March 22 – Confessions of a Lenten Slacker


As I made my way to our Men’s Bible Study Wednesday morning, the moon was shining brightly in the early morning sky. iPhones are not designed for astronomical photography, but I stopped the car anyway and caught the shot of Wednesday morning’s moon.

The moon seemed full enough to the naked eye, but it turns out it was still sixteen or so hours from full which would occur that evening at 9:43 p.m. I looked it up.  That’s when I realized Easter 2019 is going to be an asterisk Easter.  You may not remember, but the general rule for setting the date of Easter is that it is to fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  It turns out, though, that there’s a sometimes difference between the astronomical vernal equinox and the ecclesial vernal equinox.

Equinoxes being what they are, marking the beginning of spring and autumn, the astronomers can tell the exact second they occur.  Spring, 2019, began precisely at 5:58 p.m. Wednesday, March 20.  Spring beat the full moon by 3 hours and 45 minutes.  So, Sunday, this Sunday, March 24, is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  Happy Easter, everyone!

Hit the asterisk key *. In 1582, popes being what they are, Pope Gregory XIII decreed spring to always begin on March 21. It was as good as you could get in 1582.  Easter, 2019, then, is set for April 21, the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox*. Yeah, the ecclesial equinox.

You can read more here.

Thanks to Pope Gregory XIII, we’ll wait four more weeks for Easter.  Four more weeks of Lent.  And I don’t much care for Lent.

Sometime in the past 100 years, good Presbyterians decided to observe Lent, that roughly 40-day period (Sunday’s don’t count) before Easter.  It is a penitential season in the liturgical churches, but I wonder if it has anything to do with envying the Catholics with their Friday fish fries.

As a pastor I have spoken about Lent as a time when we “journey to the cross.” Sermon series are designed to aid in the journey, and devotional booklets are made available to the congregants.  Some of us quit eating chocolate or drinking beer for the duration, but I am never sure about the spiritual value of such discipline, though it can’t hurt our health.

Lent is one of the busiest seasons of the year for a pastor because it is, well, it is Lent. If I could give up one thing for Lent, it would be Lent.  I think one of the reasons I like early Easters – and we got cheated out of one this year – is that it gets it all over with early. You can enjoy the spring.

Yes, I am a Lenten slacker.

But I am not a Holy Week slacker. Like many of you, I find our Maundy Thursday service at LPC to be one of the most meaningful of the year and our Easter Sunday call to worship – He is Risen! He is risen indeed! – to never fail in bringing joy.

This year’s Lenten sermon series, “Last Night: Words from the Upper Room and the Garden” is not much helping me trudge through Lent (it could be over, if we’d just listen to the scientists), but it is preparing me well for that Thursday night when LPC people climb the chancel steps as if they were steps to an Upper Room and when, gathered around the Table, we hear the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

See you Sunday (and Happy Easter!)