My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
We’ve reached the end of the season of Epiphany. This Sunday will be our final celebration in church before Lent begins. We’ve been searching for stars in the sky, chasing down wise men and women as they roam the hills looking for baby Jesus, and looking for joyful shepherds. This Sunday we’ll say hallelujah as many times as we can, since the custom during Lent is to refrain from anything too cheery.
On Tuesday night Mardi Gras will reach its crescendo in New Orleans, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro blows out, and Anglicans everywhere will eat pancakes. Pancakes? That seems a little lame compared to parades and dancing in the street. Anglicans have traditionally celebrated Mardi Gras as Shrove Tuesday. Shrove comes from “shriven” which is related to “shriveled,” for the disposition of our souls and our pantries as we enter Lent. People cleaned out anything fun from their cupboards, which apparently included flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, milk, butter and eggs. To get rid of it, they’d eat pancakes for dinner. Go figure. Here at Christ Church we’ve often gathered for pancake dinners and even pancake relay races on Shrove Tuesday, but the pandemic put a damper on that. We should return to that tradition in the future when we come up for air from our homeless ministry.
For now, I recommend a trip to Ole’s Waffles for a stack of buttermilk pancakes on Tuesday, washed down with a prayer for our community as we make the transition from Epiphany to Lent. May God bless you and your families as the season changes.
Peace,
Stephen