This week we enter the season of Lent as we move toward the mystery of Easter. Our journey begins in the early morning hours of Ash Wednesday as we mark the start of forty days of Lent. Traditionally, Lent is a time for Christians to enter a period of self-reflection, prayer, and preparation in anticipation of the celebration of Easter. The symbolism of forty days has many roots, including the flood and forty years of wilderness wanderings, but inspiration for this time most likely comes from Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness where he, like Moses and Elijah before him, spent time in preparation for his ministry.
We will be inspired this season by the Vulnerable Renderings of our Artist-in-Residence, Erik Castellanos. Erik experiments with portraiture as a way of expressing how he sees and experiences a person. Our community will be invited to wonder about how Jesus might have been vulnerable as he moved from life into death and beyond to his resurrection.
We will also invite our community to share renderings of our life together with daily photographs. The United Methodist Church’s “rethink church” campaign has organized this effort on social media over the last few years and we’re hopeful this will be a meaningful practice for some in our church community this year. Here is more information about the photo-a-day Lenten journey. We encourage you to participate and tag photos with #thetable40days.
Outline for Vulnerable Renderings (a six-week journey through the season of Lent at the Table)
•February 10: (Ash Wednesday) 7:00 am – a 45-minute worship service with communion, ashes, music, prayer & reflection
•February 14: Luke 4.1-13 Vulnerability in temptation
•February 21: Luke 13.31-35 Vulnerability in sacrifice
•February 28: Luke 13.1-9 Vulnerability in needing others
•March 6: Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32 Vulnerability in Grace
•March 13: John 12.1-11 Vulnerability in accepting generosity
•March 20: Luke 19.28-40 (Palm Sunday)
•March 24: Maundy Thursday (6:00 pm in Social Hall)
•March 25: Holy Friday (7:00 pm in Sanctuary)
•March 27: Easter Sunrise (6:30 am Rose Garden McKinley Park) Celebrate Easter (9:30 am & 11:00 am Sanctuary of Central UMC)
What does the season of Lent means to you?
Read Luke 4.1-13.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Wildernesses come in so many shapes and sizes that the only way you can really tell you are in one is to look around for what you normally count on to save your life and come up empty. No food. No earthly power. No special protection-just a Bible-quoting devil and a whole bunch of sand…this is not a situation many of us seek.”
What does wilderness look like for you right now? Consider sharing this in your journal or with a trusted friend.