2020 Lenten Study

The Christian faith is a communal practice; no one can be an island for we belong to each other. The Christian faith is a family, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a unified body made of many parts, a Temple—the dwelling place of God—consisting of many bricks. All of these images are plural, for the Christian faith speaks of “all y’all” rather than merely about you and me. Nowhere is this more needed than during Lent, for when we journey to the Cross it is, by definition, a perilous journey.

  • Our beloved dies from a disease that takes many thousands.
  • Our church struggles to discover ways to connect to the neighborhood at-hand.
  • Our addiction is more powerful than our will and self-preservation, and we do not know where to turn.

Any one of these might cause us stress, perhaps even overwhelm us. If we start adding burden upon burden, we are plunged into the darkness. Lent is the reminder that we need each other to journey into the darkness and through the darkness to the light of the rising Son. We should not—cannot—journey to the Cross alone, and, blessedly, we are not asked to. Indeed, the Good News is we are not allowed to.