Living in the Promised Land
The highlight of the Church Year is, without question, the journey from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday that we know as Holy Week. While, technically, it embraces parts of three seasons (Palm Sunday is still part of Lent, and Easter Sunday is really the beginning of Eastertide, which continues all the way through to Pentecost Sunday) Holy Week, which gives a profound opportunity to meditate at length on Jesus suffering, death and resurrection, is often viewed as a unit, and made the focus of our greatest and most creative liturgical energies. However, for this significant week to have the formative impact on worshippers that we hope for, requires effective spiritual preparation. This is the purpose of Lent.
Traditionally Lent, along with Advent, was one of the great seasons of preparation for candidates who were to be baptised on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday. Today, while baptism is no longer performed only on these two days, Lent remains a powerful journey of penitence, spiritual discipline (focussed around the three practices of fasting, prayer and giving of time, talents and treasures) and preparation for the Holy Week experience. As such, the Lenten season requires nearly as much creative energy as Holy Week, but over a more extended time. For busy pastors and liturgists, sustaining a creative, transforming and spiritually challenging journey can be very difficult, It is for this reason that Sacredise is proud to offer this resource—Living in the Promised Land—based on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Year B.
Living in the Promised Land provides sermon-based commentaries on the Old Testament and Gospel passages for each week (including Ash Wednesday), theme-based liturgies for each week (including an ‘Imposition of Ashes’ rite for Ash Wednesday and a specially written Service of the Table which can be used on any week where the Eucharist is celebrated), hymn suggestions and small group guidelines. Any part of this resource may be freely photocopied or distributed within a single local church for congregational use.
This resource has specific Small Group guidelines included. The idea is for people to journey through Lent with a group of trusted companions in order to deepen the experience and encourage one another.
For personal devotion through this season, I would recommend a repeating practice based on both the Sunday worship services and the Small Group experience. It can be meaningful to personalise the guidelines for worship from the Small Group resources to create a worshipful environment for personal reflection. Then the sermon from Sunday can be reviewed with the intention of going deeper through repetition. Returning to the sermon ensures that its message is integrated more deeply into the lives of your people. It can be very helpful if people are encouraged to take notes during the Sunday service, and if an outline or transcript of the sermon is made available for people to take home. To help with reflecting more deeply, the following questions can also be provided:
- What stands out for you today as you reflect again on the message you heard this week?
- What does this word mean for you in your own personal spiritual walk this week?
- What one thing can you do to integrate this word into your daily living this week?
My prayer is that you and your congregation will find Living in the Promised Land to be a resource that takes your Lenten journey deeper, and that enables it to be a time of true formation into Christ—likeness. God bless you on this significant journey.
