In this year of congregational transition, I invite you to consider the season of Lent as a time of reflection, something like a weekly Sunday morning retreat. During each Sunday we are invited to ponder core realities of our faith and of life as members of the Christian community known as St. John’s. By God’s grace through hymns, words, prayers and holy sacraments, we open ourselves to the renewal of our commitment to Christ and God’s mission in the world, both as individuals and as a congregation.

Here is the flow of our “Lenten Retreat,” based on ancient words of Scripture, especially the Old Testament lessons, and the core Christian teaching of Luther’s Small Catechism:

• February 26, Lent 1: Evil and Promise
  Baptisms will take place at the 11:30 service
• March 4, Lent 2:  Endings and Beginnings
  Luminaria Rite of Enrollment for Baptism and Affirmation March 11, Lent 3:  Slavery and Freedom
• March 18, Lent 4:  Suffering and Salvation
• March 25, Lent 5:  Scattered and Gathered
  First Communion for child participants of the offered class
• April 1, Lent 6: Sunday of the Passion – Palm Sunday

In this approach we are touching base with ancient practice. In the early days, becoming a Christian did not happen all at once, but rather required a lengthy period of teaching and experiences in the community of faith—a more extended version of what St. John’s currently offers via Luminaria. For a lot of God-seekers acceptance of “The Way” (as the ancient Christian movement was known) meant a dramatic renunciation of a familiar pagan way of life in order to embrace the new life of faith that was granted as a gift through baptism into the community of the Risen Christ. 

As time went on, Lent became sort of a congregational “retreat” to prepare catechumens (those seeking to become Christians) for the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, which were celebrated during the Easter Vigil. And those who had already been baptized joined with the “new ones” in this preparation, recalling once again the sacrament they had received, their commitment to Christ and one another, and with honesty about their lives and mission, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation in order to ready themselves for a joyous experience at Easter of union with Christ and with one another. 

May our Lent together at St. John’s be for us a fertile time of reflection and may it lead us also to a joyous experience of Easter as union with the Risen Christ and with one another in his body, the church.