tomorrow is shrove tuesday

Our congregation, like many others, will observe Shrove Tuesday with a pancake supper. Shrove Tuesday is also called "Fat Tuesday". According to the tradition, Christians would avoid certain foods during Lent (meat, fish, eggs, fats, milk products---sounds like the latest diet, doesn't it?). In order not to be wasteful, a family would plan a meal that used up all of the eggs and milk. Add flour and what do you get? Pancakes.

We will also hear the wonderful music of my friend, Ed Kilbourne. He is a musician and storyteller, and, as my daughter Abby says, "he follows us around!" For that I am glad.

Fat Tuesday is the feast before the fast, a time for Christians to have a little fun before entering into the somber days of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days in which we prepare for Easter and the promise of resurrection. The observance of Lent is about the inner life that only God sees (Matthew 6. 1-6, 16-21). It is a serious time of reflection, contemplation and self-examinationn, rooted in very early Christian practice, as believers prepared for entrance into the faith and the church.

So, eat some pancakes tomorrow. Try to recall your favorite joke. Have a little fun. It really is okay. Ash Wednesday and Lent will be here soon enough.