Traditionally, the season of Lent is thought of as a somber, penitent time of self-reflection and denial. But for so many of us that’s how the last few years have already felt. We’ve been in a “lenten” season for years now!
Yet, there is another side to Lent that isn’t always acknowledged. Pastor Osheta likes to say, “In Lent, we let go of some things so that we can take hold of others.”
That’s why this year our Lenten theme is: Full to the Brim, because the ashes of Ash Wednesday aren’t only about acknowledging our mortality, they are also about how the fire of the Holy Spirit refines us, transforms us, and creates something beautiful.
As we emerge from the season of Epiphany, through which we’ve been discerning a new beginning for Roots, we’re entering into the season of Lent focused on God’s abundant grace.
From Sanctified Art:
The scriptures for this Lenten season (in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C) are filled with parables and promises of God’s abundant and expansive grace. Jesus as a mother hen, a prodigal son welcomed home, a fig tree nurtured with care and hope, precious oil poured out lovingly and freely, stones shouting out with praise —these sacred texts are brimming with a gospel of grace. We’ve done nothing to deserve or earn this grace, and yet, like water, it spills over. Full to the Brim is an invitation—into a radically different Lent, into a full life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, to pour out even more grace wherever it is needed. It disrupts the scarcity mentality that capitalism, oppression, or hierarchy can plant inside of us. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over. It reaches beyond ourselves; like water, it rushes and flows, touching everything in its path.”