Lent from the Margins
Recent events in our country have brought to the fore certain challenge we all face. For one, racism
continues to exist, indeed, to thrive. Some of us have always known this; others of us have recently been
reminded. We have also been reminded of the growing polarization of our society. As a culture we have not
cultivated healthy ways to enter into conversation with those who have experiences or opinions that differ
from our own. This inability to enter into safe, truth-telling conversation makes it nearly impossible to cure
what ails us.
As people of faith, we know the power words have to bring healing, hope, and life. This Lent we are
inviting the faith communities of Beverly, Morgan Park, and Mount Greenwood to be part of a shared
conversation and shared action toward building unity and justice. We will be offering a common set of texts
for Lenten midweek worship services and Bible studies, as well as opportunities for congregations to come
together in service, learning, and action. If your congregation chooses to participate, you are welcome to use
the recourses in whatever way will work best for your context, while also deciding which of the shared
actions is appropriate for your congregation. If Lenten midweek worship is not your custom, you are invited
to partner with another local congregation that does have this custom or use the texts in another way. There
is a great deal of flexibility in how we can work together.
This shared Lenten series is being offered by the local Ministerial Association, as well as the
Community of Churches. We look forward to having people throughout our community share in one story,
learn constructive ways to have difficult conversations, learn from the experience of others, and work
together to share God’s love with our city and our world. More details will be forthcoming in January.
The Texts
The shared Lenten texts for both worship and Bible study will come from the Passion story, primarily
as told by Luke. The chosen texts will focus on characters who typically are glossed over because they are at
the margins of the story. You are encouraged to use these texts as a way to help people practice paying
attention to the people in our society who are often kept on the margins. Some of our congregations will be
reading these texts through the lens of liberation theology. Liberation theology of various forms sprung out
of communities experiencing various forms of oppression. These communities heard the Word of God as a
word of liberation. While liberation theology has been applied in a number of different ways, we would
invite you and your congregation to consider using the following lenses:



Liberation theology begins with the experience of marginalized and oppressed people. Our
conversation should also begin here. Whose voices do we need to invite to the table?
Liberation theology looks to scripture to speak a word of freedom and life. What word of freedom do
we hear the chosen texts speaking? And what have been our experiences of scripture speaking
bondage, rather than life?
Liberation theology then seeks to put its study back into practice. How will we live what we have
learned?
Pastor Jennie English, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 773-445-7558 or jennie.english@ameritech.net;
Rev. Karen Mooney, at Beverly Unitarian Church, 773-233-7080 or soulfulstill@gmail.com.
1
The texts suggested for this shared Lenten series are the following:
Lent 1 (week of February 14): Woman who anoints Jesus (Matthew 26:6-13)
The woman who was forgotten
Lent 2 (week of February 21): The man with a jug of water (Luke 22:10-13)
The man who offered risky hospitality
Lent 3 (week of February 28): The slave of the high priest (Luke 22:50-51)
A victim of violence
Lent 4 (week of March 6): Simon of Cyrene and the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:26-31)
In the wrong place at the wrong time
Lent 5 (week of March 13): The Centurion at the foot of the cross (Luke 23:47)
A flip-flopper
The full texts will be longer than simply the verses noted above. You will be free to use these texts in
whatever way makes the most sense for your worshiping community. For example, my congregation,
Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, has a custom of the pastor offering dramatic monologues
during Lent; the pastor will plan to enact these characters during the five weeks. Others might offer more
traditional homilies on these marginal characters. Or perhaps you will explore using a dialogical sermon
with the congregation. Another idea is to interview members of your congregation/parish who have had
experiences similar to those of these characters. Or invite parishioners to write a testimony to share in
worship. There are endless possibilities.
The Bible study we will be inviting congregations to engage will use the process of mutual invitation
(outlined in the attached pages). Mutual invitation is a process designed to allow all voices around a table
to be heard, particularly those voices that are often pushed to the margins. The process of mutual
invitation Bible study does not allow for an “expert” or “teacher.” Instead, a facilitator invites all the
participants to answer a series of questions regarding what they hear the text saying. We will offer you
suggested questions to use with the Bible study, as well as best practices for hosting a mutual invitation
Bible study. We will also be providing you with resources or learning points around the text – these
might be study points that you would like to bring up with your Bible study members after engaging the
mutual invitation study for them to use in their own way. Of course, you will also have your own
resources to bring to the text and we invite sharing of resources and ideas!
