LENTENGUIDE

LENTTHE SEASON OF

PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

MISSION CHATTANOOGA

An Introduction to the Season of Lent:Lent is a season of repentance. Beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Sunday, it is a time to prepare our hearts for the primary events of the Christian faiththe death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the early Church, Lent was a time for new converts to prepare for baptism by learning the theology and practices of their new community. This included a special emphasis on fasting, prayer, repentance, and giving to the poor. For Christians today, Lent is a time to be renewed in the reality of our baptism. It is a time to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Christ in every area of life.

Why Practice the Presence of God:For many of us who grew up in churches that talked about Lent, our associations with the season probably have much, if not most to do with what we DONT do, what we GIVE UP. While the practice of Lenten fasting is right and good, it is only part of the story. Lent has often been referred to as a period of bright sadness, because as many Christians throughout Church history have experienced, the God-ward practice of small deaths through abstaining and giving up is inextricably bound up with the intentional taking on of new life. Lent is about more than simply what we dont do, its about the practices that we LIVE INTO with intention, believing and expectant that the extraordinary God who often makes dead people come back to life might burst into our ordinary moments of fasting, solitude, silence, and prayer with resurrection life and power.

It is with this sense of expectation and yearning that we will journey through Lent by practicing the disciplines of the faith that many of our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the centuries have practiced as means of paying better attention to Gods movement in the world, making space for His presence in our lives, surrendering our wills more completely to His.

What Does this Look Like?Over the next 7 and a half weeks, we as the Mission Chattanooga family, will journey together through a practice of 7 Christian spiritual disciplines: silence & solitude, fasting, confession, simplicity, meditation & worship, prayer & lament, and celebration. Weeks begin on Monday and end on Sunday. During each week, all of us will be invited to practice these disciplines in simple and specific ways as individuals. We will reflect on our experiences of Godhow He showed up and what He did through our practice of each weeks disciplinein our weekly Mission Community gatherings. Finally, we will attempt to tie the practice of each discipline to our corporate expression of worship on Sundays. Our hope is that God would strengthen us as individual disciples as well as spiritually renew us together as a Church through this experience.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

If you head out to hike unfamiliar terrain, you had better have a trusty trail map or guidebook. The pages that follow are intended to be our guidebook for our Lenten journey. The icons are designed to help you identify each weeks activities: practice, reflect, worship and study. The practice icon identified by the blue clock icon explains the simple and concrete way you are invited to live into each weeks spiritual discipline. The reflect icon identified by the yellow hands includes resources for leading discussion in your weekly Mission Community gathering. The worship icon identified by the green arrows gives notes for how each discipline will be referenced in our Sunday worship gathering. Finally the study icon identified by the grey book lists daily Scripture passages, taken from the Daily Office in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It is best to view all of these tabs less as requirements and more as opportunities or invitations. The hope is not that you will feel burdened by many things that add to your busyness and leave to you stressed and tired. Instead, we hope you will pursue these different opportunities like exciting side trails, each adding its own richness and texture to your experience of Gods presence in this Lenten season. It is our suggestion that you prioritize consistency in fewer things if you feel limited for time.

The half-week beginning on Ash Wednesday is a week of preparation. As a preface to this week weve included an excerpt from Mike Yankoskis Book The Sacred Year that elegantly frames the purpose and power of the practice of spiritual disciplines.

It is our joyful hope and prayer that the Living God will encounter each of us and all of us powerfully as we journey together down this Lenten trail. Grace, peace, and happy travels in Christ!

STUDYREFLECT WORSHIPPRACTICE

What Father Solomon suggested that day was a season of life marked by intentionality, by dedication to what he called spiritual practices. At first I had little idea what he meant. As a Protestant, all that really came to mind when I heard spiritual practice was quasi-erratic Bible reading and occasional, desperate prayers. Id never really fasted before, had never

spent more than five minutes in silence if I could help it. Beyond that, the realm of spiritual practice was a vast and uncharted wilderness.

I asked a lot of questions over my additional meetings with Father Solomon that week at the monastery. He patiently answered all of my questions and suggested several ways that I could learn more. Turns out there are more spiritual practices than I had ever imagined. Father Solomon and I discussed confession and pilgrimage and creativity, along with silence, simplicity, service, and even the intentional embrace of our own human finitude and mortality.

Just about anything can become a spiritual practice, Father Solomon suggested on my last day at the monastery, If you approach it in the right waywith intentionality, humility, receptivity, hope. And of course with an attentive eye on the lookout for the activity of the divine.

Though I found all of this exciting and hopeful, a worry was growing inside of me during our conversations, a question that I knew touched on complicated theological ground and which I myself didnt have any clear thoughts on.

But arent spiritual practices kind of like trying to work our way to God? I blurted out at last, You know, trying to make ourselves holy, or earning our own salvation, that sort of thing? Most days I have a hard enough time just keeping my head above water, and, to be honest, I dont have the strength to try and make God love me or even like me.

Father Solomons face went grave, and he closed his eyes for several long moments. At last his response came. Thats not the way this works, Michael, he said. You neednt put that much faith in your own strength, for your strength is a mere atom beside an ocean of Gods unending love. God is the Source. The Origin. The Ground of All Being. The One from whom and through whom and to whom are all things. You cant make God love you, any more than you can make a star or a planet or even a human being. Any more than you can make yourself. The God who called you into existence ex nihiloout of nothingis the same God who holds you in existence this moment and every moment. Were he to withdraw his hand, you would vanish without memory. All things would. No, you cant make God love you. You cant make God like you. But nor do you need to; he already does. Never forget that is why he made youbecause He wants you to exist. And not just exist. He wants you to live life in all its fullness. Spiritual practices are a way of mapping your own soulscape. Helping you become more acquainted with who you are, who God is, and the people hes placed you in life alongside of.

