EVENTS

Each Lent, we are reminded that, again & again, suffering and brokenness find us. We doubt again, we lament again, we mess up again. Again & again, the story of Jesus on the cross repeats — every time lives are taken unjustly, every time the powerful choose corruption and violence, every time individuals forget how to love.
 
With exacerbation we exclaim, “Again?! How long, O God?” And yet, in the midst of the chaos of our lives, God offers a sacred refrain: “I choose you, I love you, I will lead you to repair.” Again & again, God breaks the cycle and offers us a new way forward.
 
This theme provides a clear invitation in a time when much is unclear. Even as we continue to worship while physically separated, we come to God again & again with our prayers, our dreams, our hopes, and our doubts. Even if from a distance, we continue to be community to one another — especially when it’s hard — by choosing each other over & over again. We continue to love God with the same persistence with which God chooses and claims us.
 
A Lenten Refrain speaks to the ways God can make music of our lives. “Refrain” also reminds us that Lent is a season of abstaining from certain or harmful practices in order to take on new rhythms and habits. In this season, we need rituals — both old and new — to remember and be transformed. Embodied practice builds muscle memory. Repetition helps retrain our neural pathways. We need the 46 days of Lent because this season shapes us into more faithful disciples.
 
Join us this Lent as again & again, we bring all of who we are to God and trust that God will meet us, time and again along the way.