Pastor Jennie English, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 773-445-7558 or jennie.english@ameritech.net;
Rev. Karen Mooney, at Beverly Unitarian Church, 773-233-7080 or soulfulstill@gmail.com.
2
Kaleidoscope Bible Study Process
1. Read the Respectful Communication Guidelines and invite members of the group to affirm them for their
time together.
2. Inform participants that the Bible passage will be read 3 times. After each reading, participants will be
invited to share their reflections.
3. Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image when listening to the passage the first time.
4. Invite someone to read the passage.
5. A moment of silence to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out from the passage for them.
6. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. (This should
take no more than 5 minutes.)
7. Invite participants to consider the second question appointed for this passage. (Facilitator should prepare
ahead of time a question that is relevant to participants’ context.)
8. Invite someone to read the passage a second time.
9. A moment of silence to reflect on the question.
10. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.
11. Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the passage again.
12. “What does God invite you to do, be or change through this passage?”
13. Invite someone to read the passage a third time.
14. A moment of silence to reflect on the question.
15. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.
16. End the session with a prayer circle:
17. Invite participants to join hands in a circle. Invite each person to mentally complete the sentences:
I thank God today . . .
I ask God today . . .
The leader will begin by sharing his or her prayers. After he or she has shared, the leader then squeezes the
hand of the person to the right. That will be the signal for the next person to share his or her prayers. If the
person does not want to share, he or she can simply pass the pulse to the next person. When the pulse comes
back to the leader, he or she can begin the Lord’s Prayer and invite everyone to join in.
Pastor Jennie English, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 773-445-7558 or jennie.english@ameritech.net;
Rev. Karen Mooney, at Beverly Unitarian Church, 773-233-7080 or soulfulstill@gmail.com.
3
Mutual Invitation -- The Process:
In order to ensure that everyone who wants to share has the opportunity to speak, we
will proceed in the following way:
The leader or a designated person will share first. After that person has spoken, he or she
then invites another to share. Whom you invite does not need to be the person next to you.
After the next person has spoken, that person is given the privilege to invite another to share.
If you are not ready to share yet, say “I pass for now” and we will invite [you to share later
on] . If you don’t want to say anything at all, simply say “pass” and proceed to invite another
to share. We will do this until everyone has been invited.
We invite you to listen and not to respond to someone's sharing immediately. There will be
time to respond and to ask clarifying questions after everyone has had an opportunity to
share.
(from The Wolf Shall Dwell With the Lamb by Eric H. F. Law)
Because there will be participants with different perceptions of power, facilitation that exclusively uses the
“volunteer style” of interaction that favors those from individualist cultures excludes those whose interactions
favor a collectivistic culture. Therefore, the Mutual Invitation process is used in order to insure that everyone who
wants to share has the opportunity to speak when the catalyst gives the instruction to do so. As group members
become more accustomed to using this tool, they make connections with everyone in the session, because they are
required to invite each speaker by NAME. The person who is invited may or may not be someone from whom
she/he ordinarily wants to hear. When Mutual Invitation is used, it encourages deep and holy listening to one
another, because there are no interruptions or refutations allowed until every- one has spoken who wants to speak.
It is important to remember that in some cultural settings, group members will not speak up in a discussion unless
they have been invited. The reasons for this may be gender- or age-related or other traditions embedded deeply in
one’s culture.
There may be those who are uncomfortable singling a person out to share. For them it may feel like when they
were a child and were being selected (or not selected) to play on a team. There are two safeguards built into the
process that can assuage people’s fears. One: each person invited has three options: share, pass for now (which
means “I am not ready, please come back to me”), or pass (which means “I do not chose to share on this topic”).
However, no matter which option is selected, the one invited has the privilege of inviting another person in the
group by NAME. Two: Throughout the process, the invitation to speak passes back and forth, and no one is left
out of the process.
Pastor Jennie English, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 773-445-7558 or jennie.english@ameritech.net;
Rev. Karen Mooney, at Beverly Unitarian Church, 773-233-7080 or soulfulstill@gmail.com.
4