Lent: A Season of Action and Reflection 

By Letiah Fraser

Because I've been to the mountaintop… And [God’s] allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.  

“I Have Been to the Mountain Top”-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I want to ask you to close your eyes for a few seconds and remember when you climbed to the top of a mountain, or if you are like me and have never climbed a mountain, imagine yourself climbing and reaching the top. Take a breath; what do you see, taste, hear, feel, and smell? As you open your eyes and return to the present, what words come to mind that describe the experience? I am certain that words like fast, somber and confession did not make it onto your mental list. Yet, although they may seem diametrically opposed to one another, I would suggest that the Lenten season is an invitation to a mountain top experience.

One of the gospel passages for the second week of Lent invites us to journey with Peter, James, and John, as thy climb up a mountain with Jesus. When they reach the top, the three disciples witness a transfiguration*: a sacred moment of action and contemplation. They are not only in the presence of Jesus, but also in the presence of two of their ancestors, Moses, and Elijah. Both glorified prophets in a long lineage of freedom fighters on the long walk to freedom.

While this encounter can solely be perceived as a mystical experience, which is hard to comprehend with our 21st century minds, these two ancestors in the faith can serve as guides for us on our Lenten journey. Moses’ story found in Exodus** is a reminder to us that God calls God’s children to speak truth to power, to the pharaohs of our day, whose laws and policies support the systemic oppression of others. Moses heard God’s voice loud and clear; “Tell him that I AM said, ‘let my people go.” Because the Lenten journey is a mountain top experience, it too is a call to action. Can you hear the voice of “I AM”? Let my people go from the bondage of systemic racism that enslaves them. Set my people free from the preschool to prison pipeline and set my people free from the poverty wages they “earn” from doing “essential work”.

The Lenten journey is a mountain top experience that calls for action against oppression. Such a call makes us stop and ponder our own morality. It was true for Moses, it was true for Jesus, and it was true for Dr. King. Yet, all those who fight for the liberation of the oppressed have at least one thing that sustains them, despite the risks, and it is called Hope! In the words of Dr. King, “we, as a people, will get to the promised land”. The Lenten Journey is a mountain top experience that calls us to action.

On this mountain top, we also encounter Elijah.***  His story is a reminder that the work of justice is not complete without contemplation. God’s presence was not found in the wind; those things that seem to distract and seek to shift us from our focus on liberation, partisan politics, nationalistic religion, and the myth of scarcity. God was also not found in the earthquake; those things that can happen and shake us from our foundation. Things like a global pandemic, baseless conspiracy theories and the spirit of division that is seeping through every corner of our society. Elijah did not even hear God in the fire. Similarly affecting today’s society are the emblematic “fires” whose purpose is to burn everything down; insurrections, domestic or global wars, or false prophetic prophecies that seek to awaken fear in us.

Elijah DID hear the voice of God in a whisper. The Lenten journey is a mountain top experience that calls for contemplation; grounding practices that sustain us in the work of justice. To hear a whisper, one requires attentive and careful listening to God and others, without a preconceived agenda, including listening to those who do not look and think like us. The whisper of God can be heard among those who are being made poor, the oppressed, those who are not hoarding power, but freely sharing it. The whisper of God is heard on the long walk to freedom. The Lenten Journey is a mountain top experience that calls us to contemplation. 

During this Lenten journey, I hope that we can call to mind the people who spoke truth to power, like Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcom X. I also hope that we engage in the practice of contemplation, which involves rest, joy, and learning the lessons from past movements, which have taught and continue to teach us the way towards the mountain top. In addition, perhaps best of all, the Lenten Journey is a mountain top experience in which Jesus joins with us up the mountain, and back down again. It is in those moments that we gain a clearer vision of who Jesus really is and who we are becoming. The Lenten Journey is a mountain top experience in which we can bear witness to transfiguration; the world as it is already and is not yet. Jesus is still walking beside us and our ancestors in the faith, like Moses, Elijah and Martin, are cheering us on from the “great cloud of witnesses, saying, “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land” We as a people will experience tikkun olam.****

*  Mark 9:2-9
** Exodus 5 & 9: God’s call to Moses to go to Pharaoh to tell him to free the Israelites from oppression.
*** Kings 19:11-13
**** tikkun olam is Jewish teachings, any activity that improves the world, bringing it closer to the harmonious state for which it was created.

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Rev. Letiah Fraser is a New York City Native that now lives in Kansas City. She is an ordained pastor with the Church of the Nazarene, an activist/organizer connected with the KS Poor People’s Campaign; A National Call for Moral Revival, a disability rights advocate, a hospital chaplain and a doctoral student.

Rev. Letiah Fraser received her B.S. in Adolescent Education and English from Nyack College in New York. She received her Masters of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City. She is also currently completing her Doctorate of Ministry degree at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Her focus is on spiritual formation and disability theology.

She enjoys traveling and participating in new adventures. She is passionate about the intersections of faith, race and disability. She identifies as a proud African American, becoming Christian woman who lives with a physical disability.

Rev. Letiah Fraser is a daughter, sibling, friend, and new plant-mom, who desires to be a writer, teacher, preacher, and professor.