February 14, 2024
Re: A note regarding Lent and links to devotional resources
To the saints at One Hope Presbyterian:
When are you? This is a strange sounding question grammatically. But if you stop and think about it, it’s a question that we ask and answer everyday, several times a day. It’s such a vital question, we have many ways to ask it like, “What time is it?” or “What day, month, year, or season is it?” Orienting ourselves in time is one of the primary ways human beings orient themselves to creation.
So when are we? In East Texas, we’re in the season where it’s 40 degrees one day and 70 degrees the next. Spring is coming but not quite here. We are right around the corner from a time of renewal, when the flowers and trees will bloom, and livestock and wildlife will birth new life. As Christians, we know too that Easter is coming.
At the heart of the gospel, is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the most historically significant, creation-changing event since creation itself. This fact has brought new life to millions over the centuries. And many of these born-again-by-the-Spirit-people have prepared to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection by observing Lent. An English word that comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for Spring (Lencten).
Lent came to be observed in the third and fourth centuries. Historically, Christians set aside forty-days of preparation (excluding Sundays) counting backwards from Easter to make hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ passion and celebrating his resurrection. The number 40 evokes many other stories in the Bible—from Noah, to Israel’s wilderness wanderings, to Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness. In keeping with the theme of preparation, the church has used this time to instruct new members before their baptism and professions of faith which always occurred on Easter Sunday. We continue this tradition at One Hope by preparing our confirmands for their profession of faith on Easter Sunday. In addition, the historic church would seek out those that had wandered from church during Lent, trying to reconnect those to the life of Christ in his body of believers.
So at One Hope, we observe this Lenten time by remembering our own baptism, our death to the old life, and the renewal of our life in Christ. “The primary focus of the season is to explore and deepen a ‘baptismal spirituality’ that centers on our union with Christ rather than to function only as an extended meditation on Christ’s suffering and death.” Along with our confirmands and new believers, we seek to deepen our own connection to Christ and each other. We ask ourselves again “What is it that we believe?”
We also look at our actions and take inventory. Does our life “bear fruit in keeping with repentance?” (Mat 3.8; Acts 26.20). We ask, “Are we paying attention to God and how he is actively loving the world through the Son and his body on earth, the church?” We examine ourselves for ways that the powers and principalities of this present age seek to distract Christian believers from loving our neighbors and the world with entertainment, money, consumerism, politics, technology, and neglecting or hating our neighbors. We imitate Jesus by fasting and praying. We pray together, “search me, O Lord” and “I believe, help my unbelief!”
Below, we’ve included some links in blue text to resources that may help you pray these prayers with a fresh richness as we enter into this season of preparation and anticipation. Just click on the blue text to be taken to a downloadable PDF.
Here is a 40-day Lenten devotional that Kelly Liebengood created for One Hope.
Here is a Lenten guide by Justin Whitley Earl to help deepen spiritual disciplines and develop habits of virtue.
Here is a Lenten devotional and journaling exercise by the writers at Every Moment Holy.
Here is some music for Lent to uplift the soul.
If you have any questions about Lent or if you have specific prayer requests this season, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. It would be our pleasure and privilege to meet with you and to pray for you.
Lenten blessings,
/s/ Craig, Dave, Bryan, Kelly, Vance, and Steve
The Session of One Hope Presbyterian