This year for Lent we are inviting Alongsiders to consider abstaining from a financial expense in their life and instead giving what they would normally spend on a cup of coffee, a lunch, or whatever speaks to you to a simple LENT fund that will be donated to those in need of food through the U.ME.US Food Pantry, a Paper Planes PDX Initiative.
Below please find the donation portal, as well as resources for your lenten practice this year.
ENGAGEMENT:
• When you hear the word repent or repentance what feelings or memories surface within you? What factors contribute to the reluctance or difficulty people experience in embracing repentance?
• In what ways does the process of teshuvah (repentance) help individuals confront and learn from their past mistakes, and why is this reflective practice particularly essential in today's society?
• Repentance is not merely about feeling guilty or sorry, it's a transformative process that leads to a deeper understanding of oneself and one's relationship with God. Do you agree or disagree with this sentence? Why?
Engagement:
• In your own words process what those 22 years must of been like for Joseph, his brothers, and Jacob their father. I encourage you not to use the written story in Genesis to carve out your response, instead use your imagination, wonder about the pain, guilt, suffering, loneliness, secrecy, regret, and resilience.
• Hebrew scripture often depicts repentance as a process rather than single act. How does this speak to the work and/or practice of repentance in your own life?
• The concept of returning to God is central to repentance. What does "returning" to God mean to you?
ENGAGEMENT:
• When in your life have you held onto something too long and felt the affects of it?
• Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. How does this sit with you when you read this?
• When you consider the story and journey of Joseph, his brothers, and repentance, what can you learn or lean into, like or dislike, connect with or push away?
Engagement:
• If someone is truly unapologetic or unrepentant, can they even really be forgiven?
• If we understood forgiveness as real ongoing work, how would this help us walk alongside people who have been harmed.
• Many conversations about forgiveness hinge on the notion that forgiveness is freeing, either for the person granting it or its recipient. But what about the idea that not forgiving someone can also be freeing? What do you think?