As I begin thinking about the upcoming Lunar New Year, I am reminded that following close on the heels of the Tiger (Tet Canh Dan) is Ash Wednesday (February 17th) and the liturgical season of Lent. There is much to do, and even more to meditate on. For those who are interested, I offer a series of weekly meditations and reflections which I crafted by combining our baptismal covenant with our church's selected Focus Scriptures for each Sunday of Lent. Consider reading the text first, and meditate on it daily throughout the week (you might also try the practice of lectio divina). Consider how you might weave this reflection time into your chosen faith ritual throughout the Lenten season.
To see all lessons from the Revised Common Lectionary for the entire Lenten season, visit the Vanderbilt Divinity Library here.
1st week of Lent: Feb. 21st – Into the Wilderness/ Luke 4:1-13
Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
Share and discuss one or two examples that you have witnessed in your life which you might define as “evil powers”. How have you experienced these negative forces at play in your life? What tools might you draw upon to renounce and reject these forces of wickedness and evil powers? Where have you experienced the “desert” of your repentance?
2nd week of Lent: Feb. 28th – Luke 13:31-35
Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?
In this week’s focus scripture, we hear Jesus refer to Jerusalem as the city that violently rejects its prophets and visionaries. In our baptismal covenant, we are asked to accept, not reject, the power which liberates us to live fully as children of God, and to accept the freedom that calls us to create a just, peaceful, and joy-full world of equality. Share an example of a time or place where/when you experienced the overwhelming power of God’s love, mercy, and grace in your life; Give thanks for this experience. Name one or two examples of obstacles or challenges that stand in the way of your resistance to evil, injustice, and oppression; Lift them up in prayer.
3rd week of Lent: Mar. 7th – Isaiah 55:1-9
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?
We can often find saints in our lives who fully embody the Love and Mercy of God as exemplified and fleshed out in Jesus the Christ; these are the people who promise to serve God all their lives, in different ways; or, perhaps in only one or two instances, they demonstrated God’s grace. Share and discuss one or two examples of people whom you know to demonstrate unfailing trust in God. How have they witnessed to you and to others about God’s faithfulness, God’s abundant blessings? In prayer, give thanks for their presence and lives. God invites all who are thirsty to “come to the waters” (Is 55:1). In which areas of your life have you experienced unquenchable thirst? Lift up in prayer a time when you might have heard such an invitation. In what ways might you as a person of faith re-iterate/re-issue such an invitation to others, or help them recognize and respond to such an invitation to come receive the life-renewing waters of baptism?
4th week of Lent: Mar. 14th – Lost then Found / Luke 15:1-3,11b-32
Will you nurture the children of God in Christ’s holy church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?
This week’s focus scripture presents, on the surface, a narrative of a parent who welcomes home a child with feasting and celebrating, demonstrating forgiveness and loving grace. Share one or two examples of when you experienced a sense of being loved and accepted as a child of God. Give thanks for those experiences and for those who embodied for you God’s compassion. In our contemporary context, how might you as a member of Christ’s holy church “nurture the children of God”? Our baptismal covenant asks us, as Christians and as Methodists, to enrich the lives of others through our teaching and by example through our living. Are there people whom you know who might welcome the chance to “be found”? Lift them up in prayer.
5th week of Lent: Mar. 21st – Doing New Things / Isaiah 43:16-21
Will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church and serve as Christ’s representatives in this world?
As members of God’s global faith community, we are called to hold lightly onto our traditions and beliefs, and we are also asked to steadfastly change the world for the better – to seek justice, equality, peace. By striving to show God’s love, justice, and mercy to the world, we are God’s church. Wherever you have been, and wherever you are headed, how have different communities of faith transformed your life? Pray for the communities of which you are a part, and also pray for the communities that you have moved from. Isaiah’s text in 43:16-21 recalls the exodus from Egypt, when the Lord “made a way through the sea”, by essentially carving “a path” not on land but through water. Constructing such a new thing, and traversing that walkway, takes miracles and faith. Share and discuss one or two examples of when you, as Christ’s representative, attempted a new thing. Pray for courage, energy, and faithfulness as you continue to represent God’s church in this world.
6th week of Lent: Mar. 28th – Luke 19:28-40 (Palm or Passion Sunday depending on which lectionary text you decide to focus on)
Do you, as Christ’s body, the church, reaffirm both your rejection of sin and your commitment to Christ?
As disciples of Christ, sometimes we are asked to fulfill tasks that appear, to us and to others, as quite absurd – not unlike the situation of the disciples who were asked to go find a colt for Jesus to ride on (Luke 19:28-40). To complete these tasks, to commit to accomplishing our work in bringing forth God’s good news, we often must address what others perceive as ridiculous or meaningless. Have there been times when it is difficult to remain committed? Have there been times when commitment requires, for you and for others, too heavy of a sacrifice? Discuss, then lift them up in prayer. For our faith community, in what ways might we as a group reaffirm our commitment to Christ? Pray for strength and vision so that you can join in with “the whole crowd of disciples” who are eager and ready to “praise God in loud voices for all the miracles” (Lk 19:37).
Easter Sunday: April 4th – John 20:1-18
Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include one another in your care?
For many of us, the spiritual journey may appear like it is a solitary one. It is not unusual to think that we must walk the path -- however circuitous, however fragmented -- as individuals seeking our own communion with our Creator. At times, it might even seem strange to think of traveling the road communally, as a member of a diverse faith family. Our selected text for Easter Sunday comes from John, and in it, we are reminded of the band of disciples who, upon hearing the shocking news that Jesus's body was gone, had trickled one by one by two by threes toward the tomb where Jesus had been buried. This scene, in whatever way you imagine it, is echoed by the question of our baptismal covenant, asking us to nurture and include one another in our quests for truth and hope. As members of a faith community, we are invited, nay, challenged, to attend to each other, to nurture and provide, to protect and not exclude, to share and to encourage. The desert of our repentance, our pathways to the new and the truth, need not be solitary. In seeking, we must also share -- like the disciples who grabbed one another saying, "Come, see for yourself..." Think of one or two individuals, or perhaps one or two communities, that recently transformed your ways of journeying. Lift them up in prayer.
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