Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday: Cleaning Out the Pantry

(A free excerpt from my new book, Spring Clean: Devotions for Lent, coming January 22!)

Now this day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses... Exodus 12:14-15a¹

Once upon a time in the Middle Ages, European people of means began purchasing their food in bulk. To keep it from going bad, they created storage rooms to hold the food at ideal temperatures: a larder for meats and vegetables, and a pantry for bread and grains. By the 1600s, the pantry expanded to include storing all kinds of foods, and in the early 1900s, domestic refrigerators replaced larders², all leading up to the standard kitchen layout many homes employ today. And the house saw that it was very good. 

Over time, our full pantries have ever so subtly crossed the line from abundance to excess. They now hold not only the staples for our basic sustenance, but also indulgences and splurges, convenience foods, bargain overstocks, stress eating fuel, extras for company, and so much more. As undesirable as it may seem in the moment, we all need a periodic deep cleanse. Literally and figuratively, we must clean out the junk our mindless routines have accumulated and reset our spaces to their original purpose. For those of us who observe Lent as a time of inner purification, Shrove Tuesday offers a day of mindful preparation, the inspiration for which we find in the biblical directives for Passover.

Passover and Easter are sister celebrations, each with their own rites of gratitude and remembrance for God’s deliverance. During Passover, yeast and baking powder are prohibited as a reflection on the events of the Exodus (Deuteronomy 16:3-4). To prepare for the holy observance, many celebrants purge their pantries and refrigerators of anything which contains these ingredients. In a related, if exaggerated practice, Christians adopted the eve of Lent as a day of using up rich foods and other indulgences before settling in to their fasts. The word shrove refers to guidance by a priest or other religious figure through the process of confession, absolution, and penance. Shrove Tuesday began as a practice of Christians being shriven for their sins, and evolved to include elaborate displays of excess on the eve of Lenten abstinence (hello, Mardi Gras!).

Fully cleaning out the “pantry” of our spiritual life takes considerably longer than one day, but we can get off to a good start by preparing for Lent on Shrove Tuesday with four thoughtful practices:

1. Inventory our influences and set a fast from that which most distracts, misleads, numbs, or drags on us. Jesus spoke of yeast as both a positive metaphor for the kingdom of God (Matthew 13, Luke 13) and a negative one for hypocrisy and the Pharisees’ teaching (Matthew 16, Luke 12). Leaven, then, is an effective symbol for any influence which permeates our decision-making, for good or for bad. Today’s common fasting options (chocolate, social media, etc.) can be helpful starting places, but there’s really no easy checklist for what to eliminate, because vices are different for each person. Blindly selecting any fast according to what has worked for others may only create further setbacks. We do best to assess our individual vulnerabilities and choose a reasonable, sustainable fast best suited to strengthen our own spiritual growth.

2. Add a new or updated goal to focus on. Once we know what to remove from our shelves, it is imperative to choose with equal care some good things to bring in, because the human psyche cannot tolerate a vacuum. In a mental phenomenon known as ironic processes, the brain can’t simply not think about something; trying to do so only stimulates more thoughts about that thing. One part of the mind does valiantly avoid the forbidden thought, but another part “checks in” every so often to make sure it’s working—therefore, ironically, bringing the thought to mind³. Similarly, a fruitful Lent embraces not only fasting, but also prayer, service, giving, and whatever else God may call us to do. After all, our goal is a clean pantry, not an empty one. The human spirit needs nourishment, and we honor Creator and ourselves when we stock up on good stuff.

3. Be honest, flexible, and gracious with ourselves. Lent lasts almost seven weeks. Even with taking Sundays “off” as a kind of mini-resurrection day each week, that’s a long time to sustain any fast. We are sure to stumble and make mistakes, and that’s okay. God loves us and gives us grace; who are we not to do the same?

It’s also okay if we discover we need to adjust our fast as Lent progresses. This is not the same as failing or giving up. As with any big cleaning project, our work area is likely to get worse before it gets better. The more we declutter our internal space, the more we reveal what’s been obscured within which needs to change or be eliminated. Spirit’s leading in these matters requires careful listening and discernment, and should never be quenched for legalism or fear of failure.

4. Keep the pantry door open. Faith and spiritual growth are incomplete until they are worked out in community. Everything in scripture points not to personal holiness alone, but to sharing our provisions and needs, our successes and failures, our joys and troubles and everything in between with others. A pantry that is closed off or insufficient to share with our hungry neighbors will leave us forever malnourished, too. 

Words for clean, wash, and pure occur more than 300 times in the Bible. Over the next several weeks, we will pause to examine 40 of them in relation to our Lenten goals and aspirations. May we find joy, health, and newness in the process as we make room in our spirits for all that God has for us.

Reflect

• What has been my experience of Lent up to now? How would I like it to be different this year? How would I like it to be the same?
• What is the current state of the “pantry” of my spirit? Is it large or small, varied or limited, healthful or junky, fresh or expired, cluttered or ordered (maybe overly so)? What’s in there that I’d like to get rid of? What’s missing for which I’d like to make space?
• How can I purposely share what I have with others this season?

Pray

• Give thanks for spiritual leaders, church workers, and all who labor to prepare Lent for others.
• Pray for yourself and all who are embarking on any major spiritual work at this time (therapy, rehab, health programs, etc.).

Act

Clean out at least three things from your home pantry (or any closet or cabinet, if you don’t have one) which you don’t need. If possible, give them to someone who will be blessed by them.

Footnotes

1. “Exodus 12 (NASB20) – Now this day shall be.” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 15 Jan, 2024. https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb20/exo/12/14-15/s_62014 ↩︎
2. “Pantry and Larder .” Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Encyclopedia.com. (November 15, 2023). https://www.encyclopedia.com/food/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/pantry-and-larder ↩︎
3. American Psychological Association. (2011, October 1). Suppressing the ‘white bears’. Monitor on Psychology, 42(9). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/10/unwanted-thoughts ↩︎