Today is shrove Tuesday.
A feast day for the church. A theological day for the church. Did you know that?
I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. Because for so many in the modern western church, “Shrove Tuesday” might as well be called “pancake tuesday.” And, it’s not their fault, really. Because for every single year of their churchly lives,their church got together on this very day to have a pancake supper. They might even be able to correctly articulate WHY they do this, explaining that Lent is a time for fasting, and so shrove tuesday began as a way to use up all of the fatty foods that people had stocked up, like eggs, butter, and milk (and whatever meats are eaten along with the pancakes). And… good on them for knowing that. BUT – besides the fact that almost nobody in the west actually abstains from eating anything beyond meat during Lent anymore, and besides the fact that almost nobody in the west really abstains from much of anything at all let alone actually cares to fast anymore, this still falls short. Because this is at best like saying that Christmas is about trees and Easter is about chocolate. Because really, shrove tuesday is not ABOUT pancakes.
But don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying don’t have pancake dinners with your church every Shrove Tuesday. That is a beautiful practice for the church to engage in which fosters community, and table fellowship, and builds up love and relationship between Christians. Continue to do that every year. But what I AM saying is that that isn’t what Shrove Tuesday is about. Shrove Tuesday is actually the climax of what’s called “shrovetide” (also known as pre-lent), which is the section of the liturgical calendar preceding lent, at the end of Epiphany (ordinary time, for the Romans), in which the readings (both for the historic 1 year as well as the modern 3-year cycle) are all focused upon the Law. Upon the commands of God, upon the holiness of God. Upon the call for us to love, and eschew sin, and to repent, and to cast off our works of darkness and to be salt and light. And where should all of that drive us? Where should all of that Law preaching lead us? To pancakes? No. It should lead us to the confession of our sin, and to repentance in faith. This is what today has ALWAYS been about. In fact, the word “shrove” is derived from “shrive,” which literally means, “to hear confessions.” In the same way that Christmas (Christ-mass) has become associated with meaningless material gifts and family dinners, so also this theological holiday of the confession of sin has become associated with pancakes, even though its theological meaning is embedded directly in its name.
And so I say again, Shrove Tuesday is not about pancakes, it’s about the confession of your sin. And the fact that this has been lost without the church bothering to make any stink about it says nothing to me about Christian freedom or adaptability, or positive change, but instead it actually just tells me how little the church cares about sin, about the sacrament of confession, and about the spiritual war being waged between angels and demons over our souls every single day. Private confession and absolution is already being despised in our churches in the name of so-called Christian freedom AS IT IS without us abandoning the one feast day in the church year ABOUT this sacrament. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that simply judging by the number of people who use this sacrament regularly either almost nobody is sinning or the church no longer cares about sin.
So, what can we do about it?
Well, first things first; the main reason that all church holidays lose their theological substance and meaning is that the church stops treating them as theological holidays, in that they cease holding services for them. The primary feast for every church holiday must be the Eucharist, the divine service, not the family dinner, not the church dinner, but the Lord’s Supper. And in that divine service Liturgy, as always, the congregation will confess their sin, and the pastor, by the command and in the stead of Christ will forgive their sins. First and foremost if we want to impress upon our fellow Christians the truth that this day is a day devoted to the confession and the forgiveness of sins, then we must do that firstly by making Shrove Tuesday a day wherein the Lord’s Supper precedes and predominates the pancake Supper in importance and in emphasis. Secondly, within that service, to preach upon this sacrament. Thirdly, to regularly open up the Small Catechism or the Augsburg Confession and confess together what we believe about this sacrament and to expand upon it, by teaching our congregations about it catechetically. and lastly, to encourage them to come to private confession and absolution. We can’t be shocked that people aren’t coming to privately confession and absolution if we aren’t preaching about it or encouraging it, or even publicly offering it. Yet this is a practice mentioned all over the place in our Book of Concord, there are specific rites for it, both private rites and public rites in our service books, it’s embedded at the very beginning of our weekly divine service, and at the beginning of our daily nighttime prayer (compline). It’s all over the writings of the early church fathers, and most importantly, it’s instituted by our Lord Christ in the Holy Scriptures. We are not free to ignore this sacrament any more than we are free to ignore baptism or Holy Communion. And while we may be free (in that it is not a sin) to eschew ecclesiastically instituted feast days about the Eucharist, Baptism, or confession (or anything, including Christmas) it is never wise, but rather always wrong to do so. For as St. Paul the Apostle teaches us in 1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up.” And so we ought to dig into these good and beneficial practices. and what is more beneficial than to hold an annual day to focus upon one of the very core pieces of the Christian faith, to hear God’s Word to us about the great GIFT of confession and absolution, to confess together what we believe about it, and to actually ENGAGE in it, whether privately, or even if only publicly, this is a VERY GOOD THING indeed.
And so, with all of that in mind, I encourage you, no, I challenge you, no actually I DARE YOU, to this year dig into this sacrament more deeply. If you’ve only ever confessed your sins publicly with the rest of the church in the divine service, than go to private confession. It’s not scary. I promise. And not only go, but go regularly. You have sins to confess, I know you do. YOu have sins that eat at you, I know you do. And that’s why we have this great gift. So that you can know, in naming those very sins that make you feel so utterly unclean, and unloveable, that even in the hearing of those sins, even in the naming of those sins, even before another Christian, that you are not cast off, that you are not beyond God’s grace, that you are loved, EVEN when that thing you’ve done is named before another. To know that even THAT sin, yes even THAT sin… even THAT sin is forgiven too. And that in Christ, nothing you’ve done, nothing you will do, nothing in you or about you, has gone un-forgiven. That is what today is about. And that is so much greater than pancakes. So dig into that this year, dig into it this lent. Study this sacrament. Read all of the articles in our Book of Concord about this sacrament. Read the church fathers on the matter of this sacrament. Study this sacrament. Enjoy this sacrament. For shrove tuesday, is NOT about pancakes. And thank God that isn’t. It’s about this sacrament.
