Lenten light
Readings: Joel 2:1-2,12-17 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Delivered on Ash Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at the Church of the Advent, Louisville, KY. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. “What are you going to give up for Lent?” That was the question my mother would ask us a week or so before Lent began, when I was growing up. We went to St. Francis in the Fields then, and the younger children’s participation in Lent was centered around United Thank Offering mite boxes. We would drop pennies or extra change into the box and then on Easter morning, stack them in a large white wooden outline of a cross in the sanctuary. There was an unspoken, definitely un-Easter comparison of how heavy your box was to someone else’s, and a vague feeling that you fell short if your box was too light. As we grew older, we were introduced to the idea of giving up something more than loose change, an