Let’s eat some pancakes!
Join us for a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper to kick off Lent! Please drop in for food and fellowship on Tuesday, February 13, anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. The Men’s Ministry will be flipping flapjacks and frying breakfast meats for the whole church. Guests are welcome. Some of our friends from a Reality Ministries Community Group will be joining us.
This event is free, but please register so we can get an idea of how many pancakes to flip. Contact Becky Gould with questions.
Wait, what is Shrove Tuesday?
Like Lent itself, Shrove Tuesday is associated with various traditions throughout the history of the church, but in its simplest form, it marks the last day of the feasting season after Epiphany before the beginning of the fasting season of Lent. The word shrove comes from the English word shrive, which means “to be absolved of sin,” and in this sense, Shrove Tuesday marked the end of what was called Shrovetide, a small season before Lent where Christians were called to confess their sins before they began their forty day journey fasting through the desert with Jesus. Shrovetide was a way to particularly prepare for the Lenten journey ahead. And part of that preparation, even in the midst of confession, was feasting! Pancakes became a tradition for Shrove Tuesday as many Christians in the late Middle Ages gave up rich foods like eggs, fat, and milk for Lent and needed to empty their pantry of food that would go unused and spoil during the Lenten season.
Why would we celebrate Shrove Tuesday?
Shrove Tuesday is not in the Bible. It is not mandated by scripture, and Christians are free to celebrate it or not (Romans 14:5-6). Further, at Blacknall, we confess our sins every week in worship, so we don’t need a Shrovetide to do that. At the same time, any intentional structure of time that shapes us into the image of Christ can be a useful tool in our Christian walk and our life together. While seasons and days like Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and Lent are not prescribed in the Bible, God’s word does encourage us to confess our sins (James 5:16), to spend time in fellowship, and is simply brimming with stories of feasting and fasting as a holy rhythm. While in some cultures Shrove Tuesday has transformed into a celebration of gluttony and even debauchery (see certain Mardi Gras celebrations), when anchored to its theological roots, it's a wonderful, simple feast day to fellowship and enjoy a festive “brinner” together before we begin our journey into the desert for Lent and onward to Jerusalem for Holy Week.