PREPARATION & EXPECTATION OF LENT

february 22

february 18

THE WEEK OF

ASH WEDNESDAY

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,32,143Ps. 102,130

Jonah 3:1-4:11Heb. 12:1-14Luke 18:9-14

THURSDAY

Ps. 37:1-18Ps. 37:19-42Deut. 7:6-11Titus 1:1-16

John 1:29-34

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 95,31Ps. 35

Deut. 7:12-16Titus 2:1-15

John 1:35-42

For your personal reading, find a time that you can consistently set aside 20 minutes. This can be any time of day, but seek to make it when you are at your best, both mentally and physically. As you begin, stop and pray for the Holy Spirit to use this time to illuminate the Scriptures to you. Then, read through the designated passages for the day. Feel free to choose

one or two, or read them all if time allows. Then, pick one of the passages that jumps out at you and walk through what we call SOAP. That issimply write down the scripture, make an observation about it, apply it to your life today, and say a prayer to ask Jesus to help you walk in that newly revealed truth. Finally, take the time to pray the Lords Prayer.

Its rather like sailing. When youre sailing, you learn to be constantly attentive to the windhow it is blowing over your sails, what direction it is coming from, how fast it is moving, that sort of thing. This attentiveness to the wind becomes the main taskno, thats not the right wordthe main art of sailing. We must both attend to the wind and then

respond to whatever it is that the wind is doing. We trim our sails, adjust our course, sometimes we even exchange one sail for anotherwhatever it takes so as to be in the most receptive place given what the wind is doing. Our attentiveness to the wind allows the wind to move us.

And spiritual practices are like that? I asked. Like adjusting our sails and making sure were in a receptive place given what God is doing?

Exactly. Father Solomon was smiling as he spoke. And this metaphor becomes all the more fascinating given that in Jesus time there was only a single word for breath, wind, and spirit. The Spirit of God, The Breath of God, and The Wind of God, are all accurate translations of a common phrase, a phrase that basically means GET READY: God is up to something!

I fell silent wondering what shape the sail of my soul might be, where it might take me if I allowed my maker to set the course. Then I remembered something father Solomon had said during our first meeting, interesting that you knew a storm had brought me here to the monastery.

Very interesting indeed, Father Solomon said with a smile. Now the question is: How will you respond to what the Wind is doing in your life?- Mike Yankoski, The Sacred Year, 11-14

Ps. 30,32Ps. 42,43

Deut. 7:17-26 Titus 3:1-15

John 1:43-51

SUNDAY

Ps. 98 Ps. 103

Deut. 8:1-10 1 Cor. 1:17-31Mark 2:18-22

SATURDAY

Make space in your week to find one hour where you can unplug from all electronicsturn off cell phone, computer etc., go some place thats restorative for you, and spend time in solitude and silence. Listen for God. Pray. Quiet your heart. Be still. Take time afterward to reflect on this experience. What did you hear God say? What were you made aware of

that you otherwise might not have seen, noticed, or heard?

Scripture | Luke 4:1-13 ; Psalm 46:10

Quotes | I have often said that the sole cause of mans unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room. - Blaise Pascal

Silence goes beyond solitude and without it solitude has little effect. Henri Nouwen observes that silence is the way to make solitude a reality. But silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the stark realities of our life. It reminds us of death, which will cut us off from this world and leave only us and God. And in that quiet, what if there turns out to be very little to just us and God? Think what it says about the inward emptiness of our lives if we must always turn on the tape player or radio to make sure something is happening around us.

Silence and solitude go hand in hand, usually. Just as silence is vital to make solitude real, so is solitude needed to make the discipline of silence complete. Very few of us can be silent in the presence of others. As with all disciplines, we should approach the practice of silence in a prayerful, experimental attitude, confident that we shall be led into its right use for us. Only silence will allow us life-transforming concentration upon God. It allows us to hear the gentle God whose only Son shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice above the street noise.

We must also practice the silence of not speaking. Practice in not speaking can at least give us enough control over what we say that our tongues do not go off automatically. This discipline provides us with a certain inner distance that gives us time to consider words fully and the presence of mind to control what we say and when we say it. Such practice also helps us to listen and observe, to pay attention to people. - excerpted from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline, 96-109

SILENCE & SOLITUDE

march 1

february 23

WEEK ONE

LENT

SILENCE & SOLITUDE

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 41,52Ps. 44

Deut. 8:11-20 Heb. 2:11-18John 2:1-12

TUESDAY

Ps. 45Ps. 47,48

Deut. 9:4-12 Heb. 3:1-11

John 2:13-22

MONDAY

Ps. 119:49-72Ps. 49,53

Deut. 9:13-21 Heb. 3:12-19

John 2:23-3:15

SATURDAY

Ps. 50Ps. 59,60,19,46Deut. 9:23-10:5

Heb. 4:1-10John 3:16-21

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,40,54Ps. 51

Deut. 10:12-22 Heb. 4:11-16

John 3:22-36

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 24,29Ps. 8,84

Jer. 1:1-10 1 Cor. 3:11-23Mark 3:31-4:9

Ps. 55Ps. 138,139:1-17,18-23

Deut. 11:18-28 Heb. 5:1-10John 4:1-26

What do you think of when you think about worship or a church service? For many of us the first things that come to mind probably have to do with noisy things: music, verbal prayers, sermons. What about silence? Can silence be an act of worship? Have you ever felt the quiet awe that comes when a room full of people takes an intentional pause spending

minutes together in God-ward silence? This week in worship we will have an extended time of silence during our prayers of the people in our worship service. As we prepare for this, let us call to mind the images of Jesus Christ in the wilderness, let us remember our own experience of waiting for God in hushed places, and let us wait expectantly for Him tofinallyand at last...come to us, move in our midst, and speak to us once again.

