Sometimes figuring out what we will focus on together in Sunday worship isn’t very easy.

Last year, Easter sort of snuck up on us. Well, not really, but we didn’t do much ahead of time in our worship to prepare us for the biggest day of celebration in the Christian church.

I felt like we ought be more intentional this year in our preparation by experiencing the season of Lent together.

Friends churches…in fact, many evangelical churches…are not in the habit of following the liturgy of the church year. I’ve had to do some learning, studying how the church has historically prepared for Easter. I’ve had to do some reading about Lent, the forty days before Easter. Well, forty days plus the six Sundays, which aren’t counted.

What does that word mean to you, if anything? What do you associate with Lent? (ASK; giving up chocolate or something, Mardi Gras)

Lent is a time for intense study of God’s Word, for meditation, for prayer, and for self-examination

It’s a way to prepare for the amazing hope that we celebrate at Easter.

Before we leave today, you’ll hear of some specific ways to study the bible, some ways to examine ourselves, and some ways to give something up in order to focus more time on prayer.

Lent is a journey designed to help us join our lives with the life of Jesus. One person said it this way:

“At the very heart of the Christian faith is our common participation in the life, suffering, death, resurrection, and Spirit-giving of Jesus Christ.”

Before we dig into the bible text for today, though, we’re going to play a little “name that tune”.

You’ve probably noticed that we have people from many different generations who are a part of Newberg Friends. So I’ve tried to really span the ages in my song selections. I know you will get many of these, and I think I may stump you on a few…listen, and when you can name the song, raise your hand.

Turn! Turn! Turn!-The Byrds: 1965

Don’t turn around-Ace of Base: 1993

Turn Loose and Go to Town-Bob Skyles and his Skyrockets: 1940

Total Eclipse-Bonnie Tyler: 1983

Turn Me Loose Fabian: 1959

Turn the Page- Bobby Valentino: 2006

Turn the Beat Around- Vicki Sue Robinson: 1976

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus-Elvis Presley:

So…did you notice any theme to the songs?

Turn! I always said you’re smart people.

Turn. Lent begins this coming Wednesday, a day known as Ash Wednesday. Some churches (the Episcopal and Catholic churches in Newberg will do this) have a worship service where ashes are placed on every person’s forehead in the shape of a cross.

Often in the Old Testament, a time of repenting or calling out to God would be marked by wearing sackcloth and ashes. Ashes are a grim reminder of our mortality…we don’t live forever. We aren’t perfect.

Robert Webber captures Ash Wednesday this way:

“The great theme of Ash Wednesday is ‘return to the Lord.’ This day emphasizes our mortality and humanity. It is time for putting aside the sins and failures of the past in order to journey toward who we are yet to become by the grace of Christ.”

 

It’s a day to begin a season of “turning”.

Listen as I read Joel 2: 12-17. Listen for all the times that “turn” and “return” are mentioned. [READ]

These words came at a time of great crisis, and Joel is calling the people to return to God. He’s very serious: he asks them to immediately set aside their regular lives.

He’s very dramatic and drastic: give up your wedding night and fall on your faces before God! This is the passage that the church has used for hundreds of years to begin Lent, to begin our preparations for Easter.

“Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Often as the church throughout history would go through Lent, it was a preparation for new members to enter into the church. But the WHOLE church would do it. The WHOLE church would hear the call of God to return with ALL our heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.

Just as Jesus went into the desert and fasted for 40 days to prepare for his ministry, we as the church get the 40 days of Lent to prepare ourselves, to walk with Jesus right up to Easter. Giving up something for Lent is a fast, a fast to break the power something has over us and draw us closer to God.

Joel’s words here in chapter 2 challenge us to take this seriously. I love v. 13: “Rend your heart and not your garments.”

Don’t just go through the motions, don’t just do the ritual of a fast: tear your heart open, lay it bare before God! This isn’t just tearing your clothes in a ceremonial act of repentance; it is taking a hard look at who we are and what we do as people, and laying ourselves bare before God.

Joel was speaking to people who had pretty good incentive to fast and pray and tear their hearts open before God.

They had an army sitting on their doorstep, waiting to destroy everything and everyone they knew and loved.

I looked into finding a marauding army to be waiting outside of each service to sort of duplicate the incentive, but the price was just way out of my league.

So, we don’t have an obvious army knocking on the door. The question is whether you and I are in a crisis now. I’m sure that someone in this room is. Someone is without a doubt at the crisis stage, the part of life where everything is falling apart and there is nowhere left to turn. Others of us are holding together ok, but if we look a little deeper, warning signs might be showing.

Lent is a time to look a little deeper and spot the warning signs before they get out of hand. It’s our time to turn away from the wrong stuff and return to God.

For Israel and Judah, the issues which brought about the invading army had been building for a very long time. God had sent many warnings, but they had ignored them all.

We can be the same way.

We’re not interested in ritual in this season of Lent. It’s not about forcing us to go through the motions of some ritual.

We want to make a commitment to each other. We will attempt to rend our hearts, lay them bare before God. We want to discover for ourselves what we are like, and what God is like. As we return to God, it gives us the chance to see his graciousness and compassion for ourselves.

Seeing our own humanity, our own struggles, reminds us of our need for God and the hope that Easter brings.

Do you want to join together and respond to God’s call to turn?

We’ve set up a structure, some things we hope will help us examine and prepare. The structure can’t “make” us do anything. It can’t force us to tear our hearts open. But these are some things that might help us see ourselves as we really are. They might help us see God as he really is.

 

First, you might want to “Give up.”

Beginning with Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, choose to fast from something for the 46 days of Lent. Give up desserts or chocolate or harsh words. Give up one meal a day, or coffee, or diet coke. Give up your iPod or Xbox or checking sports scores.

From Wednesday until Easter, choose to do without something, and every time you think of the thing you are going without, use it as a trigger to pray.

“Give up.”

Next, you might want to “Dig in.”

Several years ago, Jo Lewis from our congregation gathered some daily readings to follow the life of Jesus as he headed toward Jerusalem and the cross. She’s given us permission to use her work to help us dig in to the bible as a way to open our hearts to God during Lent.

There are several different ways you can do this. The simplest one is to grab one of these yellow bookmarks from the Welcome Center and stick it in your bible. Beginning on Wednesday, day 40 of Lent, there is a bible passage listed to read every day. Dig in to Jesus’ life as the bible tells it to us.

If you want, we’ve also set up a webpage that will have a link to the bible passages and on some days to some classic artwork that will help you dig in to the bible. The address is on the yellow sheet, and each day the readings will appear. You can find it at nfclent.wordpress.com.

If you want to really dig in, you can have a copy of Jo’s original work, which includes her own translation of the passage and some notes as well. You can grab one of those at the welcome center as well…if we run out, come get one at the office or give us a call. “Dig in.”

Finally, “Look deep.”

Take time to stop and look at your life. What’s really important to you? What kind of change is God whispering to you to make? Are there things you need to confess to God and remove from your life?

This is a chance to be honest about our own frailty as people, and a chance to experience firsthand, in a real way, the compassion and the grace of God. Look deep.

So there’s the Lent journey ahead of us: Give up, Dig in, and Look deep.

Would you say it with me? [ASK] May God use this time of Lent to help us know ourselves and know him better.