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Lent
History of Lent
Lent is traditionally a time set aside for believers to refocus
their minds, lives and desires towards Jesus and the sacrifice that was
made for our Salvation. Like lent with Christmas, Lent is a precursor
or a preparation of the believer’s heart that culminates on Easter with
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Lent traditionally focuses on three avenues of preparation; prayer,
penitence, giving and self-denial and is usually forty days in length.
The length of Lent is usually linked to the forty days that Jesus spent
in the desert. Most western churches would calculate the beginning of
Lent with Ash Wednesday and continuing until “Holy Saturday” (the
Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday). Typically each of the 6
Sundays in the lent season would have a mini-Easter focus, that being
the work of Jesus Christ focusing on His time of Ministry leading up to
Easter week with the theme being Christ’s victory over sin and death.
Each of the Sundays would have a celebration component and in some cases
a break from a fast.
Interestingly the focus of Lent is outward and has a justice component
attached to it. The three main components that churches observe are acts
of what many would call justice . . .prayer (justice towards God),
fasting (justice towards self) and almsgiving (justice towards others.)
The main purpose of Lent is to prepare the believer to better hear what
God is saying to them.
The Component of Prayer is integral to every believer, it is conversing
with God; connecting with our Creator and Father, the designer of our
Salvation.
Fasting enables the believer to put aside distractions. The things which
would occupy our time or desires and draw us away from relying on God,
or taking our focus away from what is truly important. To some it may be
a fast from a particular food to others it could be a fast of time,
choosing to forgo things that would consume our time. The idea is to
re-establish self-control.
Almsgiving or outreach, tunes the believer toward others. Refocuses the
individual on others and puts into practice what the gospel asks us to
do, to reach out to those around us with the Good News of Jesus.
Joel 2:12-14
Yet even now, says the Lord,
Return to me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
Verses:
First Sunday of Lent:
Mark 1:12-15 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the
wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and
he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after
John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the Good News of
God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come
near; repent, and believe in the Good News."
Second Sunday of Lent:
Mark 9:2-10 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and
John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was
transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as
no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah
with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus,
"Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one
for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to
say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from
the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to
him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them
anymore, but only Jesus.
Third Sunday of Lent
1 Corinthians 1:25-30 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own
call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human
standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and
despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things
that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the
source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Fourth Sunday of Lent
John 3:14-18 Jesus said to Nicodemus "And just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the
Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned;
but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have
not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
Fifth Sunday of Lent
John 12:20-24 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival
were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in
Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and
told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered
them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly,
I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
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