41 Days to Lent

Thank goodness Christmas is over, now that we are past the 12^th day of Christmas. Oh, crap, I just looked at my calendar and Lent begins in forty-one days. There is barely time for minister types to catch their breath and it is time to start planning for the next penitential season and its following festival. What Bible study will be done during Lent? What prayer groups need to be pulled together? What Lenten discipline will be followed privately and publicly? When will the choir begin to practice for the Easter cantata and will we squeeze it in on Palm Sunday? Will we have a new members’ class for the youth of the congregation? When will they be “confirmed?” Will the men’s group want to do the “Living Last Supper,” again this year?

Let’s not forget before all that there is the annual meeting of the congregation to hear from the governing body what happened last year and what is planned for this year. There are elders and deacons to elect, train and install. Then there is the governing board retreat. Why can’t we ever do that in good weather? How hard will arms have to be twisted to get the elders to show up? What do you mean the retreat can’t include an overnight at a conference center instead of part of a day in the church basement?  Don’t forget, the Super Bowl is on February 1^st, so nothing can be scheduled that day, even though the game isn’t until that evening. (Alas, the Steelers will be watching it instead of playing in it.)

Will the lectionary be followed in this time before Lent, or is this a time for one or two special sermon series? If it is to be a connected series of sermons what will be the umbrella topic? Maybe marriage would be a good topic. Better rethink that, how do folks feel their own marriage? If the topic is marriage what can be said about divorce? Might have to touch some sensitive nerves. Then there is the big one, what do we say about same-gender marriage? There are bound to be people on both sides of that hot potato. Okay, let’s think about something else.

How about a lectio continuo series on the Book of James? There are a lot of issues to be dealt with there. There is the faith and works issue. How about bridling the tongue? Some of the church conflicts could be addressed, but only obliquely. Don’t want anybody to think the sermon is aimed at them. “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.” Oh, that is a great text for a sermon, as long as it is done in generalities. There is always the economic divide in chapter five, but there are several members in the 1% and 5%. They might not like that.

Maybe it will be best to avoid anything controversial. Didn’t the Prophet cry, “Comfort, comfort ye my people?” A series could be developed around our many blessings. “Don’t just count your blessings, make your blessings count.” Does that emphasize our white privilege, since 99.5% of the congregation is white? A series on the fruits of the Spirit would be okay, but wouldn’t that be better after Pentecost?

Ah ha, a series which is comforting, non-controversial, avoids stepping on any toes or touching a sensitive nerve is what is called for. Let’s just use the text for each Sunday as found in the D.C. Cook Sunday School material for grades 3-5. That is never controversial. The harder topics can be saved for the summer when fewer people are in worship.