"LENTE LOCO" ?

“And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.” (Mark 1:12-13)

I don’t know if it’s still on the air, but for a number of years there was a television show on the Spanish Univision network called, “Lente Loco”. My entire Spanish vocabulary is not much more than forty words, but you did not have to watch “Lente Loco” for more than five minutes to realize it was a Spanish version of the show we knew as “Candid Camera”. In fact, “Lente Loco” literally means “Crazy Lens”.

Well, “Lente” makes me think of “Lent”. Today is “Ash Wednesday,” the first day of Lent. If you look up “Lent” on Wikipedia, it contains a pretty good article on the subject. Lent is typically NOT observed in the Assemblies of God, nor is it typically observed in most evangelical or charismatic Protestant churches. Lent IS observed in Roman Catholicism and in the Orthodox traditions. SOME Protestant
churches DO observe Lent including Anglicans and Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists. I’ve found that SOME of the American Baptist Churches observe Lent, although I’d say most Baptist churches don’t.

I grew up with Lent in the Roman Catholic Church. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me at that time. On Ash Wednesday, you went to the Catholic Church, and in a brief ceremony, the priest dabbed some ashes on your forehead and announced, “Thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return”. Forty or more years ago, I’d say, 75% of Catholics went to church for Ash Wednesday and “got their ashes”. Today it’s probably more like 20%. Most Catholics “gave up” something for Lent. A common thing was giving up smoking. Then on Easter Sunday, everybody that gave up smoking happily lit up their Marlboros, kind of glad it was all over! Some gave up candy. Some gave up chewing gum. Some gave up going to the movies. Some even gave up beer or other alcoholic beverages. Maybe somebody would give up swearing. Then on Easter they’d be so happy to be able to start swearing again! Something about all that seemed kind of crazy. ..... Lente Loco ..... Crazy Lent......

SO, after I “got saved” and joined up with the evangelicals, I was only too happy to give up Lent forever assuming it was a religious but quite unbiblical practice! Back in the ‘90s I became friendly with an American Baptist pastor, and I was amazed that although he was a good evangelical, he observed Lent. By the early 2000s, I was coming into contact with a lot of friends and colleagues who in one way or another observed Lent. Incidentally, in the liturgical tradition, Lent is the 40 days prior to Easter. (It actually works out to be about 46 days, but for some reason the Sundays don’t count as “Lent”.) It’s drawn from the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness at the very beginning of His earthly ministry.

Several years ago, I decided to do something very unusual for an Assemblies of God minister: I decided to observe Lent. We didn’t have Lent in the church or Ash Wednesday or anything like that, but I cut way back on caffeine for Lent...then like Catholics, as soon as Easter came, I dove headfirst back into all sorts of heavy coffee and cola drinking. The next year, I cut way back on caffeine for Lent, but I decided to keep it that way when Lent was over. Don’t get me wrong, I did NOT give up caffeine entirely. I have at least one cup of caffeinated coffee a day, sometimes more than that, and although I try to buy Caffeine Free Coke, I’ll drink the regular stuff if Caffeine Free is not available...but I DID break that ADDICTION to caffeine, and that felt great!
In 2008, I decided to try to do something POSITIVE instead of “giving up something” for Lent. That year, I sent out affirming e-mails to 40 people and I called it “Bob Baril’s Top Forty”. Frankly, last year, I reverted back to my “low church Protestant” habits and did nothing for Lent.

This year, we’re having a special prayer service at our church tonight at 7. I’m not calling it an Ash Wednesday service and I’m not giving out ashes or anything like that...it’s going to be a service of praise and worship, and then some intense prayer for several key situations. In an e-mail promo. I put out for the service, I mentioned it was going to be held on the First Day of Lent. A friend sent me an e-mail with the simple and inquisitive line, “Why are you writing about LENT?”

I guess they came from the same sort of dead-letter liturgical background I did!
I sent back a brief explanation. That explanation was largely the inspiration for this posting.

Oh, THIS is what I’m doing for Lent:

I HATE interruptions. HATE THEM! I’m very task oriented. “Wanna help me? Go away and leave me alone!” is typical Bob Baril thinking. “Please will you LET me GET THIS WORK DONE?!”

Now, what part of Jesus does that sound like? You’re right. It DOESN’T sound anything like Jesus. When you read about Jesus, He was frequently interrupted and He just FLOWED with it. I was recently reading John chapter 4. In that chapter, Jesus is INTERRUPTED in Samaria on His way to Galilee and he stays there two days ministering to people! And, can we ever forget how the woman with the issue of blood interrupted Jesus on His way to heal Jairus’ daughter? Or how when Jesus and the disciples went across the Sea of Galilee to “get away from it all” the crowds followed Him there, and He patiently and lovingly and sacrificially ministered to those crowds?!

No, Jesus was not like Bob Baril at all.

So, my “Lenten thing” is to embrace interruptions as ministry opportunities. And if I don’t receive a “ministry opportunity interruption” well, you have my permission to thrown this posting in my face!

Finally, what are YOU doing for Lent?