Sunday, February 22:  1st Sunday of Lent - Text Focus:  Matthew 4: 1-11

What do we do when we are at the “bitter end” of the rope, or at our “wits end?”  Jesus teaches us by example to cling to God’s word.  What does it look like for us to hold onto the promises of Scripture when we feel susceptible to temptation or demise? 

 Sunday, March 1:  2nd Sunday of Lent - Text Focus:  Genesis 12: 1-4a

How compelling would a message from God have to be to make you, at age 75, take up everything you have and move to a new place?  Abram is the model of faith and obedience.  He heard God’s promise – not just of land and nation status – but promise that he and his descendants would bless all the people of the world.  Isn’t that what we long for, too?  To be a blessing to our neighbors is a calling with uprooting our lives to follow.

Sunday, March 8: 3rd Sunday of Lent - Text Focus:  John 4: 5-42

Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria is an important one.  Here is a person we would not suspect would be an effective witness – yet her encounter and subsequent testimony invite an entire city to consider who Jesus is.  In a world where we are quick to judgment and definitive answers, how might questions open up more opportunity for dialogue and room for the Spirit to move among people?

 Sunday, March 15:  4th Sunday of Lent - Text Focus:  John 9: 1-41

So often we get caught up in the things that happen in life – and who caused them and who is to blame – that we fail to consider the flip side.  Jesus tells his disciples that it was nobody’s fault that a man had blindness; but more important was the fact that God’s glory was being revealed in his life.  How is God’ glory being revealed in you?  How might that sustain you in the midst of challenging circumstances?

 Sunday, March 22:  5th Sunday of Lent - Text Focus:  John 11: 1-45

 As the depiction of the valley of dry bones in Esekiel reminds us, God can breathe new life into dry, dead places.  Today we remember Lazarus – whom Jesus raises from death, a precursor of God’s own raising of himself.  What in you and me is so dead that we doubt it is even possible to have new life?  Dare we imagine God calling us forth in newness of life?