Dust You Are: Hebrew Scriptures, Lent, and Our Humanity

When my wife announced to her congregation several years ago that she would preach from the Old Testament during Lent, she was met with concern by a retired minister and current congregant that this practice might leave Jesus out of Lent altogether. The minister was asking, I suspect: how can we arrive at the cross on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday without our typical journey with Jesus through the gospel stories of the Lenten season? She wanted the season's usual themes of preparation and repentance to originate solely from Jesus' life.

How could the Old Testament help us on our Lenten journey?

Yet, what emerged for the congregation, as each Sunday’s Old Testament story accompanied us on the Lenten journey, was an unexpectedly refreshing experience of the season. The story of the Garden of Eden, with its profound reflection on disobedience, resonated especially well during Lent. Abram’s call became a call for us all to move to new places as we awaited Easter. Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones was met with great anticipation as we pondered a God of restoration and resurrection. The Old Testament helped us arrive at our celebrations of Good Friday and Easter Sunday with renewed expectation of God's participation in our world.   

The Hebrew Scriptures found in the Christian Old Testament can speak powerfully into our contemporary lives and settings of public worship, including during our Christian liturgical seasons such as Lent. I have witnessed it. I believe that by turning to the Old Testament during these well-known seasons in the life of the Church, we can provide fresh and energizing perspectives on our contemporary spiritual lives. The Old Testament can help us invigorate our worship, our rituals, and our customs by introducing us to stories, often new and sometimes old.

Now, don’t mishear me: the retired minister raises an important issue about the purpose and significance of the Lenten season. Lent provides an opportunity for Christians to follow in Jesus's footsteps as we journey toward the cross. But I worry honestly about our inclination to link Jesus' ministry, and especially his death, and the season of Lent so closely together that we are not able to think creatively about alternative ways to make our Lenten journeys. As Laurence Hull Stookey, a liturgical scholar, notes, "Certainly Lent is not six-and-a-half weeks of marching around the foot of Mount Calvary." (Stookey, 88) Just as we testify that death is not the final word, we testify also that death is not the only word! Surely, the usual themes of Lent are not so tied to particular events in the life of Jesus that we can’t use other portions of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, during this preparatory season leading to Easter. If, as Jane Shaw contends, our Lenten practice is three-fold as “we turn to look at our self and our life; at our relationship with God; and at our relationship with others,” then the Old Testament seems like an ideal place to nurture such turning. Jane Shaw, 23 (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2012), xvi.)

Preaching from the Gospels during Lent is the safer route, the typical route, and a good one to be sure. Indeed, some of the Gospel stories practically preach themselves!  For example, Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary offers the wonderful stories concerning Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Of course, we should not abandon the Gospels altogether. Please don’t hear me asking us to give up the gospels or Jesus for Lent! I am asking instead if other possible celebrations of Lent exist. As leaders of our communities of faith can we imagine new ways to approach the narrative arc of this liturgical season? Can we imagine ways to relate some of the narratives of the Old Testament to Lent? At the very least, can we explore options for relating the Old Testament readings to the Lenten Gospel readings? I believe the answer to these questions is a resounding ‘yes!’

I want to encourage ministers and other religious leaders to try an alternative for Lent. Instead of rehearsing the admittedly meaningful journey of Jesus to the cross this year during Lent, take a journey through the Hebrew Scriptures to find God anew during this season. Rely on the Scriptures and the old, old story that meant so much to Jesus as a window into spiritual reflection and practical action. Shake up your usual Lenten practices and trust that the Old Testament stories can also help us all journey toward Easter. Trust that we can find the heart and soul of Jesus' teachings and ministry within the scriptures that nurtured his faith. Let’s journey with Jesus during Lent by journeying with Jesus' formative religious traditions.

If we truly believe that all Scripture is the Bread of Life, then Lent provides a time to preach and teach from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, to name just the Revised Common Lectionary lessons for the 3-year cycle. Lent can open up stores about the Garden of Eden, Moses’ Bronze Serpent, the Ten Commandments, David’s Anointing, and Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones, just to name a few.

We can trust the Old Testament to speak to the Lenten themes of spiritual preparation, discipline, repentance, and renewal, while also introducing new themes for the season. 

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

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