Lent 1

“Unbroken: God Speaks to Us through Scripture and Spirit”

We have begun the season of Lent, the Christian church’s annual time of deepening spiritual practice and reflection in preparation for the celebrations of Easter. This period of introspection and preparation originated in the earliest centuries of Christianity as part of the pathway followed by newcomers to the faith, as they decided if they were ready to commit to the path of being a Christian, a committed disciple of Jesus Christ and member of Christ’s church.

For us nearly two millennia later, questions of what Christianity is all about and what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ—such questions are just as relevant for us today. After all, we are always discerning, always reforming, always leaning into what it means to be the people of God in each unique time and place. And so, throughout Lent this year, we’ll be exploring what it means to claim a living faith: to be a part of the unbroken line of Christ’s disciples down through the ages, but to do so in ways that are alive to how God is at work in the world in our own age.

This Sunday, the 1st Sunday in Lent, we journey alongside Jesus as he spends 40 days in the wilderness being tested or tempted by the evil one. In the midst of competing and contentious claims, both he and we discover that God speaks to us—still—through scripture and through the Spirit. We are never alone, and never without aid.