Hoops and Holy days
Today is Wednesday, February 6th. It is important for Christians because today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. It is also important to people from North Carolina because today is yet another round in the epic saga of Duke vs. UNC (or at least, we fans think it is an epic saga).
I find myself quite torn between thinking like an aspiring Presbyterian minister who should remember that Ash Wednesday service is much more important than watching a college basketball game and thinking like a college basketball fan who drools at the excuse to stay home and eat nachos instead of celebrating communion with fellow Christians.
As I read the texts for today, especially 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 and Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, I am urged by the text to “return to God” and that “today is the day of salvation.” Returning to God seems like a strange concept, have I really left God? And thinking of today as the day of salvation…what does that even mean? Then I remember that this morning I was worried that our Lenten service might not end in time for me to get home and see the tip-off.
Perhaps this is what is meant by returning to God. Perhaps we are too occupied with our earthly concerns and not oriented enough toward God and God’s concerns? Whatever the case, I will be hard pressed not to speed home as soon as the benediction is given. But perhaps, between now and then, I can take some extra time to put aside in remembrance of this holy day.
Despite our basketball games, our homework, our friends and families pulling us in different directions, despite our own fleeting needs and wants, we can take a bit of time today to reflect on spiritual matters. Perhaps we can even do as the prophet Joel says and “return to God” - at least until the basketball game comes on?
Lent is season marked by denying oneself of the “extras” or even “essentials” of everyday life. Perhaps giving up Duke and rooting for Missouri would qualify as both fasting and penitence.