Lent for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation

Lent will begin for those of us following the Western Kalendar in just about a fortnight. It is worth beginning to think now about how to keep Lent. Let's start with the tradition:

"… St. Gregory writing to St. Augustine of England laid down the rule, 'We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.' This decision was afterwards enshrined in the 'Corpus Juris', and must be regarded as the common law of the Church."

(see here for fuller account of the history)
So what about keeping Lent today? Of course we should start by remembering that it isn't for show [See Mt.6:16ff], and that it won't make God love us any more to be very strict with ourselves not make God love us less if we don't do anything. The main point is to do what will help us to draw closer to God and to express more fully God's agenda and values in our lives. In this sense it may mean it is more useful to ask ourselves what we should take up as well as give up -keeping the common good and welfare of humanity firmly in mind.

Isaiah 58.6-14 encourages a fast that leads to greater justice. Human beings are making some decisions that are making things worse for everyone and particularly our children and grandchildren and we in the planetary north are living at unsustainably high levels of consumption. One way to help us understand this is to get an idea of our ecological footprint. The responses we could make to learning what our ecological footprint is could vary from recycling things that we don't normally, cutting down our consumption especially of meat, power, fossil fuels etc. So giving up the car for at least some kinds of journey might be appropriate.

Since a lot of our ecological footprint is made larger by consuming more goods than we need perhaps, fasting from 'retail therapy' might be a good discipline: only shopping for food and absolute necessities during Lent.

British researchers found that in order to reach sustainable prosperity, Londoners would have to shrink their ecological impacts 80% in the next four decades.... And the more we learn about the extent of the damage we're causing the planet, the shorter our timeframes for change become. I suspect that we need to be thinking more along the lines of cutting our impact in half in the next ten years.

(See)
Remembering it was the normal practice of the church (still is in the east), become vegetarian or even vegan for Lent. Or if that's too great a step cut down to once or twice a week. There are lots of good reasons for doing this. Meat is in world terms a luxury and giving it up is an act of soldarity with the world's poor. The resources given to raising meat for the high consumption in the planetary north would be better used in raising crops for human food, and may help slow deforestation in the planetary south.

Fasting from things that may have gained an undue prominence in our life: shopping (perhaps we should learn to take our sense of worth from God rather than retail therapy?), watching television, alcohol, caffeine, certain activities may be reviewed perhaps. Giving the time saved to activities that help us to grow closer to God -whether that's taking a walk. praying, reading scripture, meditating, spending time with a spiritual mentor or whatever.

Do a stock take of your food throwaways and use that to replan your shopping strategies. If you are throwing away certain foodstuffs, ask yourself what the practical psychologies of obtaining and usage actually are. Are you buying stuff like some of us tend to buy books -meaning to get round to reading it someday? Are you actually finding that you feel too tired to prepare it and so end up in the junk-food end of your fridge and freezer, or reaching for the takeaway number? In a world where many of our brothers and sisters find it hard to discern the positive answer to the prayer they pray for daily bread, those of us who throw 'daily bread' away, should consider how the world's systems of food distribution have become distorted and take more responsibility for restoring God's purposes. Our 'your kingdom come' might then be their 'daily bread'.

It may seem odd, but think about it .... if you long for a simpler, more human Christmas, now is the time to start planning it. You’ve got a blank slate for 2008, and if you wait until the pressure hits in October or November, it’s too late. If you want to talk to your family about it, and have a bit of a discussion, now might be a good time to make some suggestions. You can talk again in the summer and decide for sure whether you want to go for it, but get the ball rolling early
(see)

As we take actions that tend towards a more just and fair world, as we begin to act in ways that preserve and enhance the God-given living systems of our planet, we are creating the conditions that are likely to make for a more peaceful world. This is because so many conflicts begin with injustices and concerns for resources. Jesus said 'blessed are the peacemakers', as we take such actions we begin to deserve the label.

The ideas on this leaflet are not exhaustive and are intended to push us beyond the usual and all too easy 'giving up chocolate' for Lent sort of response; to encourage us to make Lent a testing ground for embedding more of God's agenda into our lifestyles.

There is a helpful aid to Lent-keeping here.