There are traditionally four Lenten disciplines in which to engage, as we look toward the new life promised at Easter: prayer, almsgiving, study, and fasting.
In this time in our country and world, I have wondered how my Lenten disciplines can help me engage with the world and help those who are particularly vulnerable right now. Here is what I have come up with:
PRAYER:
* I will focus in my prayer on a different vulnerable group each week:
Week 1: Refugees and immigrants
Week 2: The environment, and those who most dramatically feel the effects of climate change
Week 3: Children and public education
Week 4: Ethnic and religious minorities and people of color
Week 5: People will disabilities, chronic health issues, and those who don't have access to affordable healthcare (or won't, if the ACA is repealed and not adequately replaced)
Week 6: Veterans, the unemployed, people with mental illness and addictions
(NOTE: None of these name hunger or poverty, which are obviously huge concerns of mine and I hope everyone, but each has hunger/poverty as a side effect or important piece of the puzzle, so my prayers each week will be also for those who hunger.)
** In addition: The two congregations I have been called to serve have a covenant with one another, and one of the things they covenant to do is pray for one another. To keep that covenant, we have a Lenten prayer vigil, in which every day another family from each church is the focus of everyone's prayer. I am going to try to call each of those families on the day on which we pray for them (or close to it), to ask what in particular I can pray for.
ALMSGIVING:
I will give money each week of Lent to an organization that helps the above groups:
Week 1: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
Week 2: Environmental Defense Fund
Week 3: Rochester Education Foundation (helps our Rochester city schools)
Week 4: American Civil Liberties Union
Week 5: Heritage Christian Services (a local organization that serves people with disabilities)
Week 6: Operation Homefront
This is a combination of local and national organizations, and each has at least an A- rating on CharityWatch (except the local ones, which aren't on CharityWatch, but came recommended by people in the know).
I'm also going to subscribe to a couple of publications to help support and keep alive legit journalism. I'm thinking Wall Street Journal will be one of them. Of course, since I am a millennial, it'll be an online subscription. ;)
STUDY:
For Lent, my congregations are studying Martin Luther's Small Catechism, so my preparations for that will take most of my studying energies. Of course, I'll be studying it with all these things in mind. In addition, I will learn something about each of the above areas to guide my prayer, looking to print news sources on both sides of the spectrum, and especially rigorous, investigative articles.
FASTING:
Fasting should be a fast from self-indulgence. Well, chocolate and meat are not indulgences for me. As I think about what would complement the above disciplines, it occurs to me that I need to fast from my privileged neglect - or put more bluntly, from laziness. So much of what I see happening in our country upsets me, but because so little of it affects me directly and personally, it is easy to share something on Facebook, but expect someone else to do something about it. So for my fast, I will actually be doing something: I will commit to call representatives on issues facing the above groups each week.
My hope is that by engaging in God's world in these ways, I will gain more compassion for my neighbors whose lives differ from mine, even as I do my part to live out "thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."
Will you join me in any of these? If not, will you pray for me, as I take them on?
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