Following on from the Circuit Climate Action initiative that led up to COP-26, we now have a Lent Study for use at your local church. It will be available to download on 7th February from methodistic.org.uk/rising.
The study is called Rising to the Call: 7 Big Questions. We will ponder Jesus’ journey to the cross and his resurrection alongside our personal Lenten journey as we think about the world and climate action and our need to rise and find new ways to move forward with Easter hope. All the information that you need to lead a group is in the study guide. The climate action section of our website provides supplemental material for those who wish to explore further.
When Jesus was baptised by John, God assured him of his blessing, and the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, prayerfully to seek out how to fulfil his calling. Jesus wrestled with choices of how to bring God’s loving justice to life in the world for all time.
After two years of our wilderness experience of Covid we have the opportunity this Lent to refocus our discipleship: bringing renewal and fresh purpose to the church and communities we serve. We too must wrestle prayerfully with today’s big questions of justice to find God’s chosen way for us. How can we bring sustainable justice for the climate and a justice of harmony and cohesion to society?
Each week, the study group is invited to explore a big question whose foundation is in that week’s gospel reading from the Year C lectionary. The guide suggests a number of ways to reflect more widely and leads the group to find practical responses that individuals and the whole group may wish to adopt.
Although these scripture passages were not written about climate justice, the Big Questions can be applied to our discipleship in general and to issues of justice. Most weeks there will be an additional scripture that we will also reflect upon.
There are seven sessions beginning with an Introductory Session in the week of Ash Wednesday, followed by six sessions to answer the first six questions concluding in Holy Week, with an optional session after Easter to look at the seventh question. The circuit online worship services during Lent and on Easter Sunday will also be based on this theme. The sermons from those services will be available separately as a video at methodistic.org.uk/rising for any group who wants to use it as a part of each week’s study.
The study covers these challenging and refreshing questions:
- How do you resist the easy option? – some times we are called to overlook the simple and easy answer and take a much more difficult and demanding course of action – but the cry for justice will always push us to go further;
- Who do you listen to? – we are constantly bombarded with messages – both truths and hoaxes, and we have to balance the value of experience, with the need for fresh ideas – sometimes we need courage to relinquish our tight grip and hand over the reins;
- How many chances do you get? – “we are running out of time” is a constant refrain across all forms of injustice, but too often the response appears to be “wait and see” – we need both forgiveness and persistence;
- Can you come back from the bottom? – repentance requires us to confront the wrong in our lives – like all addictions, the hardest choice is owning whatever we need to change – without that ownership our downward spiral will continue, so how can we take ownership and begin our recovery and repentance?
- How do you find balance? – very few of our options to bring an end to injustice involve clear cut decisions between right and wrong – sometimes we can choose which brings the greater good, at others our choice is between several injustices and we have to choose the path of least harm and live with the consequence of that choice;
- How far are you prepared to go? – the battle for justice will take each one of us to the edge of our comfort zone and stretch us well beyond that– how and where do we find the courage and support to bear the pain;
- What are you looking for? – Easter is a story of transformational new beginnings, with new rules, new experiences, and new opportunities – are you ready to reset and rewrite your vision, or are you still trying to recreate the pre-Covid world?
This study has been written collaboratively by circuit minister Rev. Joan Pell and local preacher David Welbourn from Museum Street Methodist Church. If you have any questions, then contact us here.