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? 

On this Good Friday, I humbly ask that you come, Lord Jesus, and remind us yet again of why you died on that cross. 
Remind us of those greatest commandments of loving our God with heart, life force, intention, and might, and of loving our neighbors as ourselves. 
Remind us of the ransom--your executed body on display--demanded by the powers and principalities in order to strike fear and terror among the people who sought freedom from imperial rule and oppression. 
Remind us, Lord Jesus, of all that is left undone, and give us the courage to continue in "The Way," even if it may mean that we, too, have to call out the greedy powers and tyrannical leaders, systems, and corporations in our own time. 
What crosses are we to carry now, Christ Jesus? 
Please remind us. We seem to have lost our way.

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Luke 9:18-20)
 
Tonight at Potluck Church we will eat pancakes.  Just pancakes.  Okay, maybe there will be some fun fruit toppings and syrups, too.  When we gather for this first day of Lent, we don’t bring a dish. Traditionally pancakes are eaten on Shrove Tuesday (yesterday) as a way of getting all of the fats and rich foods out of one’s home before the fasting time of Lent. Except all of our Potluck gatherings are feasts—even during Lent, and so to stop and simply have pancakes cooked for us allows Ash Wednesday to be a day of simplicity and focus. We’ll begin our Lenten journey together this night with a meal that returns us back to a basic food--bread. 
 
Lent is a season to ponder the question Jesus asked the disciples—“But who do you say that I am?” Maybe as we eat the pancakes, we will remember again and find our own answers to the question.