Whiteboard: The First Sunday in Lent

Our friends at the SALT Project (the good folks behind the Advent Family Devotional Calendar we used last year) have put together an excellent Lenten Devotional Booklet. It comes with weekly spiritual disciplines, scripture prompts, and a meditation guide.

I'll be introducing the Lenten Devotional Booklet during my sermon this Sunday and we'll be using it each week throughout the Season of Lent.

And here is the thing: The SALT Project's Lenten Devotional Booklet has a fabulous "introducing Lent" section. Here is what they have to say:

The name "Lent" comes from the an old English word for "lengthening,"
referring to the gradually longer days of springtime. From Ash Wednesday

to Easter Sunday, what was cold becomes warm. What was dormant 

awakens. Just as green shoots break through the winter earth, so the

church stirs into action to proclaim the Easter mystery: in dying, God

destroys death and in rising, God delivers and proclaims newness of life.

Throughout Lent I'll be leading a sermon series on the spiritual gifts that we can develop like "green shoots that break through the winter earth" as we too stir into action. I'll be kicking things off this Sunday by focusing on the gift of forgiveness and exactly what it means for us to be "A Forgiving People in an Unforgiving Time." 

I hope to see you this Sunday (when we'll be handing out the Lenten Devotional Booklets to everyone at worship) and all through this holy season in the life of the church.

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Psalm 32 The Joy of Forgiveness

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not stay near you.

Many are the torments of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.