In his book, Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?, Walter Wangerin, who is a Lutheran pastor and a member of the faculty at Valparaiso University, fondly recalls a yearly ritual which was observed in his household: the day of spring cleaning. On that day, his mother, Virginia, sailed through the house like a “white tornado” exorcising the mustiness and the dust, the cobwebs, and the dirt, results of the house being shut up for the winter. He speaks of laundered bedding and curtains, scrubbed walls and children, waxed floors, and the brightness and fresh air of spring. He writes:

And spring was always that fresh start of the faith and the hope in cleanliness, of the forgiveness of cleanliness, actually, since everything old and fusty could be eliminated, allowing the new to take its place—or better yet, the old itself could be the new again... Everything grievous and wrong and knotty and gritty and guilty was gone. Life returned, and the sunlight and laughter and air.... My mother assured me annually that newness has a right and reality, that error can be forgiven, and that the sinner can be reclaimed. In springtime she surrounded me with the immediate primal light of God. Now, therefore, I trust renewal. Resurrection! Easter!

The word “Lent” comes from an ancient word for spring. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, when we are marked with ashes as a reminder that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.” Ashes are a sign of penitence. God’s people in antiquity clothed themselves in sackcloth and sat in ashes in sorrow for their sin. Our ancestors used to make lye from ashes in order to make the soap that washed their clothing, their homes, and their bodies. We can think of Lent as a time of spring cleaning of our hearts, minds, and spirits.

Lent is a time of introspection, a time of penitence and fasting, a time for ridding ourselves of the junk that clutters our hearts and minds. This junk is often what gets between God and us. Lent is a time of cleaning the cobwebs and the dust in our spirits which cause our faith to lose its luster. These cobwebs and dust rob us of the joy of being God’s children, who have washed and scrubbed in the waters of baptism and raised to new life with Christ. That washing and scrubbing and rising to new life is a process that began at the font, but it must continue each day of our lives.

This “spring cleaning of the spirit” is a serious business. At its simplest, Lent is about dying and rising again. During Lent we put away our alleluias and go about this serious work of prying open the windows and doors of our hearts to allow the fresh breezes of the Holy Spirit to blow through and make us new. We go through the closets in our hearts where we store the idols which compete with our creator for our devotion. We can throw away all that causes us to turn our face from our Father in heaven.

When the feast of the Resurrection arrives, we will be ready to resume the alleluias and celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord who gave his life so our sins could be forgiven, and we could be washed and made new to love and serve our God.

Vicar Patti

Wangerin, Walter Jr., Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?: A book for Parents and Children, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.