Lenten Journey: Sensing the Gospels

March this year is the start of the Lenten Season. Lent is a time for self-reflection and examining not only our lives but the life of Jesus on his journey toward the cross of Good Friday with the Hope of the Resurrection on Easter.

This year we will be exploring what it means to encounter the Gospels with our senses — touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. Our senses are how we make sense of the world around us. We often read the stories of Jesus and we have lots of ideas about what Jesus means to us in our head. However, Jesus is the incarnate word, the word made flesh. He embodies the hope and love of God. How do you experience Jesus in your daily life? Every Wednesday this Lent we will explore the gospels through our senses. By touch through the anointing of oils and prayer. By Sight as we study the rich images of the Gospel through Icons and Art. By Sound as we confess our sins aloud and hear the words “You are Forgiven.”
By taste as we partake in the Bread and Wine of communion and By Smell as we pray together using diffused essentials oils similar to the burning of incense.

We worship a living God. Through these simple acts of worship, we experience God as present with us, not just in thought but through all our senses. Worship becomes embodied as we sense the world around us. My prayer this Lent is that you experience God. That your senses of Touch, Sight, Sound, Taste, and Smell expand how God is present in your life every day.

​Here are the Gospel Stories will we look at:
Jesus raises the widow’s son – Touch – Luke 7:11-17
Jesus heals the blind man at Bethsaida – Sight – Mark 8:22-25
Jesus changes water into wine – Taste – John 2:1-10
Jesus says the dead will hear – Hearing - John 5:25-29
Jesus anointed with perfume – Smell - John 12:1-3

Take some time to examine what Jesus is doing and saying in these passages. How do our senses fit into the story?