At the Organic Faith Bible Study this past Sunday night we read through the transfiguration story and mused about its placement as the text you read every year the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
In a way, we came to an agreement as a group. We were thinking that the Church hears of Jesus’ transfiguration before moving into the season of Lent so that we might see Lent as a time of transformation for ourselves. All in all, I think we had some pretty good ideas at this particular Bible Study. And then, on Tuesday night I came across a blog post with the following words in it:
“But Lent isn’t about denial, it is about transformation. It is the season in which we prepare to encounter Christ’s sacrifice by endeavoring to become more Christ like ourselves. Transformation is about letting ourselves be filled with God’s presence so that we can be shaped by God’s grace. Our acts of kenosis – denying ourselves in order to empty ourselves enough to allow God to fill us – are means to an end. They are disciplines that prepare us to be transformed. We deny ourselves so that we can be reborn as new creations – to live more fully as the Kingdom citizens God desires us to be.” – (taken from julieclawson.com)
This Lent, on Wednesday nights, Organic Faith will be leading the Lenten worship gatherings at Zion Lutheran Church. Our hope is to share with the people of Zion a little piece of who we are, and how we understand and practice our faith.
But not only that.Organic Faith also hopes that these gatherings can be a time of transformation for all who gather. In the worship, in the songs, the prayers, the music, the silence, and in the discipline of Lent, we all are slowly learning to allow the transforming power of God into the emptiness of our lives once again.
