While some will scoff at the celebration of the season of Lent, suggesting that it’s no different than any other time of the year, the truth remains that our purpose for recognizing the season of Lent, our very identity as Lenten Christians, is all wrapped up in the forgiveness of sins. Look! God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Come receive this forgiveness. With such a call to repentance and faith there is no question of why pray, why fast, why attend extra services, why Lent. Instead, there is nothing but the forgiveness of sins.
“Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the ‹grace of the› Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but ‹continuous, uninterrupted› forgiveness of sin. This is because God forgives us and because we forgive, bear with, and help one another [Galatians 6:1–2].” - Martin Luther, Large Catechism, II, 55
While some will scoff at the celebration of the season of Lent, suggesting that it’s no different than any other time of the year, the truth remains that our purpose for recognizing the season of Lent, our very identity as Lenten Christians, is all wrapped up in the forgiveness of sins. Look! God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Come receive this forgiveness. With such a call to repentance and faith there is no question of why pray, why fast, why attend extra services, why Lent. Instead, there is nothing but the forgiveness of sins. 
AMEN!
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