Friday, February 15, 2013

Lent 2013 at Christ Our King

The Temptation in the Wilderness by John St. John Long.

Click here to download our 2013 Lent & Passiontide prayer guide.

At Christ Our King, the theme for this liturgical year is entitled "Longing to Fix our Broken World." We began this in the season of Advent by mourning for the world's brokenness and by watching and praying for someone to come and fix our world. Then with the incarnation of Jesus Christ at Christmas we saw that the answer to our prayers is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Next, through the season of Epiphany we explored our role as the Church in helping to heal the world's brokenness by exploring our mission as a church.

This Lent, we will be continuing this theme by acknowledging the role our own sins have played in the brokenness, pain, and suffering of this world. Thus, with the entire Church we are entering into a time of penitence, a time to reflect on the ways in which we have fallen short of God's glory and the ways that we have not been faithful in our roles as a priesthood to the nations.

Thus our theme this Lent will be "Entering into the Wilderness." Through this we will be focusing on two biblical events: the 40 wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and the 40 day wandering and temptation of Jesus in the trans-Jordanian wilderness that typified that former wandering. This Lent, as we are called to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus, we will be entering into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray for our own repentance and deliverance from sin as well as for the deliverance of our city, our country, and our world.

To this end, we as a church have provided Lenten prayer guides for each person to use as a way to direct your scripture reading and praying during Lent this year. These guides are available at church each Sunday.

Furthermore, our sermons will also be focuses on the theme of "Entering the Wilderness," as well. Here are the titles for the sermons during our 40 days of Lent together:

Sunday, February 17: Entering the Wilderness; text: Luke 4:1-13 - SERMON AUDIO
Sunday, February 24: Rallying to Christ in the Wilderness; text: Luke 13:31-35 - SERMON AUDIO
Sunday, March 3: The Call to Repent in the Wilderness; text: Luke 13:1-9 - SERMON AUDIO
Sunday, March 10: Returning to Christ in the Wilderness; text: Luke 15:1-32 - SERMON AUDIO
Sunday, March 17: The Stone Rejected in the Wilderness; text: Luke 20:1-20 SERMON AUDIO
Palm Sunday, March 24: Preparing to Leave the Wilderness; text: Luke 19:28-44 SERMON AUDIO
Good Friday, March 29: The Death of the King in the Wilderness; text: Luke 23:1-56 SERMON AUDIO

Pastor LeCroy has written a series of blog posts on Lent:
On the Historical Origins of Lent
The History of Fasting During Lent
A Biblical and Theological Defense of Fasting During Lent