lenten blog | February 29, 2024

Tapping into Leap Day's unusualness

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 29th:  Exodus 19:1-9a; Psalm 19; and 1 Peter 2:4-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Leap Day.  The day is necessary because the earth’s actual rotation around the sun is about 365 days AND six hours.  In four year’s time, those annual six hours add up to a full day.  In order to keep the human calendar and the natural seasons in sync, we have Leap Day every four years.  You may have noticed in the Exodus passage that time is measured by the phases of the moon.  This is far less accurate than the solar calendar.  The Jewish calendar takes this into account so that the Jewish holy days remain seasonal.  The Muslim calendar, however, does not and their holy days roam throughout the year.  We are closing in on Ramadan for the Muslims.  This month can happen anywhere in the year because it is based intentionally on an uncorrected lunar calendar.

Maybe you know someone who was born or who was married on a Leap Day.  They could be 24 years old or celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary, but they can joke that they are really only 6 years old or it’s only their 12th anniversary.  In Ireland, there is a custom that women can reverse convention and propose to men on Leap Day.  When we play with something as fundamental as time, it feels strange, and that can allow for unusual reactions. 

On such a day as today’s Leap Day, the unusual hopes expressed in 1 Peter may be more amenable to us.  In the tradition found in Exodus, Moses is the intermediary between God and Israel.  The people are encamped at the base of Mount Sinai.  Yahweh is believed to dwell at its heights.  Moses travels between the two and reports God’s words to Israel:  “‘Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.’”  Israel will be God’s people, a holy nation, and thus all Israelites will be counted as part of a priestly kingdom, one divinely designated as unique among the whole earth.

1 Peter expands on this promise.  The community addressed by this Epistle may have been located at the frontier of the Roman Empire.  Isolation is a reality in their lives.  We read, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.”  1 Peter offers them a sense of community through their shared faith in Jesus.  They are called into community with words derived from the Mount Sinai experience:  “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people …”  Now, however, God’s people is expanded beyond a chosen nation.  It is an invitation to all people to enter into the sacred community through Christ.

This broadened invitation plays into the unusualness of Leap Day.  Additionally, the entire community of believers is no longer kept at a distance from God because Jesus has broken down those barriers.  This offers an unusual closeness to God, and also an unusual expectation of living the faith, akin to belonging to “a royal priesthood.” 

The only mentioned New Testament priest is Jesus in the Epistle to the Hebrews.  And then there is this broad acclamation of the royal priesthood of all believers.  Faith presents us with the unusual expectation that every believer will live into the faith deliberately and enthusiastically.  A casual faith is not imagined.  This promise of 1 Peter is a great honour and also a thrilling challenge.  On the unusual day of Leap Day, when the unusual becomes more acceptable, maybe we can give this unusual possibility a more attentive reading as Lent strives to draw us closer to Christ. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.