First Sunday in Lent
This week marks the beginning of the season of Lent. The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word for “lengthen,” and refers to the gradually lengthening days of late winter and early spring. Over the centuries, Lent evolved into a 40-day period of reflection, repentance, and preparing not only for Holy Week but also for the subsequent 50-day celebration of Eastertide.
In the ancient scriptural imagination, “40” was both a stylized way of saying, “for a long time,” and a way of resonating with other key “40’s” in Israel’s sacred memory: the flood’s 40 days and nights of rain, Moses’ 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai, Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wandering, and not least, Jesus’ 40 days of wilderness temptation. In some spiritual paths, the number 40 is a very significant number as it represents the end or death of one phase and the beginning or rising up of something new.
The underlying idea here is that God, like a master poet, choreographer, or composer, works through signature forms in time and space. In the Season of Lent, we’re invited to participate in one of those forms by stepping into our own 40-day pilgrimage of reflection, repentance, prayer, and preparation.
Service
Traditional
A Litany of the Masks for Ash Wednesday
Rev. Richard Bott, the Moderator of the United Church of Canada, offered an Ash Wednesday service this week to initiate the season of Lent. It was recorded and is available for viewing. There is a time of prayer, scripture and a preparation for our Lenten spiritual practice.
“It’s been a year of making connections in new ways.”
You are invited to attend with a short piece of string or yarn (20 cm), or some Lego, or a string with seven beads, or a ribbon and seven buttons...and some glue! And please bring your mask. (You don't need to wear it, but please bring it.)
Rev. Bott will be offering a message each Wednesday throughout the season of Lent to aid in our time of contemplation.
Contemporary
A Podcast on Understanding Easter - Part 1
Welcome to “Strange New World,” a show about understanding the Bible, the world’s most influential, misunderstood book — a podcast tailor-made for skeptics, believers, and everybody in between.
“Now is the time to change our lives, to embark upon a kind of soulful spring cleaning. ”
This excellent podcast series for the season of Lent is hosted by Matthew Myer Boulton, who has spent twenty years teaching the Bible and theology to students at Harvard Divinity School and seminaries in New England and the Midwest. “Strange New World” takes a fresh look at the world’s bestselling book of all time, the ancient community library we call “the Bible.” This brand new series offers a fresh look at the season of Lent.
The show’s title, “Strange New World,” is borrowed from an essay written by the Swiss theologian Karl Barth a hundred years ago, in which he wrote of “the strange new world within the Bible,” a world so ancient, so different, so familiar, so strange that it presses us to think new thoughts from new points of view, “to dare and to reach,” and ultimately “to grow out beyond ourselves.”
Every Sunday from now until Easter, be sure to listen in for a greater understanding of the seasons of Lent and Easter. Discover what happens when we “grow beyond ourselves”.
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Podcast Commentary Notes
While listening to the podcast, you may want to supplement your experience with these commentary notes.