Talking Tuesday: Nadia Bolz-Weber and the Great Fast

I actually scheduled this to post during Great Lent this year, but somehow forgot to hit "publish", so it has been sitting in draft mode all this time.  I still think it is worth examining, however, especially as we are in the midst of the Dormition Fast, the bookend fast of the summer, and the last seasonal fast until the Nativity fast in November.  Nadia Bolz-Weber writes about Lent, its purpose, and how the light of Christ shines brightly on our lives to illuminate every darkness, every failing, every sinful deed.  I found several passages quite thoughtful, and wanted to share a portion for Talking Tuesday, but I'd recommend reading the whole thing.  It is relatively brief, yet very powerful.

via 

"So Lent isn’t about punishing ourselves for being human – the practice of Lent is about peeling away layers of insulation and anesthesia which keep us from the truth of God’s promises. Lent is about looking at our lives in as bright a light as possible, the light of Christ.   It is during this time of self-reflection and sacrificial giving and prayer that we make our way through the over grown and tangled mess of our lives. We trudge through the lies of our death-denying culture to seek the simple weighty truth of who we really are. Lent is about hacking through self-delusion and false promises.  We let go of all the pretenses and the destructive independence from God.  We let go of defending ourselves.  We let go of our indulgent self-loathing.   Then, like the prodigal son we begin to see a God running with abandon to welcome us home.  But we can’t begin to see this God until we hack through our arrogance and certainty and cynicism and ambivalence.  The Psalmist says that God delights in the truth that is deep in us.  The truth. Therefore there’s no shame in the truth of who we are; the broken and blessed beloved of God.  There’s no shame in the truth that our lives on earth will all end and that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.  It’s not depressing.  What’s depressing is the desperation of trying to pretend otherwise.  What’s depressing is to insist that I can free myself I just haven’t managed to pull it off yet."

~Nadia Bolz-Weber, Ash Wednesday Sermon on Truth, Dust, Babies, and Funerals, March 6, 2014