Discussion | (possible prompts) Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness in solitude and likely mostly silence. What do you think this experience was like for Him? Why do you think Jesus does this? Why is it included in Scripture? Is it comforting or confusing to know that Christ was tempted? That He knew hunger and thirst? That He experienced solitude and

silence?

This week we were invited to spend a complete hour unplugged from technology in a recreative space in silence and solitude. What was this experience like for you? What difficulties did you face? What surprised you? How did you experience God? Would you consider practicing silence and solitude more often? How do you think a regular practice of silence and solitude might change your life?

Beginning at sundown Tuesday (March 3rd) and ending at sundown on Wednesday (March 4th) set aside a day to fast, giving up food for a 24 hour period. Remember to drink plenty of water during this time. Take the times that you would have spent at meals to prayby yourself, with your Mission Community, with your family. Invite God to remind you of your

dependence on Him, of your need for Him. In your weakness, invite Him to show Himself strong. If you havent yet chosen something to give up for all of Lent, consider choosing something to abstain from for the rest of Lent. This could be a food item, a beverage, a behavior, a time-waster, a hobby, or it could be a technology fast of some kind.

Scripture | John 6:3235

Quotes | For people who really love it, food is a lens through which to view the world. - Ruth Reichl

Planting seeds inevitably changes my feelings about rain. - Luci Shaw

In fasting we abstain in some significant ways from food and possibly from drink as well. This discipline teaches us a lot about ourselves very quickly. It will certainly prove humiliating to us, as it reveals how much our peace depends upon the pleasures of eating. It may also bring to mind how we are using food pleasure to assuage the discomforts caused in our bodies by faithless and unwise living and attitudes.

Fasting confirms our dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food. Through it, we learn by experience that Gods word to us is a life of substance, that it is not food alone that gives life, but also the words that proceed from the mouth of God. We learn that we too have meat to eat that the world knows nothing about. Fasting unto our Lord is therefore feastingfeasting on him and on doing his will.

Fasting is one of the more important ways of practicing that self-denial required of everyone who would follow Christ. In fasting we learn how to suffer happily as we feast on God. And it is a good lesson, because in our lives we will suffer. Persons well used to fasting as a systematic practice will have a clear and constant sense of their resources in God. And that will help them to endure deprivations of all kinds, even to the point of coping with them easily and cheerfully. Fasting teaches temperance and self-control and therefore teaches moderation and restraint with regard to all our fundamental drives. Since food has the pervasive place it does in our lives, the effects of fasting will be diffused throughout our personality. - excerpted from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline 47-61.

FASTINGmarch 8

march 2

WEEK TWO

LENT

FASTING

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 56,57,58Ps. 64,65

Jer. 1:11-19 Rom. 1:1-15

John 4:27-42

TUESDAY

Ps. 61,62Ps. 68:1-20,21-23,24-36

Jer. 2:1-13 Rom. 1:16-25John 4:43-54

MONDAY

Ps. 72Ps. 119:73-96

Jer. 3:6-18 Rom. 1:28-2:11

John 5:1-18

SATURDAY

Ps. 70,71Ps. 74

Jer. 4:9-10,19-28 Rom. 2:12-24John 5:19-29

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,69:1-23,24-30,31-38Ps. 73

Jer. 5:1-9 Rom. 2:25-3:18John 5:30-47

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 93,96Ps. 34

Jer. 6:9-15 1 Cor. 6:12-20Mark 5:1-20

Ps. 75,76Ps. 23,27

Jer. 5:20-31 Rom. 3:19-31John 7:1-13

Every week at our Sunday worship services we share in communion. We eat very ordinary bread and drink very ordinary grape juice. Yet the claims surrounding this meal, the words that we say together about what this meal means are extraordinary! Every week we believe that Jesus stands at the table to welcome us with His love, to feed us with His true food and true drink, to nourish us with His life, to satisfy us with His presence, to

bind up our brokenness, to empower us once again to live the life Hes called us to. Do we believe it? Is this a simple repetitive act for us or is it the moment in the week when we are most truly and powerfully fed with life and power we can get from nowhere else. Do we expect more satisfaction from the feast of communion or from our lunch table a few hours later? This week when we come to the Lords Table, remember your experience of fasting. Remember what it was like to feel hungry and to thirst. Those physical feelings can be so hard to access in our culture, but through the practice of fasting we can remember them once again. Let the memory of physical hunger and thirst serve as a window for what is urgently true spiritually: we NEED Jesus.

