Thus far in Lent, having walked in Mark and John with Jesus through conflict, we now come to Holy Week and the final upsurge of opposition ending in our Lord’s death in Jerusalem. As always on Palm Sunday, the combining of the Triumphal Entry and the Passion narratives will send us as worshipers reeling in…
10 Ways to Preach the Palm Sunday Sermon
In David Roseberry’s ongoing series of posts on 10 Ways to Preach, we come to Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Palm Sunday features a diverse mix of stories and traditions, encompassing the events from the Lord’s triumphal entry to his burial in a tomb. For that reason, it is challenging to determine what…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 5B (Passion Sunday)
In the BCP 2019, you will find that the Fifth Sunday in Lent is also titled Passion Sunday. This is a pre-Vatican II designation for the Sunday beginning the week of Passiontide, which lasts through the Saturday before Palm Sunday in those churches that still observe it. The readings this deep in Lent bring us…
The Liturgical Home: Laetare Sunday
Amid the seasons of penitence and preparation in the church calendar, Advent and Lent, little gems exist known as Refreshment Sundays. On these days, the penitential tone eases, hence the name. The Refreshment Sundays are Gaudete Sunday, which falls in the middle of Advent, and Laetare Sunday, which falls in the middle of Lent. Refreshment…
Feasting on God’s Word in the Wilderness
Have you ever needed to hear something over and over again for it to stick? Probably something a parent or your spouse reminded you of countless times before you realized it was, after all, the best thing for you? When my dad was a teenager, he was pretty rebellious, he told me. He didn’t rebel…
Lent at Antioch: The Spiritual Disciplines of the First Christians
The first Christians did not have the word Lent, nor did they have a season of forty days before Easter. However, they did practice the spiritual disciplines of Lent: almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. In the New Testament, we see all three practices together at the church at Antioch, where believers were first called Christians. Acts…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 4B (Laetare Sunday)
The church takes us this week to another event of Jesus’ ministry in which he comes into conflict with unbelief in the world. In Lent, the church intends for us to meditate carefully on the challenges we face with unbelief in our daily lives, both our own and those we face from others. The assigned…
The Liturgical Home: Fasting as a Family
Lent is a pilgrimage of the soul, an opportunity to walk closely with the Lord in a path of repentance and renewal. From the ashes of Ash Wednesday to the glory of Easter Sunday, Lent is a beautiful narrative of redemption that echoes the enduring love of God and his unwavering desire to draw us…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 3B
As we walk in the lenten season with the Son of God incarnate, the church exposes us to instances in the Gospel narratives in which Jesus comes into conflict with the religious establishment of his day and the spiritual powers of darkness which have perverted the revelation of the law. On Sundays in Years A…
The History of the Lent Collects
The theme of the Lent collects is human sinfulness and our need for God. We “acknowledge our wretchedness.” We are “tempted,” and our resistance is “weak.” We have “no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” We have “disordered affections” and “unruly wills.” And so, what we need above all is “new and contrite hearts,” for…
