Skipwith
United Methodist Church

Friends in Christ, we gather here to mark the beginning of Lent. Lent begins with the sobering and holy reminder: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words do not call us to despair, but to humility and truth. We remember that we are created by God, dependent on God, and sustained only by God’s grace. In this season of Lent, we acknowledge our frailty and our sin, yet we also trust in the mercy of the One who formed us from the dust and breathes new life into us. Through prayer, repentance, fasting, and works of love, we open our hearts to God’s transforming grace, as we journey with Christ from the dust of our humanity toward the hope of resurrection. According to UM Book of Worship, Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. The season is preparation for celebrating Easter. Historically, Lent began as a period of fasting and preparation for baptism by converts and then became a time for penance by all Christians. The First Sunday describes Jesus’ temptation by Satan; and the Sixth Sunday (Passion/Palm Sunday), Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent passion and death. Because Sundays are always little Easters, the penitential spirit of Lent should be tempered with joyful expectation of the Resurrection.