I like pancakes so much that it would be a seriously formative exercise in self denial if after tonight I gave up pancakes for Lent. My favourite bought ones are Sainsbury's, the large ones. My preference are home made as long as the pancake maker knows what they are doing:)
Tonight I will have pancakes with savoury (crispy bacon and maple syrup) and then sweet with chocolate sauce or maybe ice cream and peaches..
TO KEEP A TRUE LENT.
by Robert Herrick
IS this a fast, to keep
The larder lean?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?
No ; ‘tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent ;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin ;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.
Robert Herrick isn't anthologised much except for a few of his devotional poems. This one echoes the more ancient poet Isaiah, in chapter 58 who gives a comprehensive agenda for any discussion about the meaning, fruitfulness and social transformation made possible by a Lent truly kept. Made me wonder what a national Lenten period would achieve? What would a Lent in which we gave up unethical food production look like in a country where Food Banks are the fastest growing charity and £1.5 billion of food is wasted annually, and in which the scandal of processed food produces its next chapter of consumer phobias and species indifferent meat labelling? Or if everyone above the average wage donated a week's salary to the NHS? If that seems impossibly daft, how about a national mauratorium for 40 days on all language that is oppressive, discriminatory or fear mongering?
There is a foolishness and unreality about such suggestions. But maybe our laughter at the bizarre and naive nature of such suggestions betrays a skeptical realism and lack of moral imagination so that the status quo is so privileged we cannot even dream of a more ethical alternative. Every year I tediously point out that Lent is a time for taking up as well as giving up. This year maybe I could do both with the one change - how about giving up on habituated cynicism and taking up a patient naivete? How about giving up a reality manacled by amoral realpolitik and taking up dreams which give freedom to the moral imagination? How about me, just me, deciding that on behalf of the nation, I will give up negative diminishing discourse and take up positive edifying words of encouragement, affirmation, welcome, comfort, hopefulness, peacemaking, relation building, kindness, mercy, and truth spoken in love?
Pancake Tuesday is about recognising the gifts of life, and understanding that they are not all shared equally; that justice and mercy and freedom are not only core values of the Kingdom of God, but criteria of the good life lived Godward. As Jesus said, not the things that go into the mouth defile it, but the things that come out. Not the food we eat, but the words we speak. A true lent would mean replacing many of our habits of speech, parts of our discourse being converted, so that what comes out of the mouth doesn't defile, but are promises we keep, the truth we tell, the lives we enhance, the injustices we challenge, the love we articulate, and the compassion to which we give voice.
And if what goes in does not defile, then bring on the pancakes, the maple syrup, the ice cream and peaches, the crispy bacon, and hot chocolate, but make sure the equivalent expense is put aside to do what Nehemiah said, "remember the poor".
Yay! I like this idea.... now: am I up to it? (Can make the pancakes fine, it's the rest of it that gets me)
Posted by: chris | February 12, 2013 at 01:52 PM