Lent is “an invitation to draw closer to Christ through intentional spiritual practices, while at the same time responding to Christ’s love through compassionate action for others.” Photo: Aldo Luud/Õhtuleht.
In an Ash Wednesday letter, LWF’s General Secretary invites Lutherans to practice fasting through compassion and service
(LWI) - How are you marking the season of Lent? What are the practices in your church? In a letter to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches, General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt asks those questions, as she invites Lutherans to consider the traditional season of fasting as a time of “showing mercy to our neighbors, near and afar.”
In her letter, addressed to leaders of the 150 member churches around the world, Burghardt reflects on one of her favorite Bible passages [Isaiah 58:1–9], where the prophet speaks about fasting and about rejecting any type of self-denial that seeks to manipulate God’s favor. She notes how Jesus, in his own ministry centuries later, echoes that same spirit of service to the poor and vulnerable.
An invitation to draw closer to Christ through intentional spiritual practices, while at the same time responding to Christ’s love through compassionate action for others
LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt
Seen through the lens of this Old Testament passage, Burghardt says, Lent can be understood as “an invitation to draw closer to Christ through intentional spiritual practices, while at the same time responding to Christ’s love through compassionate action for others.” She argues that the seven weeks of Lent can be a time of going without something, but more importantly, should be a period with “more prayer, with more focus on Christ, with more compassion for the neighbor.”
Writing on Ash Wednesday, at the start of “our shared journey towards Holy Week and Easter,” the LWF leader encourages people to practice this type of fasting with “in the form of caring for one another. Not as a way to earn salvation,” she says, “but as an expression of God’s love.” This attitude is “very much needed in today’s world which seems to be losing the sense of empathy and mercy,” she insists.
Burghardt encloses with her letter an update from Maria Immonen, director of LWF World Service which provides humanitarian and development support to vulnerable communities around the world.
She concludes with a wish for “a blessed Lenten season that draws you closer to Christ and sends you forth as an instrument of God’s love in the world.” May this time of preparation for Good Friday and Easter “also become a time of strengthening spiritual bonds within our global communion,” she says.