Discussion | (possible prompts) This week we were invited to set aside a 24-hour day and fast all food and drink except water. What was this experience like for you? What were some of the struggles you experienced? What surprised you? How did God show up? Did the practice of fasting (either this week or at other points in your life) reveal

to you anything about yourself or about the world in which we live? What do you think Jesus wants you or our church or our world to learn about food? About sustenance? About provision?

Begin your week with prayer: God reveal to me something in my life that is not of you, a place where you want to bring healing to me, a place where you are inviting me to find that healing in fellowship with you and with a brother or sister. When God reveals something, find a time to get together with someone from your Mission Community or a pastor from the Mission

and confess this sin/place of struggle. (As a resource to you, we have provided a simple liturgy that can be used by 2 non-ordained friends as a framework for confession).

Liturgy for the Reconciliation of a PenitentAdopted from the Anglican Service Book for use between two non-ordained friends.

Penitent: Hear me and bless me friend for I have sinned.Friend: May the Lord be with you, that you may truly and humbly confess the sins that burden you.

Penitent: I confess to Almighty God, to His Church, and to you friend that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed, inthings done and left undone; I have committed these sins:

For these and all other sins which I cannot now remember, I am truly sorry. I pray God to have

mercy upon me. I firmly intend amendment of life, and before Almighty God and with you as

a friend and witness, I humbly beg forgiveness of God and His Church. Friend:

Let me read these words of the Apostle Paul in Acts 13:38: Therefore, my

friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins

is proclaimed to you. God loves you. I love you. We believe that in

Christ you are forgiven. I forgive you too. Let us pray together

for God to strengthen us that we might stand for Him in

thought, word, and deed and no longer fall prey to

sin.

CONFESSION

march 15

march 9

WEEK THREE

LENT

CONFESSION

Scripture | James 5:13-16

Quotes | Richard Foster writes in A Celebration of Discipline, that Confession as a discipline functions within fellowship. We let trusted others know our deepest weaknesses and failures. This will nourish our

faith in Gods provision for our needs through His people, our sense of being loved, and our humility before our brothers and sisters. Thus we let some friends in Christ know who we really are, not holding back anything important, but, ideally, allowing complete transparency. We lay down the burden of hiding and pretending, which normally takes up such a dreadful amount of energy. We engage and are engaged by others in the most profound depths of the soul.

I had my own experience of what Foster articulates when I went to seminary and met a professor named Don. Don was gracious, wise, and kind. His gift to Regent College was a sort of spiritual friendship to guys. He invited me to spend time with him regularly, and the time that I spent with Don was unlike any other time Id ever spent with a mentor. It was, essentially my first experience with true confession. I would go into Dons office, sit on his couch, he would ask me how I was doing, and then he would listen as I shared anything, everything, the bottom of the barrel stuff, the things Id never even verbalized to another human being. It took several months of meeting with him before I felt safe enough to get to some of the bigger things, and even when I did, I expected hed throw me out of the office or pretend like he understood and then later act weird every time he saw me. But he didnt. After I spoke, I looked up and met grace in his eyes. He wasnt scared of my brokenness. Nor did he often offer advice. He simply listened, spoke the truth of Gods forgiveness and love over me, and then prayed for the healing power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit to move in and guard my life. He blessed me and He called me up through grace to the fullness of my sonship in Christ.

And the craziest thing happened: the power of sin that had bound me for so long started weakening and then breaking entirely. My sin was no longer a shameful secret. It was now common knowledge because Id shared it with a fellow human who was strong enough and secure enough in his own faith to be a grace-giver to me. And that broke its power. Having someone else hear your story and pronounce the forgiveness of Christ is powerful. It is warfare. It helped me realize I wasnt alone in my fight to live as Gods son. It strengthened me to believe what the Apostle Paul writes when he says sin shall not be your master. It helped me begin to take steps in my life to actively practice the truths of God that Don spoke over me. The confession wasnt the end of the transformation, it was the beginning: for me it was the door way through which I was strengthened to practice true repentance.

As Foster explains, We must accept the fact that unconfessed sin is a special kind of burden or obstruction in the psychological as well as the physical realities of the believers life. The discipline of confession and absolution removes the burden. Confession also helps to avoid sin. Confessing is an ally to forsaking (Prov. 28:13) for persisting in sin within community is unsupportable unless it is hidden. The baring of the soul to a mature friend in Christ or to a qualified minister enables such friends to pray for specific problems and to do those things that may be most helpful and redemptive to the one confessing. Confession alone makes deep fellowship possible, and the lack of it explains much of the superficial quality so commonly found in our church associations. What makes confession bearable? Fellowship. There is an essential reciprocity between these two disciplines. Where there is confession within a close community, restitution cannot be omitted and it too serves as a powerful discipline. It is difficult not to rectify wrong done once it is confessed and known widely.

~ William Eavenson from Pilgrimage Tour 2014 Guidebook, with excerpts from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline, 143-157

march 15

march 9

WEEK THREE

LENT

CONFESSION

Discussion | (possible prompts) This week we were invited to practice confession by taking time to meet with a Mission Chattanooga clergy person or a friend and confess a sin or sins that had been weighing on our hearts and making us feel distant from God. What was this experience like for you? Did you experience fear or anxiety about confession this week or

in the past? Has anything changed in the aftermath of your confession this week in the past? How did God show up? Do you think Christians in America practice confession often enough? Do you see value in the practice? What might our churches look like if we practiced it more regularly? What do you thinkthrough the practice of confessionJesus wants to teach you or our church about forgiveness?

