Lent, Pop Music, Facebook and Haiti

As the season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday I can not get Haiti off my mind. Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality, that the reality of death is part of our shared humanity, and in light of this calls us to repentance. The word “repentance” has unfortunately become largely compartmentalized in our culture as somehow being primarily about turning away from ones personal sins. However such compartmentalization and individual focus of turning away from “personal sins” often takes away from the depth of the call to turn toward and follow the Way of Jesus. The Way of Jesus is not just about personal redemption, but the redemption of the humanity we share.

As many of us take the mark of the cross made with the ashes from last year’s Palm Sunday celebration on our foreheads, we will be reflecting on the very essence of the gospel message. The good news is that “God is with us”; through Jesus Christ he is “with us” by sharing in our mortal and human condition. The reality of human suffering, human injustice, and even our inevitable death was not enough to keep God from finding solidarity with human beings by becoming one himself. In this the cross becomes an extension of God’s incarnational work through Christ. As human beings, God meets us in our suffering, our sinfulness, and our very mortality, climaxing in one final statement of solidarity with us on the cross.

Jesus told his disciples that if anyone wanted to come after him they would have to pick up their cross and follow. The Way of the cross is not one of personal piety. As John Wesley once wrote, “Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers.” The Way of the cross is one that seeks solidarity with mankind the way God sought for it through Jesus Christ; thus also restoring us to solidarity with God. The gospel is therefore never about “me”, but always about “us”.

God so loved the world that he gave his Son. These words from John’s gospel are often used to summarize the gospel message. And who is the world? One very on target answer to that question sounds like the title of 1985’s collaborative single “We are the World”, which raised both awareness and money for relief of famine and disease in Africa. Now 25 years later the song has been remade by contemporary music stars in effort to help Haiti.

Listening to this song again while thinking about the Lenten season starting with Ash Wednesday, I could not help but be struck with a particular line in the chorus. The line, “There's a choice we're making, We're saving our own lives”, seems to capture the appropriate transition that Godly repentance should take us in. What begins as a choice made by collective individuals, ends with an understanding that our own salvation is deeply connected to the salvation of our neighbor. When we see the plight of others, and hear their cry, the illusion that there is a difference between "us" and "them" begins to disappear as we embrace the kind of Way and love that God embraced through Christ. Godly repentance, the kind that that calls us to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, enables us to see the needs of others as our own. It matters not how well we ourselves are doing when others are going without, for what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:31-38, Matthew 16:21-27, Luke 9: 23-24)

This is how much God loved the world and the humanity he created, he found solidarity with it by seeing and embracing the needs and suffering of our human condition as his own. This is why love for God can never be separated from the love of our neighbor; for as much as we do unto even the least of these we do unto God.

For those of us participating in the liturgical drama of Ash Wednesday, the symbolism should be a reminder of the reality of our shared mortality as human beings. This should help us see beyond ourselves to those who may be feeling the weight of our mortality the most; where human suffering is magnified by things like poverty, injustice and the seemingly random harshness the world can pile on to its unsuspecting inhabitants. I can’t help but to think of the Haitians in the wake of their devastating earthquake last month. Already an impoverished country they now add to their hardship an estimated three million people who were affected by the quake, 230,000 people had been identified as dead so far, an estimated 300,000 people were injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 people are now homeless. While the people of Haiti are not the only ones suffering in the world, you can make an argument that they certainly should be included in “the least of these” that we are called to do unto as we would do unto God himself.


It is the tradition of many to “give up something” for Lent in the spirit of fasting. I have heard many people speak of this in terms of giving up some sort of personal vice in hopes that it will bring them closer to God. I would like to encourage us to also focus on “giving up something” for Lent as a way to identify with those who are without and are in need. I think in this we begin to embody a better theology, one that does not compartmentalize our love of God from our love of our neighbor. Going even further in a quest to identify with others, and find solidarity with even the “least of these” as Christ did and calls us to, let us also find a way to turn our “fasting” into resources for meeting the needs of others. As “going with out” helps us identify with those in need, let us truly start to see their needs as our own by dedicating the resources we save from our “fast” into resources to save others. May this Lenten season remind us that in repentance “There's a choice we're making, We're saving our own lives” as we come to understand that WE (all of us in this together) are the world for whom God gave his Son.

I think there are many ways we can give something up for Lent and turn our sacrifice into ways to meet some of the great needs Haiti faces. I would love to hear about some of the creative things you might be doing. I also want to invite you to join the Facebook group “Giving up something for Lent to help Haiti”.


By joining this group you are committing to give up something that you regularly practice and requires monetary resources. Then you are to give those resources you save to Haiti relief. You can be as creative as you want and can give to Haiti through any charity you choose. The point is to identify with those in need by going without, and then also turn our “sacrifice” into a means to help others in need.

You might give up eating out, drinking soda or coffee, or giving up cable for 40 days, (you may have other creative ideas and we would love to hear them). Then you dedicate those resources you save to a charity that is committed to helping Haiti.

Share what you are doing and at the end of the Lenten season let’s share the results. In the meantime let’s continue to pray for Haiti and one another while we put aside resources daily that we can save through the practice of self denial during Lent.