Things to do for Lent

When it comes to Lent, some of us are in a rut. Every year we do the same things: give up ice cream, etc.

Among other things, today’s readings (Isaiah 58:9b-14 and Luke 5:27-32) provide very special suggestions for other things we could do this Lent: some of them more challenging than giving up Häagen-Dazs.

Clean up our language and what we say about other people

Remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech...

Help the poor and work for justice.

Bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted...

Treat the Lord’s Day as the Lord’s Day

Hold back your foot on the Sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
... call the sabbath a delight,
and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
... honor it by not following your ways,
(nor) seeking your own interests,
(nor) speaking with malice...

Reach out (prudently) to lost sheep.

Those who are healthy do not need a physician,
but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance
but sinners.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, be merciful to me - a sinner.