselves when we are tempted by sins.
Many Lutherans at this point get all bothered. They even will try and quote the catechism about how to prepare for Holy Communion.
“Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed a fine outward training, but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins'”.
But look a bit closer. “Fasting a bodily are indeed a fine outward training….”
We need to train our bodies to behave. For Americans this is hard, as we have invented the thing called the “convenience store”! We indulge all the time and then obsess over our health! Instant gratification or we will DIE! Right?
C.S. Lewis said that fasting is also a good practice to learn how to do without so that when we actually have to, it won’t drive us to other and worse things. He learned this the hard way as he went through 2 world wars.
But going back to what you might choose to do this Lent. And it is a good thing to put something in its place, this thing you are abstaining from.
But remember, and this is the good part of these exercises, if you fail, it is no sin. But it takes practice—training. All the same it is a free choice thing to be doing.
But start with small things. A common one is to not have breakfast on Sunday morning before the Lord’s Supper. That you can practice all year long.
But replace it with something, as I said. Have a short Psalm to memorize. Pray for someone you know is in need.
But it will be a fight. Your flesh will wonder what is going on with you! What, you don’t love us any more? What, are we religious all of a sudden now? Are you going to become Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox now? All sorts of things like that.
During this you will discover just how strong the sinful flesh still is… and just how much saving we still need– yes, all the way to the grave. It is humbling and insightful. It is freeing too. We for some reason still think we had to fix ourselves and be better people by now… shouldn’t we be?
No, the closer we get to Jesus the more even the littlest of sin hurts more than ever. It’s His work, not ours. We need to be reminded of this—especially when we are “doing” things—like “spiritual exercises.”
Thinking of smoking, we could say that, “You have come a long was, baby,” does not apply to us. Remember that Virginia Slims cigarette ad? Yeah, it dates me, I know. But by practicing Lent as it was meant to be, we see that WE haven’t. That is okay because it is not up to us. Everyone gets in only by the skin of their teethe! I always thought this meant by confessing Christ by our mouths– as our lips is that skin over our teethe… but even that confession if given (revealed) to us by God… remember Peter’s good confession? But then what happened?
Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan…” to the face of the same man…. Yup. That is us…
So thank God that Sunday is only 2 days away…
Lots to confess and a much needed absolution to be heard and received by Word, Body and Blood…
Sunday, February 22, 2026 – Invocavit Sunday – 1st Sunday in Lent
Readings –
Old Testament Genesis 3:1-24
Psalm 91
Epistle – 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Gospel – Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon Theme – PASSOVER – Based on the Old Testament reading
Prayers: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cites and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone.