During this season of Lent, there are lots of opportunities in addition to our usual weekend services, including:

· Monday Noon Worship
· Wednesday Evening Worship at 7:00 p.m.
· Small Groups throughout the Week

“Wait...What...More Church?” you might be thinking to yourself. Yes, more church!

Lent is about turning back to God by refocusing our lives on our relationship with God. There’s no better way to do this than by intentionally engaging in worship, prayer, scripture reading and study with other people of faith. So, here at Abiding Presence we offer a lot more opportunities for church during Lent.

In the midst of our busy lives, I often think that adding something for Lent is harder than giving something up. Giving up chocolate or social media for six weeks—while good—doesn’t impact our schedules much. While it can be hard to fast from these things, I’m not sure it always does much to draw us back to God.

Adding a weekly small group meeting or midweek worship service, however, is really inconvenient. As a mom, I know that Lent falls during the busy spring season of children’s sports and activities. Yet, something inconvenient is often exactly what we need during Lent. We need to be interrupted from our usual lives in order to refocus on God. It takes an interruption for us to reexamine our priorities.

So, I want to invite you this Lenten season to dig a little deeper in your disciplines to add something that will intentionally draw you back to the God whose arms are reaching out to you. Sign up for a small group even though you have never done one before, or don’t really like this kind of thing, or don’t know anyone else who is doing it, or don’t have time, or…(add your favorite reason not to do it here). Pick one of our midweek services and come to it every week. Come even when you are tired after work, the kids are grumpy or you prefer more contemporary rather than traditional worship. If none of these things really are possible in your schedule, then find something else to add—maybe daily Bible reading—that has to be worked into your schedule. Add an interruption that makes these six weeks different from all the other weeks of the year.

Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” is one of his best known sermons. Found in the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, this sermon outlines for Jesus’ new followers what it means to be disciples. Spoiler alert—it’s going to be harder than they think! 

Journey is headed—to crucifixion, death and resurrection. Here at the beginning, everything is still new and exciting. But, it won’t always be that way. So, Jesus sits everyone down and preaches about who he is, who God is and who God is calling us to be in the world.

Following Jesus is hard. If it’s not, then you might want to ask yourself who you are actually following. Following Jesus means getting outside of our comfort zone to love those we cannot stand, serve those from whom we would rather look away and shape our priorities in ways that are counter to the culture around us. It means being different, which is both a blessing and a challenge at times.

If you have a few minutes this week, I encourage you to sit down and read the whole Sermon on the Mount. You can find it in Matthew 5-7. Spend some time listening to what God is saying to you through these words. One of the wonderful and challenging things about Jesus’ words is that they are just as applicable to us today as they were to his first followers. Anger, love for enemies, the discipline of prayer, struggling with worry, judging others—these are all themes you will find in Jesus’ sermon and, if you are anything like me, will find are things you struggle with today.

Following Jesus is hard, but it is also the most transformational thing we can do—not only for ourselves, but also for our world.

This weekend we will observe the festival of the Presentation of our Lord. This is one of those special days of the church year that we only celebrate when the festival day falls on a Sunday.

The Presentation of our Lord takes us back to the early months after Jesus’ birth when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be dedicated to God. According to the book of Exodus, every first born human and animal was to be set apart for God. (You can read all about it in Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16.) Having given birth to their first born male child, Mary and Joseph knew this law applied to Jesus and they followed it. While Mary and Joseph went to the temple to do what all first born parents of male children did, they left the temple amazed about what was said about their son.

At the temple they met Simeon, who proclamation that Jesus was “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel.” Simeon recognized Jesus as the light of the whole world. He was and is God’s revelation for all people. Because of Simeon’s proclamation, in some places this festival is referred to as “Candlemas” and is a time to bless all of the candles that are to be used during worship in the coming year. 

Mary and Joseph also encountered a prophet named Anna. She, too, recognized that God was doing a new thing in Jesus’ birth, bringing light and hope into the world.

You hear me often preach, “God is not yet done with us or our world.” God continues to be doing new things in our midst, bringing light and hope into the world. The Holy Spirit, the breath of God, continues to stir among us at Abiding Presence and throughout the world to reveal the glory of God in Christ. In the midst of a world that often seems a mess, the fact that God is not yet done with us and is still doing new things is central to my faith.   

This weekend we will officially welcome our newest staff members. Pastor Joe Vought will be installed as our Teaching Pastor and Sarah Snow will be installed as our Congregational Care Minister. After a year of many transitions, I’m excited to settle in with our new staff team and get to work.

I’ve learned, however, that God rarely calls us to just settle in and get comfortable. So, let us keep anticipating and keeping our eyes open for the next new thing that God will do. Our new staff team and I will be watching, waiting and preparing. We hope that you will be, too!

During this time after Epiphany our scripture lessons will focus on the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. We will hear about the calling of the disciples and Jesus’ first sermon in Matthew’s gospel—the Sermon on the Mount. In these first two months of the new year, we will wrestle with what does it actually mean to follow Jesus.

The time after Epiphany is one of my favorite seasons of the year to preach. I love the stories of Jesus’ calling of the disciples and his building of the ministry team that will journey with him. I find the Spirit coming alive in these passages offering so much for us today through them. Following Jesus has never been easy. It’s always been a little strange and left people scratching their heads. 

Reading, studying and preaching the disciples’ call stories always reminds me of my own call story, too. This Wednesday will mark the 13th anniversary of my ordination into the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Some days of ministry have been just what I expected while other days have been far from it. Being a pastor—specifically, being your pastor—continues to be my “dream job.”

As I reflect on the calling of the disciples, my own call and our ministry together at Abiding Presence, I cannot help but wonder who else among us God might be calling into the ministry. Could it be you?

In celebration of Abiding Presence’s 40th anniversary a few years ago, we launched the Abiding Presence Fund for Leaders in Mission Scholarship. We are currently working to build an endowed scholarship that will provide financial support for members of Abiding Presence and others to attend an ELCA seminary to become a pastor or deacon. We want to ensure that not only Abiding Presence, but also the whole ELCA has faithful and innovative pastors and deacons to lead them into the future. This is one way that Abiding Presence is working to make a lasting impact on the larger church. 

Just as it did when Jesus called the disciples long ago, the church continues to need people willing to say, “Yes,” to God’s call.