We started our Lenten Journey yesterday with Ash Wednesday.  It is a 40 day journey with Jesus to Easter.  Now I'm no math whiz, that is for sure.  In fact my 7 grade son Andrew does advanced math that i can't figure out.  But if you start at Ash Wednesday and add all the days up till you get to and including Easter Sunday you come up with 46 days.  So why then do we say that Lent is a 40 day journey?  Well, there are differing opinions to this question but a solid Christian answer is that when you add up the 40 days of Lent you don't count the Sundays in Lent.  They don't count because they are "little Easter" celebrations. They are rest-bits on the journey through Lent.  During Lent, this penitential season, we may fast or practice some self-denial, we pray and focus on repentance, we may practice alms-giving (special giving to those in need), but Sundays in Lent are days of refreshment and renewal.  So you see it is a 40 day journey with 6 rest days mixed in, culminating in the final day of Lent which is Easter Sunday and the refreshment and renewal that the Resurrection Day of our Lord brings to every believing heart!

Now this 40 day Lenten Journey often remind us of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.  There are a number of 40 day happenings in Holy Scripture.  Moses was on the mountain with the Lord for 40 days. Elijah fasted for 40 days.  The 40 day event that I would like to turn your attention to today is one that I'm not sure you would think about in the context of the Lenten Journey but I think it may be relevant.  It's the flood.  It rained and the water rose for 40 days.  You can read about this in Genesis 7.  Now the water covered the earth for more than 40 days but in those first 40 days the water kept coming and the death part of the flood was complete.  We are told that every living thing on the earth that lived on the land was wiped out.  The only thing left was Noah and those with him in the ark.  Eight people and the pairs of animals.  That's it!  This was a baptism of the earth.  A washing clean of sin and death and a renewal of the earth through 8 people in all.  God was recreating the earth in the baptism of the flood. 

Now what does this have to do with Lent?  Well, the Lenten Journey is about a return to your Baptism!  For the early church, Lent was a 40 day journey in preparation for those who would be baptized on the Saturday before Easter and then on Easter these newly baptized would share in all the joys of membership into Christ and especially in the first reception of the Lord's Supper.  Lent was a baptismal journey and it still is!  I encourage you this Lenten Journey to remember your baptism these 40 days.  Dust off the Small Catechism and reread those parts about the Sacrament of Baptism.  Daily in Lent - return to your baptism, which Luther says, is what repentance is all about.  Daily, die with Christ and drowned the old Adam, and rise with Jesus to new life in him.  Now that is a journey worth taking not just for 40 days but for the rest of your days here in this world.   

Bible readings for today: Genesis 1:20-2:3 and Matthew 1:14-28.  These reading are taken out of the Daily Lectionary of Lutheran Service Book