Sundays in Lent

Sundays in Lent are not fast days.

For the longest time I did not realize that Sundays are not included in the forty days of Lent.

Whatever the season or fast or event, the church has historically observed each Sunday as a day of celebration of the new and forward-looking life made possible by the resurrection of Jesus. The early Christians, who were Jews, viewed Jesus’ resurrection so pivotally that they dared move the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday). In the church, the first day of the week, the day Jesus was resurrected, is always a day of celebratory feasting, not somber fasting.

So, if one counts the days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday (the day before Easter), one arrives at 46 days. Six of those days are Sundays and they are not considered fast days. In order to get to forty days (the time Jesus fasted in the wilderness), one includes six weeks of six days of fasting (36) and adds four more fast days (Ash Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).

Now I know. Now you know. 

Now, so what?

If I take Lent seriously as an intentional journey with Jesus through a wilderness of temptation and preparation that culminates in the gut-wrenching week of Passion, what do I do with these six pause days, these six interruptions of grace and celebration amid an otherwise somber slog?

Feast with remembrance and recollection of the whole story.

Feast with retelling and rehearsal of the full journey, complete with its spoiler-alert ending.

Feast with gratitude for such amazing and accessible grace the whole journey through.

Feast, knowing that tomorrow we will resume the fast and walk on, walk forward with faith and hope into an unknown future.

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On one of these Lenten Sundays, I want to explore here the word “feast” and how it is used in Christian liturgy.