Confession is both a personal and corporate discipline. This week youve been invited to PERSONALLY practice confession, either with a clergyperson or with a friend. This practice is powerful and rooted in the tradition of the church. There is also a CORPORATE practice of confession rooted in Church tradition that we practice every week at the Mission in

our worship services. Prior to coming to the communion table, we take time to confess TOGETHER as one body the ways in which we have fallen short and sinned against our Lord and His people. There is a deep power in this. We are publicly practicing before the world transparency, essentially saying just because were Christians doesnt mean were perfect! In fact were Christians because we know how desperately we NEED Jesus to meet us and heal us IN THE MIDST of our imperfections. Furthermore, when we corporately confess we are again reminding ourselves of our place in the grand story of God. The God of creation has been working on the other side of Eden to restore all things to Himself. This includes healing the alienation between man and God we experience because of sin. Part of Christs accomplished work on the cross is the restoration of relationship between God and man. In Christ we are forgiven ones. We are ambassadors of Jesuss new world that will one day come in full but for now is seen in part. We are now freed to participate with God in the healing of all things. Our corporate confession reminds us of our Christ-granted place in this story. As we practice our corporate confession together on Sunday, let us call to mind what God has done for us in Christ. Let us remember the bigness of Gods story that were a part of. Lets remember where the storys going, and the one well see face to face at the end of it!

CONFESSION

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 80Ps. 77,79Jer. 7:1-15

Rom. 4:1-12John 7:14-36

TUESDAY

Ps. 78:1-39Ps. 78:40-72Jer. 7:21-34

Rom. 4:13-25 John 7:37-52

MONDAY

Ps. 119:97-120Ps. 81,82

Jer. 8:18-9:6 Rom. 5:1-11

John 8:12-20

SATURDAY

Ps. 83,42,43Ps. 85,86

Jer. 10:11-24 Rom. 5:12-21John 8:21-32

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,88Ps. 91,92

Jer. 11:1-8,14-20 Rom. 6:1-11

John 8:33-47

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 66,67Ps. 19,46

Jer. 14:1-9,17-22 Gal. 4:21-5:1 Mark 8:11-21

Ps. 87,90Ps. 136

Jer. 13:1-11 Rom. 6:12-23John 8:47-59

Historically, one of the things the church has practiced through the centuries during the season of Lent, is the giving of alms: taking of your abundance and giving it away to the poor and marginalized out of love for Jesus and His people. Take time this week to go through your closet. Gather together everything you are not wearing and prepare to give it

away. Take some time to examine your food budget for the week. If you can live on less, do so for this week, gather the extra money, and prepare to give it away.

Scripture | Luke 12:2234

Quotes | If only simplicity were not the most difficult of all things. - Carl Jung

What is prosperity anyway? Is it money in the bank, or is it a fulfilling life? - William Bryant Logan

A man can do worse than be poor. He can miss altogether the sight of the greatness of small things. - Robert Farrar Capon

What to do? Stay green never mind the machine Whose fuel is human souls. Live Large, man, and dream small. - R. S. Thomas

The spiritiually wise person has always known that frivolous consumption corrupts the soul away from trust in, worship of, and service to God and injures neighbors as wellSimplicity as a discipline frees us from concern and involvement with a multitude of desires that would make it impossible for us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). It makes it possible for us to concentrate upon that one thing needful, the good part Mary chosesimplicity is a settled style of life that frees us from indifferent things. - excerpted from Dallas Willards The Spirit of the Disciplines, 169-170.

Discussion | (possible prompts) This week we were encouraged to go through our closets and gather up extra clothes, go through our budgets and find extra cash, and prepare to give it away. What was this experience like for you? What objections did you face within yourself? What joys did you uncover in your heart?Where did you see God show up? What does living simply mean for you and your family? What would it look like if everyone in the church lived simply? What do you think Jesus wants to say to you or our church about lifestyle through this practice of simplicity?

SIMPLICITY

march 22

march 16

WEEK FOUR

LENT

Scripture | John 6:3235

Quotes | For people who really love it, food is a lens through which to view the world. - Ruth Reichl

Planting seeds inevitably changes my feelings about rain. - Luci Shaw

In fasting we abstain in some significant ways from food and possibly from drink as well. This discipline teaches us a lot about ourselves very quickly. It will certainly prove humiliating to us, as it reveals how much our peace depends upon the pleasures of eating. It may also bring to mind how we are using food pleasure to assuage the discomforts caused in our bodies by faithless and unwise living and attitudes.

Fasting confirms our dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food. Through it, we learn by experience that Gods word to us is a life of substance, that it is not food alone that gives life, but also the words that proceed from the mouth of God. We learn that we too have meat to eat that the world knows nothing about. Fasting unto our Lord is therefore feastingfeasting on him and on doing his will.

Fasting is one of the more important ways of practicing that self-denial required of everyone who would follow Christ. In fasting we learn how to suffer happily as we feast on God. And it is a good lesson, because in our lives we will suffer. Persons well used to fasting as a systematic practice will have a clear and constant sense of their resources in God. And that will help them to endure deprivations of all kinds, even to the point of coping with them easily and cheerfully. Fasting teaches temperance and self-control and therefore teaches moderation and restraint with regard to all our fundamental drives. Since food has the pervasive place it does in our lives, the effects of fasting will be diffused throughout our personality. - excerpted from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline 47-61.

