MARCH 22
10:15 I Facebook Live
UTTERLY AMAZED
Well friends, we’re all one week into the national emergency due to the COVID-19 virus. How y’all doing? I’m sure the answers are all over the board. And our answers say much about us — things like where we work, what personality type we have, where we gather our information. But most importantly, this is a great time to find out what we truly value. Testing has a way of making some things clear to us that we can’t see when life is easy, when nothing is asked of us. And what is testing but a time of being asked for things? Let’s dig in this week and see how Jesus handles this, and what it has to teach us, and let’s see why his answers let the crowds utterly amazed.
.png)
“...Lent is about preparation and expectation. What we prepare for, and what we expect, is the risen Lord trampling down death, by death.’ Lent is a beautiful invitation for us to travel with the Lord into Jerusalem, to once again live out our baptism where we have been baptized into Christ’s death, to go with Him through that experience and rise with Him once again into the new life of the Church.”
- Alicia Britt Chole
______________________________________
Key Dates for Lent this year:
February 22: Ash Wednesday
April 2: Palm Sunday
April 7: Good Friday
April 9: Easter
______________________________________
Friends,
With so much turmoil and conflict in the world, it might seem a wee bit machochistic to invite you to practice Lent. I mean, shouldn’t we be seeking to focus on things more positive and bright to counter the darkness around us?
The short answer is no. It’s one thing to be “surrounded” by bad news, it’s another thing to face it, to own our part, to confess our complicity and to actively practice repentance. This is the only way to truly prepare for Easter. This is the only way to truly deal with the brokenness in a way that leads to healing.
This year at Grace we’re asking everyone to intentionally engage in Lenten practices as part of our growing attention to seasonality. Specifically we’re asking you to engage with the Church practices as whole, as well as in your Table Fellowships and on a personal level. Included here are resources and suggested practices to include in our observation and practice of Lent.
Grace and peace y'all,
J. Ray
______________________________________
“Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault- finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.”
― N.T. Wright
______________________________________
Resources
Subscribe to this project and make space to use it each day:
The Lent Project by the Biola University Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts.
Choose one of these books and use it throughout Lent.
-
Bread and Wine Devotion for Lent and Easter
-
A Way Other Than Our Own by Walter Bruggemann
-
40 Days of Decrease by Alicia Britt Chole
-
The Word in the Wilderness: A poem a day for Lent and Easter by Malcom Guite
-
Prayer: Forty Days of Practices by Scott Erickson and Justin McRoberts
Make a playlist for Lent. Start here if you need inspiration:
Next, adopt a practice. There are countless resources describing various disciplines associate with Lent. A few of the most practiced are: fasting (food, speaking, social media, activities, certain hobbies, etc...), resting, sacrificial giving, and confession.
The goal is not stop a bad habit, but to sacrificially pay attention by giving up things that are perfectly fine for the purpose of giving more attention to the Spirit of God working in us. Your practice could include adding more of something like time in your devotions, prayer, service for others or taking a retreat.
Finally, write your practice out and share it with a friend, your family or Table Fellowship. Include specific times when you will connect with your partner or group and pray together and check in with each other on how your practice is going. Include a commitment to observe and participate in the key activities we will observe together, safely and in accordance with health guidelines.
Through all this, the purpose of it is to till the soil of our lives, to ready our hearts and focus our minds on the promise of resurrection we will celebrate on Easter. And like I said at this beginning, if ever there was a year we needed Easter, it’s this one.
______________________________________
Family Resources
Traditionally, Lent is a time for prayer, sacrifice, and giving.
Here are a few ideas for your family to intentionally practice these spiritual disciplines:
-
Get three plastic or glass jars and items to decorate them. You might use stickers, permanent markers, or other items. Label one Prayers, one Sacrifice, and one Giving. Talk with your children about the importance of this season in the church calendar in remembering Jesus and the journey to new life.
-
Decide as a family how you can be better at praying. Maybe you can put the prayer jar on your table and write down prayers as you place them in the jar, or you could try making generic prayer categories by writing “family,” “those who are lonely,” etc. on wooden sticks and pulling them out of the jar each night.
-
Talk about making sacrifices. You might give up something you enjoy, such as candy or a certain game, or possibly, you might give up something you enjoy as a family. Record your sacrifices on paper and place them in the jar, or write some ideas for things you could give up during the coming week and have individuals draw them out of the jar.
-
For the giving jar, talk about how your family could grow in giving in this season. Most of us don’t carry as many coins around, so filling a jar with loose change might not be a useful way to encourage giving. Maybe you can pick some projects such as filling a Little Free Pantry, Little Free Library, or donating used toys to Potter’s House or the toy box outside the pantry at Good Shepherd Lutheran, and write those projects on paper slips or wooden sticks, drawing out one or two each week. Sacrifice and giving go hand-in-hand. Talk about sacrificing something as a family that will allow you to give more generously.
-
In some faith traditions, families color a graphic “Alleluia” and have the children bury it under some rocks in a spot that will be undisturbed inside their house. (Maybe under some rocks on a platter, with a small potted plant on top) Then, on Easter morning, they “roll away” the rocks and rejoice in the Alleluias.
______________________________________
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
- Hebrews 12:1-3