Volume 13, Issue 1
All are welcome to join us in the Zoom Room for Ash Wednesday worship at 5:30pm. We will pray, offer a scripture and a short lesson, and lead everyone in the self-imposition of ashes. If you cannot join us at 5:30, feel free to read the prayers and scripture, pull up the song on YouTube, and mark yourself with a cross with the ashes. You can mix the ashes with a few drops of olive or vegetable oil. (Do not mix the ashes with water! It creates an acid that will burn your skin.)
To join online: upcbgm.org/zoom
To dial as a phone call: 1-646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 865 274 8433, passcode: 42456
Pastor Kimberly will be offering “Ashes to Go” in the lobby of the education wing from 10am to 12pm on Wednesday, so stop by the church if you want to get ashes in the morning.
Most of us think of Lent as a time to give things up, dwell on sin, and practice piety. In its origins, Lent was a time for people who were new to the faith to prepare for their baptism on Easter. In essence, this was a practice of stepping away from the rat race, corrupt power, scarcity mentality, and empty rituals, in order to live a more expansive and full life of faith.
This worship series is an invitation — into a radically different Lent, into a full life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, and to pour out even more grace wherever it is needed. It disrupts the scarcity mentality that capitalism, oppression, or hierarchy can plant inside of us. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over. It reaches beyond ourselves; like water, it rushes and flows, touching everything in its path.
March 6 — 1st Sunday in Lent: Even in the Desert
Scripture: Luke 4:1–13
Even in the midst of struggle, oppressive forces, hardship, and grief — God’s promises spill over, like the bounty of the first fruits from the ground. Even in the desert, you are called to the riverside to be washed by grace.
March 13 — 2nd Sunday in Lent: Under God’s Wing
Scripture: Luke 13:31-35
Jesus’s lament for Jerusalem is an image of fierce love and protection. We receive grace upon grace, even if not deserved. No matter how much we try to separate ourselves from God, God will run to protect us. God will gather is in. God’s love for us is fuller than we can imagine.
March 20 — 3rd Sunday in Lent: You Are Worthy
Scripture: Luke 13:1–9
The lesson of the fig tree invites us to unpack the source of our worth in a system and society that often measures worthiness by commerce, production, output, success, status, achievement, ethnicity, and/or gender identity. Like the gardener, you are invited to see others with audacious hope and budding potential.
March 27 — 4th Sunday in Lent: Prodigal Grace
Scripture: Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32
The word “prodigal” is commonly used to describe the son who squanders his inheritance. Yet, this parable invites us to consider how God’s grace is also prodigal — extravagant, lavish, illogical. This parable disrupts and expands our definitions of grace. How might you receive and extend prodigal grace?
April 3 — 5th Sunday in Lent: Brazen Acts of Beauty
Scripture: John 12:1–8
Beauty is resistance to death; beauty is an act of love. Faith does not hide; it is not frugal. It is embodied, broken open, and poured out. This isn’t a frugal faith — it is an abundant, extravagant faith.
April 10 — Palm/Passion Sunday: Even the Stones
Scripture: Luke 19:28–40
As we begin our walk through Holy Week, let us ask: What can’t be silenced? What must be said? What things can we not stay quiet about? What is bubbling up that we need to give voice to — faith questions, apologies, issues of justice, truth-telling? As we go deeper into the story, the truth will soon be set free.
April 17 — Easter Sunday: An Expansive Life
Scripture: Luke 24:1–12
When the women find the tomb empty and are stunned by the presence and words of the messengers in dazzling clothing, they remember what Jesus had said. They return to their deepest knowing and allow themselves to receive the expansiveness of resurrection. Their imaginations and hearts expand, and they must take action in response.
How do we carry forth what we have learned this Lent? Can we be curious enough to return and remember? Can we allow ourselves to be filled with expansive hope? Can we trust in the expansive promise of new life, and carry that promise with us wherever we go?
Our mission is to follow Jesus Christ by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.
