Pastoral Message: “Taking on More for Lent” Week of the First Sunday in Lent March 1, 2023
Pastoral Message:
“Taking on More for Lent”
Week of the First Sunday in Lent
March 1, 2023
Dear People of God at Faith-La Fe!
We already made our detailed public confession during liturgy on Ash Wednesday. But here’s another confession from your pastor: I have never in my life given up anything for Lent. That just wasn’t part of my family’s piety growing up, and I didn’t take on this practice of abstinence even later in life. What my family did, though, was to take on more devotional activity during Lent with special focus on midweek services and also Lenten ecumenical prayer breakfasts in my hometown. That set the stage for adding devotions to my Lenten journey rather than subtracting things from my routines and habits.
This is in keeping with instructions about Lent during our Ash Wednesday liturgy when I invited you to the disciplines of Lent, namely, self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love – all of this in addition to our usual participation in the Sunday assembly’s celebration of Christ in Word and Sacrament. There are any number of ways specifically and concretely to engage in these additional disciplines.
So, if you’re up for the challenge of taking on more devotion during Lent 2023, I have some specific suggestions for you. Of course, you may be too hassled and harried for more in your life and work these days! If that’s the case, simplification, abstaining, and the “less is more” approach may be called for.
That said, here are some ideas for Lenten activity beyond Sunday morning worship and our Soup Suppers and Vespers services on Wednesday evenings:
· Do the work of an evangelist, and join us this coming Saturday, March 4 for the Melrose Street Fair where we can be public about our commitments to full inclusion of all of God’s children in our life together. Contact Pastor Veronica or me if you can join in to help staff our table.
· Following up on my Sunday sermon, reach out to someone who might be experiencing lonely desolation in their life so that through you they might know the consoling presence of Christ.
· There’s always room around the table – in person or via Zoom – for participation in the Wednesday morning Bible Studies at 10:30 if you’ve not tried that yet! Just come in person to the parish office suite or let me know if you wish the Zoom link.
· Then there are great opportunities beyond our congregation in our wider church. For example, make the most of creation care programs at our Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center. Particular programs are more fully described below in the announcements section of this week’s message. Environmental stewardship has long been a concern at Faith-La Fe and God knows the needs are ever more urgent. Connecting with and participating in these Lenten programs offered via Spirit in the Desert is a great way for us to refocus our energies again on Creation Care and to discern how best we can live that out locally in our congregation.
· Look for further word about our efforts to de-clutter our rooms and closets at church! There may be a Lenten day scheduled to do some purgation of items we no longer need or use!
· Remember that we have a Saturday Quiet Day scheduled for March 18 on Spirituality, Health and Well-Being – see further word of that in the announcements below.
· Then there’s a special liturgy on the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord at 10:00 on Saturday, March 25 when we can see links between themes of Christmas and Holy Week and Eater.
So, you see, Lent at Faith-La Fe, programmatically speaking, is less about fasting and more about feasting on additional, rich, devotional opportunities to enrich your walk of faith and spirituality as you are strengthened for the work that God has entrusted to us in proclaiming good news in Christ in our words and deeds.
Therefore, join us for a blessed Lent at Faith-La Fe!
In Christ,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Pastor’s Office Phone Number: 602-265-5860
Email: pastor@faithalive.com
Announcements
Interested in Membership at Faith-La Fe?
If you or anyone you know is curious about learning more about Faith-La Fe Church toward perhaps becoming a member of our congregation, kindly reach out to either Pastor Linman or Pastor Veronica. They are more than eager to engage you in conversation for your discernment. We are planning to receive new members at our Easter Vigil this year on Saturday evening, April 8 at 7:00 pm.
