When I was a child we didn't have Lent, not down in Nashville, Tennessee, where my father was a Presbyterian minister, That's not to say there wasn't any of that "giving up" business going on; It's just that Presbyterians didn't do it. Oh, we waved our fronds as we went into the sanctuary on Palm Sunday, and we observed Holy Week, the most memorable day being Friday when we had hot cross buns and didn't go to school, but went instead to the worship service downtown, and listened to one of those Last Words Sermons and afterwards ate at the B & W cafeteria. I was afraid a truant officer would see us, but my mother assured me she'd never seen a truant officer lurking around in the churches in Nashville, Tennessee. What we did see was a lot of people going to church on Good Friday and a lot of people praying. I knew something very important was going on, and that it was about Jesus. Not Easter baskets, not new clothes, … [Read more...]