Centering Habits Reading Plant: Lent 2021
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. — Hebrews 4:12
W.H. Auden wrote, “Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.” His point was that through something like literature, communication transcends time and space. While this may be metaphorically true for Shakespeare it is literally true for God. When we read the Bible, God speaks to us. When we think of Scripture as “The Word of God,” we often get hung up in the past tense of that phrase, but the present tense is equally true. Through His Holy Spirit, the Word of God is, as the author of Hebrews puts it, “living and active.”
The events of the past year have been disruptive in many ways, and—while it’s always true that we need to hear from God—we especially need to hear from him now. Because of this, our church is committing to three shared habits during the season of Lent, one of which is to read one chapter of Scripture each day.
More than simply reading Scripture, though, we want to read it together—to focus our attention and reflection upon the same passages. That’s the purpose of this reading plan. Each week is centered around a theme—a topic we believe needs to be reimagined in light of what the past year has revealed about us and our world. Each day contains one chapter of Scripture relating to that theme. You’ll notice that the guide doesn’t extend to Saturday and Sundays. That’s by design; we want to allow you time to catch up on passages that you might have missed during the week.
It’s our prayer that through this practice, God will guide our church community in our reimagination of what our life together should look like as we venture into the “new normal” awaiting us this year.
Looking for a Lent activity to share with your kids? We also have a Lent Catechism for Families, a set of questions, answers, and Bible verses for each day of the week.