Invitation to a Special Lenten Discipline: Campus-wide Property Inventory
Pastor Linman is interested in convening a small group of interested members to make an inventory of items located in rooms and closets throughout the buildings on our property in the service of assessing and discerning what we may be called to keep and what we may want to free ourselves of for other homes. Consider this an effort toward some major spring cleaning. Better yet, let’s claim this as a communal Lenten discipline for this year! For this proposed work is also a spiritual exercise in that we are always invited to examine our places of abode – at home and at church – and to consider what we might be purged of for greater simplicity and purity of life. Some of our spaces are cluttered with things we may not ever use again. Being free of clutter in our homes and church makes for good mental and spiritual health – and it makes our spaces more hospitable and inviting to our guests and others who use our building. If you are interested in being part of the small team which explores our buildings and rooms making a list of things we may no longer need, please make yourself known to Pastor Linman.
Lent 2023 at Faith-La Fe
Join us each Wednesday evening during Lent for a soup supper beginning at 6:30 in the parish hall, and followed by evening prayer in the chapel at 7:15. Evening Prayer will be led by lay persons, and the message will be offered by various neighboring pastors of congregations in the Capital Conference of the Grand Canyon Synod. As a feature of evening prayer, we’ll commemorate holy ones and saints on our calendar of commemorations. And the overarching title for the offerings of our local pastors is: “Pardon Our Dust: Finding God in the Mess of Change.” Here’s a description of what we pastors will be up to in our messages during Lent:
You’ve seen the signs, the bulldozers, the temporary fencing; perhaps you’ve driven by a construction site and asked, "I wonder what’s going in there?” or “I wonder how long this road will be like this?” The fact is, change is often messy and bewildering, even if it’s ultimately for the good. And when our lives are the construction site—when loss or transition force us to rebuild our sense of self, or when new challenges fill the road before us with unknowns—the mess of change can cause us to wonder how God is with us. This Lent, we invite you to join us as we prayerfully engage the experience of change, together with Biblical companions who found God anew while facing into the unknown. A “round-robin” pastor exchange with other Capital Conference churches will allow us to hear from different voices each week while gathering in our home church setting. Come and share the journey!
Please know that we need volunteers to sign up to provide bread and soup for the Wednesdays in Lent. Look for sign-up sheets on the bulletin board in the breezeway outdoors.
March 1 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(George Herbert, Hymnwriter, 1633)
Speaker: Pastor Karn Carroll from Our Saviours
March 8 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Perpetua and Felicity and Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 202, transferred)
Speaker: Pastor Kristen Rice from All Saints
March 15 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Patrick, Bishop, Missionary to Ireland, 461, transferred)
Speakers: Pastor Phil Gustafson from Grace
March 22 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Jonathan Edwards, Teacher, Missionary to American Indians, 1758)
Speaker: Pastor Kari Williamson from Saint Andrew
March 29 + Midweek Soup Supper and Lenten Service
(Hans Nielson Hauge, Renewer of the Church, 1824)
Speakers: Pastors Veronica Alvarez and Jonathan Linman in a dialogue sermon
40 DAYS OF CARING FOR CREATION: A LENTEN PRACTICUM
It’s a beautiful planet, this Earth. Carl Sagan wrote of the view from space, “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Home to 8-billion people now, Earth is heating up and heating up fast. None of us is immune from the resulting climate changes and their catastrophic effects. It’s “code red for humanity,” says the U.N. Secretary-General.
It’s Kairos time, says the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in its draft social statement on Earth’s climate crisis, “a critical time when decisive action is required.”
This Lent, join us in taking decisive action! Featuring the Christian practices of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, we will renew and improve our care of creation.
Here’s a hard truth: One person’s dietary and lifestyle changes won’t reverse a drought or stop the glaciers from melting or prevent a wildfire.
But here’s another truth, a truth about faith: We don’t have to carry on with our earth-crucifying ways. Nor do we have to be paralyzed by anxiety and despair. Each of us individually and all of us together can do better. We can choose to actively trust God’s vision for creation. We can do our part, small as it may be, to keep this Earth a habitable and wholesome home.
Join learner/facilitator Sheri Brown on Thursdays at 4:00 pm MST (AZ) for six half-hour virtual workshops, beginning Thursday, February 23, as we live into 40 days of caring for creation.
WEEKLY TOPICS
March 2: Present bias and why it is working against future generations.
March 9: Your carbon footprint and what it says about walking the talk of faith.
March 16: Food choices and what they say about putting your money where your mouth is.
