Lent this year began in February. A moveable feast, our Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) pancake supper is, falling the day before Ash Wednesday which is 46 days before Easter, which itself is set by the Lunar Calendar, Easter being the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The resurrection of our Lord--like the tides that lap our North Carolina shore and yours, wherever you may be--is dated by the phase of the moon, our constant companion, using the Gregorian calendar which superseded the Julian calendar (put in place by Julius Caesar) at the First Council of Nicea in 325. Could anything be more ancient?
Something we might be especially thankful for, Lent 2026 (and many years, Ash Wednesday falling somewhere between Feb 4 and March 11) begins in the month we dedicate to honoring Black History. This year is the 100th anniversary of Negro History Week, inaugurated by historian and author, Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926. Then in 1976, during the year of our nation's Bicentennial, GOP President Gerald Ford made the month official.
So appropriate. We began the Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday with the words, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." These are words of repentance and mortality. They require kneeling. Is the time we have to repent before our death really any longer than the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter? Has it not passed, is it not passing, more quickly than we ever knew?
February is the birthday month of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), abolitionist, orator, statesman and one reason the month was chosen to celebrate Black history. You might want to look up the stirring poem "Frederick Douglass" by Robert Hayden, the first African American to hold the office later known as Poet Laureate of the United States. Part of it reads:
this man, this Douglass, this former
slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled,
visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted,
alien,
this man, superb in love and logic,
this man
shall be remembered.
Today we still have human beings lonely, hunted, alien, beaten to their knees, exiled, killed. In Lent we repent and seek forgiveness. Jesus says "Love your enemies." Tyrants foment hate. Jesus says, "Forgive." Tyrants seek revenge. Jesus says, "Feed the hungry, heal the sick." The tyrant cuts humanitarian aid and medical research. Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." The tyrant creates masked police forces and inflicts fear. Jesus says, "Give to the poor." The tyrant enriches himself.
As we move through Lent toward Holy Week, we are aware that corrupted power, religious hypocrisy and state violence are at odds with peace, truth, trust, hope and the promise of new life. It is up to us to work for the peace of God that builds community and passes all understanding. What a wonderful challenge we have before us.
As the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, we are "at the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we be expansive, be inclusive, find unity and power; or suffer division and impotence?" "Common ground," he continued. "Think of Jerusalem . . . . A small village that become the birthplace for three religions--Judaism, Christianity and Islam." "Yearning to be free," is our common ground, says this pastor we remember this year of his death this month of Black History.
Lent 2026 we might recognize as one of special opportunity, wondrous opportunity. It might be the Lent we have been waiting for. We might become the people we need to be to act in faith and save those hunted, alien. If so, we say, thanks be to God. AMEN
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