Lent & the Lord’s Table
This year (2025) at Covenant of Grace we’ve decided to embrace an ancient practice of the church by recognizing the season of Lent–a period of 40 days leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection (Easter Sunday). During Lent, I’ll be sharing a sermon series focused on the scriptural themes of repentance and renewal—themes we don’t typically focus on but ones which are nonetheless essential for our full experience of God’s grace and growth in following Jesus. Depending on your background, you may have any number of reactions to this news. Some will be excited–there’s a growing interest in the church year as well as ancient Christian practices and their place in modern worship. Some may be concerned, seeing Lent negatively as a Roman Catholic invention or simply an empty or even legalistic tradition. Others may simply wonder, why?—not knowing anything about or having experienced the season of Lent previously. Let me try to address these questions and clue you in to our goal in observing Lent this year.
Lent did not originate with Roman Catholicism–it dates back to at least the 2nd Century AD and its observance was common by the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the council at which Athanasius (a proponent of recognizing Lent), successfully argued against Arius who denied the divinity of Christ Jesus[i]. Since at least that time and likely long before, the season of Lent has been recognized as a part of the church year for focusing on our need to turn from sin towards Jesus in repentance, reflect on his sacrifice, and experience the renewing and sanctifying power of God’s Spirit. In Lent we stare directly at the great gulf that exists between us and our holy God while also growing in appreciation for the gift of redeeming and transforming grace given to us in Jesus, who died and rose again for our sin and to make us new. It is also a time in which the church has historically emphasized the practice of spiritual disciplines–prayer, personal reflection on scripture, fasting, and the sacraments–not as a means of gaining God’s favor or becoming more “spiritual,” but as good gifts of God’s grace intended to renew us in his strength and form us more into the image and character of Christ Jesus.
The observance of Lent is born out of the recognition that the things we do habitually are incredibly formative for our hearts and lives. The early church recognized something about Christian growth that the modern church in many ways has forgotten. Growth and change happen not merely through having the right information in our heads–not just by hearing and learning truth, but by practicing it. In the words of one Christian writer, James K.A. Smith, “The orientation of the heart happens from the bottom up, through the formation of our habits of desire. Learning to love (God) takes practice[ii].” Like a golf swing, a knitting technique, or learning to drive—it is through practice and repetition that we grow and learn to love the things we do. Many people think that what we do because of habit isn’t heartfelt, but the opposite is actually the case. Our habits reveal what we love the most and our spiritual habits of worship & spiritual disciplines shape our hearts to become like the one we love. Lent invites us to make a habit of reflecting on the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, to embrace heartfelt repentance, and to experience renewal through the Spirit of God working in the spiritual disciplines God has ordained for growth in the Christian life.
It’s for this reason we will also celebrate the Lord’s Table every Sunday during the season of Lent. The Lord’s Table is a meal of covenant renewal in which we receive the tangible signs of God’s gift of grace in Christ Jesus. In the meal we are also spiritually strengthened as we express our dependence on him through eating & drinking what he gives us. Though some think that the Lord’s Table is made more special by its rarity, this represents a misunderstanding about the meaning and function of the meal. In fact, though the frequency of communion has varied since the Reformation, the clear practice of the early church was to commune whenever the church met for worship (Acts 2:42)[iii]. The service of Christian worship was from the beginning one of Word & Sacrament together where the Lord’s Table confirmed and strengthened the application of gospel teaching from Scripture. It was only later, due to a number of reasons including onerous traditional practices of preparation for the Lord’s Table & at times the lack of available pastors that infrequent communion became common (something which both Martin Luther and John Calvin lamented). In the Lord’s Table, the gospel is preached using tangible elements–a way of communicating gift of God’s grace using not only our senses of hearing and sight but also touch and taste. In the act of communing we don’t merely memorialize the gospel, but we are also spiritually strengthened and renewed for a life following Jesus in obedience & Christlike mission.
I often say that the Lord’s Table is like an embrace from Jesus–a way of tangibly communicating the love he has for the people he died and rose to save. Should parents hug their children rarely so that the experience is more special? Or does the frequency of the embrace become a habitual reminder of the love and security we have in that relationship? I don’t know about you, but I hug my kids and tell them I love them as often as I can so that as they go out the door, no matter what they face or the difficulties they encounter they will know by both my words and physical affection that they are loved and secure. Celebrating the meal once-per-month is certainly adequate, but our hope is that communing weekly during Lent will help us all develop a habit of relying on our Lord’s forgiving love and grace as well as the gift of his renewing power. That kind of spiritual renewal is what the season of Lent is all about.
Finally, I want to give you a few recommendations on how you can make the most of this Lenten season in your own life and walk with Christ Jesus. I. Fasting: Although the church session is not currently calling the church to corporate fasting, the practice of fasting is a God-ordained tool to help us personally embrace Christ-like self-denial while prayerfully acknowledging our need for God’s forgiveness and intervention (Matthew 6: 16-17). It’s not a diet strategy, nor is it a way to try and get God to do something you want him to do. It’s a way to express grief, sorrow for sin, desire for repentance, and longing for God to answer our prayers. Rather than write extensively on the subject of fasting, you can read this helpful article for more information[iv]. II. Personal scripture reading & prayer: Lent is an excellent time to emphasize the daily practice of reading and reflecting on scripture and depending on God in prayer. To this end, we’ve bought several copies of a Lenten devotional by British Pastor Tim Chester which incorporate scripture, a devotional reflection, a reading from church history, and a prayer prompt. I encourage you to pick up one of these, or another devotional to help you embrace the practice of daily meditation on God’s word this season. III. Children & the Lord’s Table: Finally, we’ll be making one more adjustment to our worship service to engage children in this season of Lent. Children who attend the kids worship program during the sermon will now come back to the worship service prior to the Lord’s Table. Although children should not participate in the Lord’s Table if they have not yet professed personal faith (1 Corinthians 11:28) and been admitted by the elders, they should nonetheless see the meal and be encouraged to ask questions about its meaning. To this end, our children’s ministry director, Carrie Coard, has made available a document with guidance for families on teaching young children about the Lord’s Table so that when they ask “what do these things mean” (Joshua 4: 6-9), you’ll have something to share!
My prayer for Covenant of Grace is that we will experience the deep joy of repentance and the renewing power of the Spirit of God during this season of Lent, so that we as his people might see in Christ Jesus the beauty of God’s love and have the strength to follow him in joyful obedience and kingdom mission.
~Pastor Mark
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[i] Lecroy, Rev. Timothy. “On the Origins of Lent,” https://www.liturgycollective.com/lc-articles/on-the-origins-of-lent
[ii] Smith, James K.A. “You are what you love; the Spiritual Power of Habit.”
[iii] https://www.reformedworship.org/article/march-1990/lords-supper-how-often
[iv] https://pastortimlecroy.com/2013/02/28/and-when-you-fast/