Glorious Disruption

During the season of Lent, it is a common spiritual discipline to give up or take on something. It always felt to me a bit like the spiritual equivalent of January. I have often felt myself tempted during the New Year into believing that this year, this time, with just a little bit more self-discipline than I’ve ever managed to muster up before, I will go to the gym regularly; and I will be a whole new person. Similarly, Lent has often felt to me like an invitation to forge myself, through the use of various disciplines, into a more spiritually advanced version of myself.

Of course, I recognize this is not the intention of ancient spiritual disciplines and that our Lutheran theology does not approve of “works righteousness.” Though my intellect may never consent to it, there is, nevertheless, a deep-seated suspicion within me which I often subconsciously succumb to that there is a ladder we must climb to get to God and that some are further along in that journey than others.

So one Lent I gave up meat and dairy, another Lent, I took up Centering Prayer. And, in the same way that going to the gym does turn out to sometimes be helpful for my physical and mental health, so too have spiritual disciplines sometimes been helpful for my spiritual health. Yet, they’ve never resulted in a whole new me.

Easter comes as a glorious devastating disruption to all my plans for self-improvement. Christ is risen! The decisive pivot on which history turned was not the discipline, devotion, piety, or faith of the disciples, but the transformative love of God. It’s an experience with the risen Christ that changes Mary’s grief into joy, Peter’s denial into proclamation, and Thomas’s doubt into faith. So it is with us. God never leaves us to our own devices.

This year, I didn’t give up or take on anything for Lent. But I’m considering taking on some simple spiritual practices for Easter, just for fun this time. I think I’m going to take up cooking again, just because it delights me. And I’ll take a moment every week to notice the places where I’ve seen new life springing up. May Christ’s resurrection continue surprising us, turning our focus from inside out, and bringing about new life.

Rev. Asher O'Callaghan
Associate to the Bishop
Director for Transitions and Discernment

A cooked meal, salad greens with pomegranate seeds and chickpea fritters