SIMPLICITY

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 89:1-18Ps. 89:19-52Jer. 16:10-21 Rom. 7:1-12John 6:1-15

TUESDAY

Ps. 97,99,100Ps. 94,95

Jer. 17:19-27 Rom. 7:13-25John 6:16-27

MONDAY

Ps. 101,109:1-4,5-19,20-30Ps. 119:121-144

Jer. 18:1-11 Rom. 8:1-11

John 6:27-40

SATURDAY

Ps. 69:1-23,24-30,31-38Ps. 73

Jer. 22:13-23 Rom. 8:12-27John 6:41-51

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,102Ps. 107:1-32Jer. 23:1-8

Rom. 8:28-39John 6:52-59

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 118Ps. 145

Jer. 23:16-32 1 Cor. 9:19-27 Mark 8:31-9:1

Ps. 107:33-43,108:1-6,7-13Ps. 33

Jer. 23:9-15 Rom. 9:1-18

John 6:60-71

Individually, you were encouraged this week to gather up unused clothes and extra cash and prepare to give them away. As part of our Sunday worship services we will do just that! Bring your clothes and spare change to worship on Sunday. As part of our offering we will have a space to bring the clothes and a place to donate the cash as alms. Each chapel will

decide in the weeks leading up to this day a local neighborhood ministry or ministries to donate these things to. We are prayerfully expectant that God will floor us by what it visibly looks like when the whole people of God pool our small God-ward acts of sacrifice on behalf of the poor and marginalized. We are prayerful and expectant that God will use our simplicity to bless the needy of our neighborhoods in visible ways. Our hope and prayer is that Jesus will be glorified, His love demonstrated, and our hearts changed, in and through all of it.

march 29

march 23

WEEK FIVE

LENT

Try to set aside 15-30 minutes each day to meditate. Take this time as an intentional pause. Slow down and posture yourself in such a way where you can hear your heartbeat. Move against the hurry and distraction of the world and draw your attention into one place. Then look to God. This is the practice of centering yourself under God in the midst of busyness, hurry, and noise.

Scripture | Psalm 19

Quotes | True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace. - Thomas Merton

The discipline of mediation was certainly familiar to the authors of Scripture. The Bible uses two different Hebrew words to convey the idea of mediationThese words have various meanings: listening to Gods word, reflecting on Gods works, ruminating on Gods law, and more. In each case there is stress upon changed behavior as a result of our encounter with the living God. Repentance and obedience are essential features in any biblical understanding of meditationChristian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear Gods voice and obey Gods word. - excerpted from Dallas Willards The Spirit of the Disciplines, 15-17

The study of God in his word and works opens the way for the disciplines of worship and celebration. In worship we engage ourselves with, dwell upon, and express the greatness, beauty, and goodness of God through thought and the use of words, rituals, and symbols. We do this alone as well as in union with Gods people. To worship is to see God as worthy, to ascribe great worth to Him. If in worship we are met by God Himself, our thoughts and words turn to perception and experience of God, who is then really present to us in some degree of his greatness, beauty, and goodness. This will make for an immediate, dramatic change in our lives. Practically speaking, the Christians worship is most profitable when it is centered upon Jesus Christ and goes through Him to God. - excerpted from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline, 158-174

Discussion | (possible prompts) This week we were invited to set aside 15-30 minutes each day to meditate, to intentionally pause, to slow down and listen to ourselves and to God. What was this experience like for you? Was it easy or difficult to focus? To find God? What distractions did you noticed competing most fiercely for your attention? How did God show up? What do you hear Him say? Did you realize anything new about yourself? About the world? About God? What do you think God might be saying to your or to our church about the intentional practice of paying attention to ourselves, our world, and His works, word, and activity?

MEDITATION & WORSHIP

MEDITATION & WORSHIP

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 31Ps. 35

Jer. 24:1-10 Rom. 9:19-33John 9:1-17

TUESDAY

Ps. 120,121,122,123Ps. 124,125,126,127

Jer. 25:8-17 Rom. 10:1-13John 9:18-41

MONDAY

Ps. 119:145-176Ps. 128,129,130Jer. 25:30-38 Rom. 10:14-21John 10:1-18

SATURDAY

Ps. 131,132,133Ps. 140,142Jer. 26:1-16 Rom. 11:1-12

John 10:19-42

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,22Ps. 141,143:1-11,12

Jer. 29:1,4-13 Rom. 11:13-24 John 11:1-27

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 24,29Ps. 103

Zech. 9:9-12Zech. 12:9-11,13:1,7-9

1 Tim. 6:12-16Matt. 21:12-17

Ps. 137:1-6,7-9,Ps. 144Ps. 42,43

Jer. 31:27-34 Rom. 11:25-36 John 11:28-44

This week we will have a special church-wide Taize service. Taize is an ecumenical monastic community in southern France. That may sound boring and strange but in France it has become a Europe-wide youth movement with thousands of college students and twenty-somethings converging regularly at the monastery community to participate in

immersive rhythms of prayer, silence, worship, study, and meditation. The Taize service is reflective of the experience of life at the monastery. It is a meditative, solemn, and in some ways repetitive experience. The songs of worship are meditative chants inviting God to come and move. There is no sermon but instead we observe an extended time of silence. There are Scripture readings and much room for reflection. This type of worship will draw together many of the disciplines we have practiced together during Lent. The fruition will be a service totally unique to our experience at the Mission. So come with expectation. Come with hope. Come with longing. Prepare to meet with God!

