We enter Lent this year having already been on a wilderness journey for many months. It has become difficult to come up with anymore synonyms for the word, “unprecedented”. And yet, the movement of the seasons of our church year, just like the weather, remind us that we continue to be drawn forward moment by moment, sustained by our Creator and Sustainer.
Join us on Sundays at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. and on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. for live worship streamed on our Facebook and YouTube channels. Let us worship into and through this season together. However you find yourself, you are welcome!
Often during the seasons of Lent and Advent we create a devotional of stories submitted by members of our congregation. This Lent, however, as we explore what it means to be in community with others, we are encouraging our members to engage in devotionals published by other communities.
Daily devotions are not a one size fits all experience. By engaging with the devotional patterns and voices of other communities, we hope to introduce folks to new ways of taking this daily pause, as well as hear voices from the larger Christian community. If you would like a printed copy of a devotional sent to your home, we will send you the Augsburg Fortress Lenten Devotional “A Story to Tell”. Please call the church office at 608-271-6633 or email Judy Hoard at jhoard@gslcwi.com if you would like a copy.
If you are comfortable using online resources, here are a few we suggest. We will provide you with more information on them as we get closer to Lent.
Our Staff Team has put together a list of recommended Devotional guides available in print and online.
We’ll have a list of suggested readings and reflections from the Good Shepherd Community.
We’ll provide a link to our latest Podcast episodes as well as recommended Podcasts for your Lenten journey.
Mark 4:35
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The Sunday readings for Lent 1, year B highlight the destructive power of the flood as well as the power of God’s promise represented there. In the gospel reading Jesus is with the wild animals in the wilderness. While we often think of community as limited to human beings, our human existence is interdependent with all the created world. This theme is especially apparent in Mark 4:35-41, the account of the fishermen whose lives depend on the sea but who become afraid of its power in the storm.
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Mark 9:2
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The Sunday readings for Lent 2, year B highlight God’s promise to many generations; the passage from Romans reminds us that our faith is intertwined with those who have gone before us. The understanding of community expressed in our creeds extends beyond the present time to include those whose faith has influenced our own and those we influence after us. We hear this connection to what has been established before us echoed in Mark 9:2-8, the account of the transfiguration.
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Mark 2:1-12
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The Sunday readings for Lent 3, year B center us in the ten commandments, which serve, among other things, as a way of living in community with our neighbor. Jesus’ actions in the temple are, in part, a reaction to dishonest dealings with neighbors from near and far who have come to worship. Being in community with our neighbor is complicated and beautiful. Mark 2:1-12, the story of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus through the roof of a crowded room, highlights the way in which it takes a community to care for one another.
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Mark 5:1-20
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The Sunday readings for Lent 4, year B include the visit of Nicodemus to Jesus at night. Though he is a leader in the community, his interest in Jesus pushes him to the outside of his own group and to the edges of Jesus’ followers. We continue to read of the Hebrew people wrestling with their wandering in the wilderness, not being part of a settled community. Those on the margins are also a part of our communities. When Jesus crosses over to the land of the Gerasenes in Mark 5:1-20, he encounters and brings healing to a man who has been left on the margins and restores him to community.
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Mark 10: 32-45
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The Sunday readings for Lent 5, year B remind us where we are headed in this season and always—to the cross. When we are at the limits of our own power, overwhelmed by guilt or shame, or confronted with death, we find ourselves in the company of Jesus, who is our community even when all else fails. In Mark 10:32-45, Jesus once again reminds the disciples and us that our call will lead us to the cross.
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