Last Sunday, I preached on penitential seasons, which you can listen to here. The outline for the message can be found here. And Peter Leithart has been kind enough to engage with some of my argument here and here.
Just a couple comments in return. I agree with much of what Peter says, especially the parts where he is quoting Bible verses, as is his practice. I agree that fasting and such disciplines are not necessarily introspective and morbid, and that they often accompany work (ordinations, exorcisms, etc.) instead of accompanying unhealthy navel-gazing and so on.
But I would submit that if we took a summary of all Peter’s points, decided to work a co-ordinated approach to all of it into the church year, we wouldn’t call the result a penitential season. That was and is my central concern.
I grew up in a tradition that gave an invitation every Sunday, inviting us all to become Christians. The liturgy assumed that a bunch of us were unconverted, even if nobody else assumed that. And believe me, when you grow up under that liturgy, you get the message. You are quite likely not a Christian, champ. In the same way, penitential seasons, advertised as such, assumes that a good-sized chunk of the Christian church needs to afflict their souls over personal sin, and that they need it more than the Old Testament saints did. They dedicated a day to this task, while we dedicate 2-3 months.
If the church decided to set aside a month to intensive prayer for world missions, with fasting and dedicated prayer connected to it, and we worked it into the church year, I wouldn’t have the same objections at all. I would probably have other questions, but I wouldn’t have these objections.
At any rate, Peter raises some good points to consider.