Ministry Spotlight:
Lent at OSL: You Are Here
You remember Barn Geese Worship, don’t you? They’re the folks who created the resources Our Savior’s utilized during Advent, My Heart Shall Sing.
Now OSL is once again turning to Barn Geese for its Lenten series, You Are Here.
And who are the people behind Barn Geese Worship? According to their website, “Barn Geese Worship is the offshoot of a small community of pastors who have been meeting every summer for the last several years to brainstorm around the coming liturgical year. We call it: PREACHING CAMP.
“But it became about more than preaching, because we believe strongly in centrifugal worship. The texts we preach on are also at the center of our worship, and driven by the momentum of the Holy Spirit, they fling out all kinds of possibilities for a faith community’s life together.”
Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that “small community of pastors” includes OSL’s Pastor for Outreach and Communication, Justin Kosec. That works out pretty well for Our Savior’s.
Why You Are Here? The Rev. Katie Pocalyko explains it in an introduction to the resources:
We typically talk about Lent being a journey. We write “God bless your Lenten journey!” in our newsletters, and we sing “Bless now, O God, the journey that all your people make.” And it’s true: there is movement in Lent. Jesus moves from the mountain on Transfiguration to the desert temptation, then into Jerusalem and onto the cross and (spoiler?) up from the grave. We hope that our Lenten journey will mirror Jesus’ and help us conform our lives to Christ’s life, death, resurrection.
But what if Lent isn’t only about journey? What if Lent is also about stationary place? The scripture readings for Lent this year…present a unique, sustained focus on location and place. Hebrew Bible texts speak of the Promised Land. The psalmist names God as shelter. Jesus asks us to pray in our rooms. Paul writes about standing firm. Events occur in real, historical places.
Place is what captured the Barn Geese’s collective imagination this Lent.
Among the resources that You Are Here comprises is a daily devotional—titled, naturally enough, You Are Here—which explores the season’s readings against the backdrop of historical places in the Holy Land, whether those places are known for a geographical certainty or are traditional settings.
As Lent proceeds, You Are Here looks up—at mountains, Mount Tabor, for instance, where tradition says Jesus, while praying, changed in appearance and was joined in conversation by Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28-36).
Subsequent devotions take us to the Temple Mount, the Jezreel Valley, Nimrod Castle, the Sea of Galilee, the Western Wall, and other sites where events occurred.
In OSL’s midweek services, you will be invited to contemplate a justice-oriented Lent. The series imagines “a promised land at the arrival gate of an airport, providing a way to explore refugee resettlement, and take you under the stars with Abram and Sarai as a means of reflecting on air pollution and creation care.”
You Are Here Daily Devotional is available via the OSL website; a limited number of copies can be found at the Welcome Center as well.
Come explore these themes, and more, as Lent at Our Savior’s unfolds. Wherever you go, you are here. ♦
Photos (from top): Mount Tabor from Nazareth, photo by Mark Vitali s Hoffman; Looking over the Sea of Galilee, photo by Mark Vitalis Hoffman; the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, photo by Victoria Larson.
Photos from You Are Here Daily Devotional and quotations from You Are Here resources © 2022 Barn Geese Worship, www.barngeeseworship.com.