Write a letter to God expressing every place in the past year that you have been angry at Him, confused by Him, doubting Him. Bring these letters to your Mission Community. What will be done with them is described below. If the experience of writing this causes questions or a desire for pastoral counsel or prayer feel free to reach out to a pastor. We would love to meet with you!

Scripture | Lamentations 3, especially 133

Quotes | I cant recall exactly when it happened.

But somewhere along the line between birth and the end of high school, I learned indisputably that God was associated always with happy. To know God was to feel happy about God. To love God was to express happy thoughts, feelings, and words to Him. To follow God was to be happy about the life lived in acknowledgement of His existence and Lordship.

This worked quite well in childhood and through most of high school. Life was happy for the most part then. No one in my immediate family died. My parents never got divorced. With some exceptions I mostly succeeded at accomplishing the things I attempted. I was happy and therefore it was easy to know, love, and follow my happy God.

Then I went to grad school in Vancouver, BC. I was plunged into a transient, alien, and unfamiliar world thousands of miles away from friends, family, and everything I knew. My life was pretty much work and school almost 100% of the time and though I found myself immersed in a rich life of learning, surrounded by thoughtful and deep people, I was overwhelmed by feelings of loneliness and anger on a scale I had never experienced before.

I was not happy anymore, and this presented me with a problem. Either I had to force myself to get happy again so I could relate to the happy God, or I had to accept that God wasnt real, that He had abandoned me, and that the whole Jesus-following thing had been a charade all along, or I had to allow God to expand my simple understanding of who He was and how He desired His people to relate to Him.

LAMENT

april 5

march 30

WEEK SIX

LENT

What I learned in those years in Vancouver was the practice of lament and it might have saved my faith. Lament was the practice and posture of bringing my rough and tumble feelingsmy sadness over the painful loneliness I felt, my anger at the God who seemed to be delaying in keeping His promises, my doubt over whether He was even real, my confusion over where I was headed in

lifeTO God rather than using them as an excuse to run away from Him. This practice and posture has allowed me over the last few years, spiritually, to thrash against everything I experience as discomfort, pain, and injustice in our world, to call to mind the truth that God, though patient in His action to alleviate such things, is equally enraged by them, and will certainly and finally act to bring about rescue and resolution.

Through lament we call to attention in ourselves the pain of a world thats broken, a world thats longing for restoration. Through lament we cry out how long? to the God who sees us, the God who knows us, the God who loves us. Through lament we remember that God has promised to save, that He has saved in the past, and that even in the present, He is moving to fulfill His promise and save again: fully and finally! Lament allows us, in the midst of lifes chaos, to raise our attention above our uncertain circumstances to behold the God who time and time again moves over the waters of chaos and creates verdant worlds full of life and hope-saturated potential.

Lament is a discipline because in our worst moments its hard to believe that it matters to articulate our rage-tinged despair to a God who in those moments seems so indifferent. But this act keeps our hearts alive. Lament keeps us in communion with God in the seasons when we feel like we want nothing to do with Him. It calls attention to the truth that our deepest pains and hardships are seasons in the longer year of Gods favor, chapters in the longer story of His rescue. And while the seasons will change and the chapters will end, the year and the story will move on! ~ William Eavenson, Pilgrimage Tour Guidebook 2014

Discussion | This week we were invited to write an anger letter to God, expressing all of the places weve felt anger, doubt, and confusion toward Him over the past year. We did this as a means of expressing these things TO God rather than using them as excuses to turn AWAY from Him. What was this experience like for you? Did you feel any emotions rise up? Was it easy or difficult to be honest? How did God show up through the practice? Did He reveal anything to you about yourself, our world or Himself that youd never realized or thought about before? What do you think God might be saying to you or to our church about the experience of pain and suffering in the Christian life?

LAMENT

april 5

march 30

WEEK SIX

LENT

This week we are inviting our Mission Communities to engage in a special practice. If anyone in your group would like to read their letter that they wrote aloud, they are welcome to do so, but we do not want anyone to feel pressured to share what is a very sacred and deep aspect of their personal relationship with God. However we actually want everyone to tangibly BRING the feelings and

experiences expressed in these letters TO God in a visible way. And so we encourage you to invite everyone in your community to bring their physical written letters to the MC Meeting. At the end of your discussion time, gather the letters from everyone and move through this liturgy together:

Leader: The Lord be with you!

People: And also with you!

Leader: Lift up your hearts

People: We lift them up to the Lord

Leader: Let us pray together.

All: Father God we come before you in honesty and humility. We long to know you, honor you, and commune with you now despite our brokenness, our fear, our doubt, our confusion and our pain. You have been faithful in years past and we believe you have not changed. We ask now for courage to trust in your faithfulness to us in the present and in the future, to trust that even when we cannot see and when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death you are there walking with us, knowing what its like, strengthening us to bare up under all difficult circumstances, and so trusting in faith and by the power of your spirit, we shall not fear. We look to Jesus on the cross and remember that our God did not and does not remain distant from our pain. You have entered in and on the cross you said me too. And behold! You have overcome sin and death and the grave will be swallowed up in resurrection life. Trusting in the hope that is ours in Christ we bring now these pains to you: (at this point letters are gathered into some way of disposal: placed in a metal basin to be burned, fed through a shredder, cut to pieces, whatever the group chooses. As you destroy the letters say together these words of the Kenyan liturgy we will be using at the end of our Lenten services)

