We’re not terribly good at sacrifice, we modern American Christians. Even when we recall our rich heritage of spiritual athleticism, we don’t quite understand it.

Anne Rice, famed author of blood-soaked vampire slasher novels, recently underwent a surprising, and evidently very sincere, return to the Christian faith in which she was raised. (I don’t know if I recommend her newest novel about the lost years of Jesus, since I haven’t read it; I heartily recommend the afterword, in which she makes a stirring case for the literary integrity of the Gospels.) Part of her pilgrimage involved intense study of the ancient Christian monks and the fierce discipline through which they sought freedom in Christ. Wanting to reflect this legacy, Ms. Rice sold her mansion and moved to the desert seeking, her real estate agent explained, "a simpler life."

She bought a $4.2 million dollar house in San Diego.

I’m not knocking the novelist, who is my sister in Christ and seems quite sincere about her return trip from the pig pen. I’m chuckling at myself, and at all of us who seem so content to let Jesus do all the suffering, strongly preferring couches to crosses.

That is the impetus behind my invitation to our congregation to participate in a partial fast during the forty days leading up to Easter. From March 1 to April 15, we encourage our folks to forego one favorite food as a constant reminder of all that Jesus laid down in order to redeem us. A forty-day period of abstinence before a major act of worship is a solid Biblical precedent: Moses did it (Deuteronomy 9:9-11), as did Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) and Our Lord himself (Matthew 4:2). But our sacrifice is only the black velvet which highlights the glittering diamond of our salvation: on Easter Sunday, everyone will bring mass quantities of the foregone food and we will feast and fellowship in the joy of our risen Lord, who makes all foods and all hearts clean (Mark 7:19).

This Sunday, as I am away on the Walk to Emmaus, our own Justin Horton will be filling the pulpit. As Justin brings God’s Word to take us into the forty-day fast, seek the Spirit’s leading about your own involvement in this special time of worship.

Ascetically,

Doug