Lent Resource: Challenging your Church to Re-commit to Justice & Hope

“The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.”
—Psalm 33:5

Justice and hope. Can these two words really go together? Where is our hope when the poor are trampled underfoot and it seems that the powerful take the day every time? Where is our hope when even our fellow Christians too often turn their faces away?

We have hope because we are not saving the world, Christ is.

We have hope because we are not saving the world, Christ is.

We have hope because we get to participate in this heavenly restoration and reconciliation of all things, and though we groan and labour along with creation, we know the ending of the story already.

There will be freedom for the prisoners.

There will be recovery of sight for the blind.

The oppressed will be set free.

Good news will be proclaimed to the poor.

As we walk with Christ toward the cross this Lent, we walk with marginalized neighbours, knowing with them that after the cross comes the empty tomb.

And so we work and pray and advocate, entrusting our faithful mustard seeds of love for neighbours to a faithful God.

As we walk with Christ toward the cross this Lent, we walk with marginalized neighbours, knowing with them that after the cross comes the empty tomb.

Join churches from Victoria to Brandon to Sarnia! Mark Justice and Hope Sunday on February 18, the first Sunday of Lent, by:

• taking an offering to support the work of the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue;
• using the complementary worship resources on the Centre for Public Dialogue website, including sermon resources, litanies, prayers, songs, Sunday school resources, and an offering of letter; and  
• challenging your congregation to take the Lent Advocacy Challenge, included on the bulletin insert. 

It's not too late! Order free bulletin inserts for your congregation from Faith Alive today to make sure they arrive on time. 

The back of the insert includes the Lent Advocacy Challenge, a challenge to your congregation to choose a spiritual discipline of advocacy in this Lenten season. (Preview the Lent Advocacy Challenge here.)

Note: These resources have been developed specifically for Canadian churches, but are available to any CRC or RCA churches who wish to participate in Justice and Hope Sunday. We'll be releasing a more comprehensive version of the Lent Advocacy Challenge in the coming weeks via this blog...stay tuned.