March 23: Human migration patterns and global demographic decline.
March 30: Purchasing choices and what they say about faith-based earth advocacy.
CULTIVATING CLIMATE JUSTICE RETREAT REGISTRATION
MARCH 10 – 12, 2023
CULTIVATING CLIMATE JUSTICE: TOOLS, HOPE, THEOLOGY, AND SPIRIT
Explore the economic, cultural, political, and ecological contours of the systemic crisis we face, and grow in the knowledge, skills, spiritual strength, and community that are so vital to forging the paths toward climate justice.
Click here for further information: https://spiritinthedesert.org/cultivating-climate-justice-registration/
Holy Week and Easter at Faith-La Fe
Here is our schedule for Holy Week and Easter 2023:
April 2 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
April 6 at 7:00 pm + Maundy Thursday, Bi-lingual, Holy Communion, Foot Washing, Stripping of the Altar
April 7 + Good Friday: Noon, Stations of the Cross in English, 6:00 pm, Stations of the Cross in Spanish, and 7:30 pm, Liturgy in English
April 8 at 7:00 + Vigil of Easter with Reception of New Members
April 9 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day
Mark Your Calendars Now for Upcoming Special Worship Services
Further detail about the following special occasions for worship is forthcoming, but please note these special liturgies now in your calendars!
March 25 at 10:00 am + Annunciation of Our Lord, Holy Communion
May 18 at 7:00 pm + Ascension of Our Lord, Holy Communion
May 28 at 9:00 and 11:00 am + Day of Pentecost
May 31 at 7:00 pm + Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, Holy Communion
July 22 at 10:00 am + Mary Magdalene, Apostle, Morning Prayer
August 15 at 7:00 pm + Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Holy Communion
September 14 at 7:00 pm + Holy Cross Day, Evensong
November 1 at 7:00 pm + All Saints’ Day, Holy Communion
Upcoming Saturday Quiet Days at Faith-La Fe in 2023
Saturday, March 18 – a day to explore the intersections between Christian Spirituality and our health, holistically understood. We’ll consider health and wholeness biblically, engaging in some conversational bible study. There will also be time for some gentle, healthy, spiritually-focused exercises (prayer that uses our body), a healthy lunch, and then also a Service of the Word for Healing with laying on of hands and anointing with oil. Claim this day as part of your Lenten discipline.
Saturday, April 29 – an introduction to Lectio Divina, or sacred reading, an approach to prayerfully engaging scripture that emerges from the Benedictine tradition and is increasingly popular today among clergy and lay audiences. I’ve done extensive work on the experiential dynamics of lectio divina, and I’m eager to share insights for your inspiration and edification. We do a modified form of lectio divina during our Wednesday bible studies, but spending the day together will give us occasion to do this prayerful form of bible reading as it is more fully intended.
Saturday, June 3 – a day to more deeply explore the spirituality of preaching, with special focus on how sermons are occasions of spiritual guidance. We’ll also spend some more time on your role as listeners to sermons, and how you can get still more out of preaching for your spiritual edification. We will touch on listening to sermons at next Sunday’s adult forum, but focusing on this topic for a whole Saturday will give us occasion to go still more deeply into the topic. On this day, we’ll also learn some of what Luther had to say about preaching!
Saturday, September 30 – on this day, close to the commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi, we will explore Franciscan Spirituality and what it might mean for Lutherans in ministry and mission in the 21st Century.
Saturday, October 28 – as we approach Reformation Sunday, this will be a day devoted to revealing key features of specifically Lutheran Spirituality, or Christian spirituality with Lutheran accents. We will discover that there’s a lot to draw from in our own tradition to take us ever more deeply into the spiritual life.
Saturday, November 18 – this day will be devoted to spending our time together in our beautiful nave doing “Stations of Our Stained Glass Windows,” a series of visual meditations on our stained-glass windows and the miracles and parables of Jesus they depict. We’ll explore in conversation the bible stories the windows are based on, and then look carefully at the windows to see features of the story which the stained-glass art highlights. Each station will feature a hymn before we move on to the next window.