It is always good to know why we do what we do. We always get more out of our worship when we know why we are worshipping in a certain way. The forty days of Lent are no exception.
It didn’t start out that way
The very early Christian Church wouldn’t have known what you were talking about if you would have mentioned the forty days of Lent to them. There was no such observance at first – not that there was no observance. The early Christians did observe a time of forty hours of fasting between the Friday afternoon preceding Easter through early Easter morning to commemorate the time that Jesus was in the tomb. Later that 40 hours was expanded to the forty days of Lent. That is documented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 when the bishops spoke of quadragesima paschae (Latin for “40 days before Easter”) as a well-established custom. It was already established at that time, though, that the Sundays in Lent were not to be considered part of the Lenten observance in the same way as the other days. The council forbade fasting, kneeling, and any other acts of sorrow on the Sundays “in” Lent in keeping with the tradition that all Sundays were to be little Easters. In fact, the Sundays are not even counted in the forty days of Lent.
Our Observance
So, for us Lutheran Christians, we mostly limit our observance of Lent to the other days of the week and especially to the midweek Lenten worship services where we come together as families to observe the forty days of Lent together. In their Christian liberty some Lutheran churches observe the custom of removing the Alleluia’s, Gloria’s and other joyful songs from the liturgy during the time of Lent (also on Sundays). The purely Lenten hymns, though, are generally saved for midweek worship while the Sunday hymns follow mostly the themes of Justification and Redemption. Some believers follow the custom of not placing flowers on the altar during Lent as well as other related practices. The liturgical color is purple representing earnest repentance and the suffering of Christ. The only exceptions are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday where the color of black is used. The black represents the death that sin brings as it’s punishment.
The Culmination
All of this ends with Easter and the empty tomb. Our “Alleluias” return. Our sanctuary and worship brightens again and we rejoice without restraint in the victory over sin which our Lord’s suffering and death accomplished for us and the glorious inheritance of heaven that it gives to undeserving but thankful sinners.
Some more history: Ash Wednesday
The birth of the term Ash Wednesday is another interesting story. In Rome, the practice became popular of welcoming back on Holy Thursday those who were baptized but who had committed serious sins. Those who were to be reconciled on that day were expected to enter into an intense preparation during Lent. So the penitents to be reconciled on Holy Thursday were to gather before the bishop on the Wednesday that we now call Ash Wednesday. Borrowing a custom of sorrow and repentance from the Old Testament scriptures, the bishop sprinkled ashes on the heads of the penitents, which they wore (without washing) until Holy Thursday as a sign of their sorrow. Soon others began to ask for ashes on that Wednesday because it symbolized to them their own thoughts during Lent. By the 11th century the pope recommended to all the bishops that ashes be distributed to anyone who sought them on that day, which became, of course, Ash Wednesday. Later the custom was changed to the forming of the sign of the cross in ashes on the foreheads of believers.
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