Leader: All our problems All: We send to the cross of Christ

Leader: All our difficulties All: We send to the cross of Christ

Leader: All the devils works All: We send to the cross of Christ

Leader: All our hopes All: We set on the Risen Christ

Leader: May it be so All: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN

LAMENT

LAMENT

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 51:1-18,19-20Ps. 69:1-23Jer. 12:1-16Phil. 3:1-14

John 12:9-19

TUESDAY

Ps. 6,12Ps. 94

Jer. 15:10-21Phil. 3:15-21

John 12:20-26

MONDAY

Ps. 55Ps. 74

Jer. 17:5-10,14-17Phil. 4:1-13

John 12:27-36

SATURDAY

Ps. 102Ps. 142,143Jer. 20:7-11

1 Cor. 10:14-17,11:27-32 John 17:1-11,12-26

FRIDAY

Ps. 95,22Ps. 40:1-14,15-19,54

1 Pet. 1:10-20John 13:36-38

THURSDAY

SUNDAY

Ps. 148,149,150Ps. 113,114,118Exod. 12:1-14

Isa. 51:9-11 John 1:1-1824:13-35

Ps. 95,88 Ps. 27

Job 19:21-27aHeb. 4:1-16Rom. 8:1-11

Every Sunday during the season of Lent we conclude our worship services with the Kenyan Liturgy sending our difficulties, pains, and troubles prayerfully together to the cross of Jesus Christ. We thereby remember in a tangible way that through the cross of Christ God has written a final and redemptive word to all human suffering, even though the final resolution

may yet be far off. The Kenyan liturgy is a clear reminder of what is always true for us in worship. Our songs and hopeful proclamations are not denials of hard circumstances, they are opportunities where we choose to trust that the hope held out for us in Jesus is more real and enduring than all of our present sufferingno matter how hard. Remember the experience of the anger letter when you come to worship. Our pain is not too big for God. He wants us to lift our whole and honest hearts to Him, for us to bring the totality of our human experience to Himgood and badin worship. Bring your whole and honest selves to Him and be expectant for Him to reveal His whole and honest, healing and powerful self to you.

april 12

april 6

WEEK SEVEN

LENT

Were going to have a party and we want you to come! Sunday, April 12th at approximately 7 PM in the Camp House, our Evensong potluck will be a celebration of Eastertide. This is an intentional setting aside of time to celebrate what God has done in our lives personally and in our church corporately throughout the season of Lent, even as we may have had to

walk through trials along the way. As you make or buy something to contribute to the celebration potluck remember what God has done for you. Let the contribution of food be a sacred act of worship, prepared with your joy that is sealed forever in Christ who has died, who has been raised, who is coming again!

Scripture | Revelation 21

Quotes | The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot. ~ Augustine of Hippo

Celebration is the completion of worship for it dwells on the greatness of God as shown in his goodness to us. We engage in celebration when we enjoy ourselves, our life, our world, in conjunction with our faith and confidence in Gods greatness, beauty, and goodness. We concentrate our life and world as Gods work and as Gods gift to us. Typically this means we come together with others who know God to eat, drink, to sing and dance, and to relate stories of Gods actions for our lives and our people. Holy Delight is the great antidote to despair and is a wellspring of genuine gratitude. ~ excerpted from Richard Fosters A Celebration of Discipline, 190-201

Discussion | (possible prompts) What has this Lenten season meant for you? How have you experienced God through our journey together through the practice of spiritual disciplines? How has God shown up? Has He surprised you? What have you learned about yourself, the world, or God? How have you seen celebration practiced well as a discipline either in your life or in the lives of others? What do you think God is saying to you or others about marking time, accomplishments, and significant moments through this practice of celebration?

CELEBRATION

CELEBRATION

WEDNESDAY

Ps. 93,98Ps. 66

Jonah 2:1-9 Acts 2:14,22-32

John 14:1-14

TUESDAY

Ps. 103Ps. 111,114

Isa. 30:18-21Acts 2:36-41,42-47

John 14:15-31

MONDAY

Ps. 97,99Ps. 115

Micah 7:7-15 Acts 3:1-10John 15:1-11

SATURDAY

Ps. 146,147Ps. 148,149

Ezek. 37:1-14 Acts 3:11-26

John 15:12-27

FRIDAY

Ps. 136Ps. 118

Dan. 12:1-4,13 Acts 4:1-12

John 16:1-15

THURSDAY

Ps. 145Ps. 104

Isa. 25:1-9 Acts 4:13-21,22-31

John 16:16-33

During the season of Lent, the word Alleluia is noticeably absent during our Sunday worship liturgy. For many of us, we may have at first struggled not to say it automatically before communion as we have grown so used to it. Perhaps the normality of the phrase and its usage can cause us at times to forget that the very possibility of a Christian

worship service and the availability of the communion elements is a glorious Christ-afforded miracle! The absence of alleluia during Lent and its subsequent and joyful return at Easter can remind us that God has accomplished something magnificent through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus! Christ has risen from the dead and we are one with Him again, so come church and stand in the light. Our God is not dead, Hes alive! Hes alive! Our Earthly pilgrim path and the difficulties we experience here and now may not end this side of eternity, but the end of the story is certain. On Easter we end our Lenten journey and we celebrate with sacramental expectation of that future ending to the great story when God will have completed His work of making all things new, we will sit down for a final feast with our King, and we will know the fullness of what it means to be one with God in Christ!