​Lent is Coming

Maybe, like me, you are just now beginning to think about the studies and conversations you hope to have during Lent this year. It certainly will be here before we know it. 
 
I’ve written in the past about our Potluck Church tradition of eating pancakes at the beginning of our Lenten journey (see http://www.potluckchurch.com/potluck-church-blog/ash-wednesday-but-who-do-you-say), and I’m thinking that will be true again this year. But what will our discussions be about this year? We often begin discerning our worship plan by looking back on what we’ve done in years past. Maybe this list will be of help to you, too.

• 2014--We looked at Psalms that Jesus quoted and saw how Jesus wove them into some of the most significant events of his life and teachings.   

 

• 2015--Using John Mark Hicks’ chart, “Meals of Jesus in Luke” (available at http://johnmarkhicks.com/bible-class-materials/), we looked at some of the meals Jesus ate and served in the gospel of Luke to see what insights we might glean from how Jesus fed and dined—insights no just for our Potluck community, but also teachings that we might carry out into all of the tables of our lives.

 

• 2016--We used Sonja M. Stewart and Jerome W. Berryman’s Lenten stories in their book Young Children and Worship(Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), along with the matching figure sets available at Worship Woodworks (https://www.worshipwoodworks.com). We returned to the stories of our childhood and heard about “Jesus and the Children,” Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, “Jesus the King” (Palm Sunday), and “Jesus’ Last Passover.”

 

• 2017--We got a head start in Epiphany on a thorough reading of Matthew, chapter by chapter.

 

• 2018--We walked through the days of the last week of Jesus’s life, guided by Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan’s The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem(Harper One, 2007). And we learned that Tuesday of Holy Week is a very big deal. Who knew? 

 
What will you or your church be exploring on your Lenten pilgrimage this year? 

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