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The Sacraments of Hospitality ˜ 225
rectly and boldly—by jolting us out of our captivity to the System, by awakening
our imaginations to the alternative way of God.
This story has caused me to rethink the season of Lent. Often we understand
Lent as a quiet, introspective, private time. But that is not the picture we
get in the lectionary. Last week, we read the story of Jesus’ temptation in the
wilderness. Lent begins with the conflict between Jesus and Satan. This week,
the struggle with Satan continues, as the spirit of the System again tests Jesus in
the person of Peter. Lent, the lectionary seems to be saying, involves this ongoing
conflict with Satan. During Lent we remember and celebrate Jesus’ life-anddeath
struggle with the System and its illusions. We remember and celebrate the
ways in which Jesus exposes the powers of the world and helps us see them for
what they are—not the way of life, but the way of death. During this season, we
remember and celebrate how Jesus frees us from the power of death, so that we
might follow him on the way of life—even to the cross.
That is why Lent traditionally ended with the wrenching and dynamic
sacrament of baptism. For in that sacrament we ritually enact our dying to the
old world and our rebirth into the new. In the early church, those baptisms required
people to renounce Satan and all his works. They included exorcisms,
through which the church cast out the demonic power of the System, which
steals people’s souls. Baptism was the culmination of Lent, during which the
imaginations of believers went through detox.
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Lent is not a quiet time, but a time of heightened conflict. It is, in fact, a
time of detoxification. During Lent we examine ourselves and our communities;
we look honestly at our own captivity to the System. We explore how our lives
and communities have been shaped by the spirit of the System—that spirit of
over, more, win, defeat, violence. During Lent we seek to discern where Jesus is
saying “Get behind me, Satan!” And that discernment can be as painful and
wrenching as detox.
Lent is also a time to take up practices that reshape our imaginations in the
way of Jesus. Lent is not just about our heads or our spirits, but about our bodies.
To be sure, the way we think often shapes how we live. But the opposite is
also true. The way we live shapes how we think—how we come to see the world.
During Lent we take up and reaffirm the practices through which the Holy
Spirit frees us from the illusions of the System—practices that embody an alternative
to the ways of the System. We take up afresh practices in which we stand
with others, not over others. We renew practices in which we share, rather than
grab for more. We engage in practices in which we serve others, rather than trying
to defeat them. And we live out practices in which reconciliation and shalom
replace violence against strangers and enemies.