Hurting, healing, and hope.
These words don’t always seem to fit together, do they? Yet the Gospel of John circles around all three of these interlocking concepts again and again: there is plenty of hurting in the world…yet God is a God of healing…so in the end, we may have hope. This is the message that Jesus proclaims throughout the Gospel, through the conversations and encounters that he has with others.
And perhaps it is a message that makes sense to us this Lenten season:
- Many of us grit our teeth when we look at the hurting world around us, as anxiety abounds: Systemic injustice. War and violence. Political division and dysfunction. Over and over again, we ask ourselves, “What’s next?”
- And yet, when we listen closely enough, we hear stories of healing: Those who are standing against injustice. The healers and the helpers who rush in as the bombs fall. Courageous voices calling out political dysfunction and greed.
- So, in the end, we find that the hope that Jesus promised is still valid. The promise that he gave in person is echoing in our ears. And Resurrection is still the end of the story.
Let us join together this Lenten season for a clear-eyed acknowledgement that God hears the hurting, heals the broken, and gives us a reason to hope.
February 18 (Ash Wednesday): “A Shepherd Inspires Hope” (John 10.1-18)
February 22: “A Teacher Learns to Hope” (John 3.1-21)
March 1: “The Hurting Are Healed” (John 5.1-9)
Friday, March 6: Lenten Taize Worship
March 8: “A Man and His Community See” (John 9.1-41)
March 15: “Living Water Heals” (John 4.1-42)
March 22: “A Dead Man Lives” (Lazarus & John 11)
March 29 (Palm/Passion Sunday)—two parts:
- “A Hope Proclaimed” [Palms: Triumphal Entry (John 12:12-27)]
- “A Hope Practiced” [Passion: Last Supper and Footwashing (John 13.1-17)]
April 2 (Maundy Thursday): “Will Hope Die?” John 18 & 19
April 5 (Easter Sunday): “The Gardener Tends” (John 20.1-18)