Lent is a season of change, a season of transition. Falling during the seasonal transition from winter to spring, Lent reminds us that new life is near. How will you prepare for the new life that is emerging?
Here at First Baptist on Fifth we will be focusing on “clearing out” the things that obstruct the Way of Life. Each Sunday in worship the gospel texts in Luke invite us to clear out things like control, independence, impatience, shame, caution, and anything that stands in the way of the abundant life Jesus offers. What will fill these empty spaces once there is room for new life to emerge?
If you are interested in considering taking up new practices in this liminal space, you are invited to read A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent by Christine Valters Paintner and also join us for a Zoom meeting each Tuesday at 7pm during Lent. This book provides alternatives to fasting from food. While this book is good news for foodies and oenophiles (the author isn’t asking us to give up our beloved chocolate or wine), it’s even better news for those of us who need a deeper kind of fasting that touches the true hungers of our souls. Over the course of the book we are invited to fast from multitasking, anxiety, rushing, holding it all together, planning, and certainly. In clearing out space of these soul-draining habits we make way for new soul-filling habits to enter: abundance, slowness, tenderness, unfolding, and mystery.
If you are interested in an in-person Lenten series, David Hull will begin a new midweek series called“Deadly Sins in a Story of Life.” The course will begin on Wednesday March 12 at 11am in the Baraca Room. This Lenten series will focus on the “Seven Deadly Sins” as seen in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Looking through the lens of this familiar story of Jesus, we will study the Deadly Sins as they are portrayed in the lives of the two sons. We will gaze into the mirror of our own sin and find opportunities for repentance during this holy season. We will also be reminded of the abundant grace of God that makes this story — and our stories — filled with life.
As we “clear out” our hearts, souls, and minds this season, my hope is that you may be filled with grace upon grace—fully prepared to live lives of deep abundance, joyful generosity, and abiding hope.
– Pastor Kyle