A Look toward Lent: Encountering Christ, Living in Love
Ash Wednesday is just one week away. This holiday marks the beginning of Lent: the 40-day period (excluding Sundays) before Easter where we prepare ourselves to journey with Christ to the cross.
For many of us, Lent evokes a sober and somber mood. Some of us choose (or were once forced) to give up indulgences like chocolate or meat as a form of fasting. Some of us opt to take up a new or different spiritual discipline in hopes of finding a renewed connection to God. Some of us don’t understand why we need all the restraint. Life is hard enough, and shouldn’t we be preparing to celebrate the resurrection with joy rather than gloom?
All approaches are welcome as we head once more into this sacred season. For as we’ll discover in the texts this Lent, Jesus is always ready to meet people as they are. We don’t have to have a perfect understanding, a mastered practice, or a cleansed digestive system to approach Christ. (He may make the first move anyway.) But we can expect that however we come, we’ll leave changed by the encounter.
This season we’ll also be taking a deeper dive into the book On Love: 20 Practices for the World We Seek by Paul and Janet Chilcote. Each Sunday, our dramatized scripture reading will be followed by an excerpt from this volume that many of us have been working our way through. A list of chapters and dates can be found below.
We will also have several opportunities for ecumenical Lenten gatherings once again this year. The first of these is on Feb. 18, when we’ll join with other area churches for Ash Wednesday worship. The service will be at 7:00 pm at Good Shepherd Lutheran (no live stream), and it will include the imposition of ashes. There will also be time to reflect on what meaningful spiritual practice looks like for us in this season. I hope many of you will be able to attend.
I will be traveling quite a bit this month (please note: no scheduled office hours until March), but know that I am keeping us all close in prayer. We are entering into a time of holy pilgrimage, both as Lent begins and as we face the coming pastoral transition. These are not easy paths, but my prayer is that God will guide and grow us through this time. A rocky pathway can sometimes lead to the clearest, most breath-taking of mountain views. May we journey together to that summit.
Pastor Jen
Lent 2026: Encountering Christ, Living in Love
Feb. 22 - Resist Evil, Injustice, and Oppression
March 1 - Empathize with Others
March 8 - Turn Hostility into Hospitality
March 15 - Make Eye Contact
March 22 - Love Anyway
March 29 - Palm and Passion Sunday
