The Super Bowl – and Hope
If you are reading this on Sunday, January 29, you probably know that next Sunday (February 5) is Super Bowl Sunday. Now, a month ago I was looking forward to Super Bowl Sunday with a heart full of hope! The Green Bay Packers, my favorite football team, were on top of the standings in the NFL and about to go into the playoffs as hands down favorites to repeat their Super Bowl victory of a year ago. Ah – hope was springing eternal! And then, on Sunday, January 15, the unthinkable happened. The Packers lost their first playoff game and were eliminated from playoffs! Hopes of glory turned to the despair of defeat. For a few days I wondered if I’d bother to watch the Super Bowl this year at all!
Truth be told, I think what I just described about my football viewing fortunes is in some ways reminiscent of how some people approach the season of Lent. Instead of approaching Lent with a spirit of hope and optimism, they view this significant season of the Christian year almost with a sense of dread – a time of somber self-denial not be enjoyed or appreciated, but rather to be merely endured. At a deeper level, I’m certain that we know that’s really not what Lent is about, and this year I’m inviting us as a congregation to move in a new direction! This year I’m inviting us to go on a 7-week Journey to Hope. We’ll travel with Jesus to the cross and discover the hope that can be found in the midst of life’s most difficult circumstances.
Journey to Hope will inspire us to reflect on Jesus’ experiences on the path to the cross in new ways. It will encourage us to see real life situations with fresh eyes. And it will challenge us to interact with God no matter our stage in life. We’ll examine real life circumstances of relationships, self-esteem, work, temptation, money problems, suffering and death, and discover how faith in Christ is relevant to everyday life and how having a faith community can make all the difference.
Journey to Hope will be an integrated congregational experience, consisting of Sunday worship time, Wednesday lunches and study, and a Sunday morning Sunday School class (beginning February 19). Our Wednesday lunch and study time will begin on Ash Wednesday, (February 22) and the first Sunday in Lent is February 26.
Lent is the season that gets us ready for the most hopeful day in all of human history – the day on which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ! No matter how dismal our outlook might be at the moment, Easter reminds us that there is always hope! May God bless us this Lenten season as we Journey to Hope!
In Christ’s love – and mine,
Pastor Phil
