A Lenten Check-in: How’s your Lent going?

I know it seems like Lent just began for us. Only a few weeks ago we were celebrating Ash Wednesday together and considering our own mortality as we heard the invitation to the observance of a holy Lent. And though that is true, it is also true that from this coming Sunday to Palm Sunday is only three weeks. We will strike the halfway mark of the Lenten season Sunday, and it is a good time for us to check in with one another on how our Lent is going. So, I wonder: how is your Lent? Have you found ways to pray through the season? Have you discovered places in which you need to repent to know God’s love without that also inviting feelings of shame? Have you had moments of dwelling in God’s holy Word that invites us into a way of life that marks us as different? My prayer for you is that you are finding ways into some or all of the above and possibly even more!

The Lenten season is a moment for us to go beyond our current surface level understanding of the Gospel message. It is an invitation for us to move deeper and deeper into our knowledge of God’s love, but it will not happen accidentally. It requires us to be intentional in our discipleship and in our following in the footsteps of Jesus. If you are having a hard time this Lent and cannot quite get into the “spirit” of the season, I hope you might consider one of the following things as we move into the second half of Lent and towards the pilgrimage of Holy Week.

1. Attend Taize Prayer at Epiphany on Wednesdays at 6pm

The Taize Prayer services have been put together by a team of lay leaders who deeply desired a Taize style service. They have done a wonderful job of creating a lovely, contemplative invitation for us to hear God’s holy Word proclaimed through song and readings. As we are bathed in candle light each Wednesday, we are invited to lay aside our cares for a moment and to encounter the love of God in the warmth of our chapel space.

2. Attend the Creation Care Bible Study

Each Sunday morning in Lent, a group of parishioners are gathering to share their insights as they read the Creation Care Bible Study. On our first Sunday, we stumbled, somewhat blindly, into brainstorming what projects could happen on our campus to be ever more mindful of the needs of creation. As the Bible study continues, we are invited to reflect on our individual and corporate lives so we can make changes that help us to walk more gently with our neighbor, creation.

3. Pick up a book to read about following Jesus

At the beginning of the season, I was struggling to find something to adopt as my own Lenten practice. I was rescued by a parishioner who gifted to me the book the Archbishop of Canterbury selected as his Lenten book this year. It’s title is Failure, and you can find it on Amazon or on Apple Books, or you could order it through Changing Hands or another local bookseller.

But, this is only one book. If you look at Forward Movement or Church Publishing, you can find any number of books that help us to move ever deeper into our encounters with the mysteries of God. And yes, there is still time to pick up and finish a whole book before Holy Week - provided your choice is not a book that rivals War and Peace in length!

4. Participate in the Signs of Life curriculum

On Wednesday mornings, we have been exploring the ways that light, water, food, shelter, and community are core pieces of finding and practicing our faith. Though you might not be able to join the group on Wednesday mornings, you could easily go to https://www.signsoflife.org to watch their videos, reflect on the discussion questions provided in the curriculum, and to find your own new understandings of the ways God is moving in your life.

5. Follow the Way of Love Calendar

Each day, we are posting a practice for the day from the Way of Love calendar for Lent. Yesterday’s practice was to spend some time in contemplative prayer. Today’s practice is to “intentionally listen devoutly to another.” The practices for each day are quite simple, but if they are practiced each day over the arc of the whole season, I know that you will encounter God’s grace in surprising and revealing ways. You can download the calendar and other at-home resources on our website: https://www.epiphanytempe.org/lent.

6. Come to Church

I know that it is challenging for us to go back to an old habit that is being forgotten because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the truth is that we need community to support us in our lives of faith. One way we find that supportive community is by worshipping with one another. Through our corporate worship, we come shoulder to shoulder with other parishioners who also are striving for the kingdom of God.

A great Lenten practice for this year might also include getting back into the habit of attending worship on a weekly basis. Yes, I know that there will still be Sundays that you need to be away, but if our habit is to attend worship and if we stick to our habit more often than not, I dare say that we will be changed. Our community will be changed. And God will be there with us through it all.

The Lenten season is nowhere close to being finished. Each of us still have time to adopt a practice for the season that will help us to move beneath the surface of our knowledge of God’s love so that we emerge with a brighter and clearer knowledge of the way that God is working and will work through our lives. If you need help with this, please give me a call. I would love the opportunity to talk with you about finding your way into and through Lent.

In Christ,

Hunter+