The Sanctuary for Lent 2020 (Pkg of 10)

By Sam McGlothlin

Beginning with Jesus's words from the Sermon of the Mount, The Sanctuary for Lent 2020 leads the reader on a 46-day trek through the wilderness.With the devotions broken down into seven weekly themes, the reader is charged to Repent, Recover, Remember, Rest, Release, Rise, and Relive for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. Each day's devotion includes a suggested Scripture reading and a highlighted Bible verse, a short devotion, and a closing spiritual practice. This annual favorite helps readers faithfully journey Lent as they prepare to experience the joy of the Resurrection and is a wonderful congregational resource.

The 3 3/4" x 9" trim allows for a large print type. Sold in packages of 10, the booklets are designed to fit in a #10 envelope. This enables you and your church to include them in your Lent mailing, especially to parishioners unable to attend service and making it easy to mail to visitors or share as a part of home-bound or prison ministry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781501888410

Sam McGlothlin

Reverend Sam McGlothlin is the senior pastor at Belle Meade United Methodist Church. Before her appointment in the local church, she worked for Mountain T.O.P. (Tennessee Outreach Project), a non-profit dedicated to rural life ministry in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee, where she served as the Program Manager of Recruiting and Public Awareness. Sam has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Auburn University and a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School. Sam is the author of Advent: A Calendar of Devotions 2023 and The Sanctuary for Lent 2020. She and her husband Mark are parents to Lewis and Madeline and live in Nashville, TN.

Book preview

REPENT

Ash Wednesday, February 26

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

—Matthew 6:6

Today, we enter into the season of Lent and receive the gritty reminder: From dust you came and to dust you will return. This forty-day trek through the wilderness beckons us to take a hard look inside ourselves. It asks us to address how we have hurt others, how others have hurt us, how we need to repent.

If this sounds challenging, it is. Most of us would rather skip straight to Easter. However, if we want true healing, we have to confront our pain. If we want better relationships, we have to have uncomfortable conversations. If we want depth in our walks with God, we have to consistently and intentionally meet with God in secret.

The passages in Matthew from the Sermon on the Mount serve as a warning and an invitation. Jesus warns us that prayer, fasting, and giving for public praise or approval is not the way of the kingdom. Jesus invites us into a secret place where the strivings of this world cease; where our hearts hear themselves beat again. If we choose to take Jesus’ invitation seriously, these next forty days of reckoning will lead to revival.

Practice: Read Matthew 6:1-21 and spend five minutes in prayer alone with God. End with the Lord’s Prayer.

Thursday, February 27

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

—Psalm 51:1-2

Lent asks us to hold a mirror to our hearts, to examine our interior life. Doing so requires that we face the truth about ourselves and our sin so that God has room to come in and grant us new insight. Sin has often been defined as missing the mark. If we are to repent of how we have missed the mark in loving God, others, and ourselves, we must be willing to take an honest look at what our heart reflects. Does your heart reflect anger? pride? guilt?

Can you name what your heart reflects here and now? Remember, there is no bad or good, no wrong or right. To know where you are and to name it is how the journey begins. As a wise spiritual director once told me, You cannot be where you wish to be. You can only be where you are.

Practice: Draw a heart on this page or in your own journal. Ask God to help you examine your heart. What does it reflect? What do you want it to reflect? Close this practice by reading Psalm 51:1-9 out loud as a prayer.

Friday, February 28

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and sustain in me a willing spirit.

—Psalm 51:10-12

Repentance invites us to turn away from ourselves and turn toward God. When we confess what hinders us from extending grace, we admit we cannot help ourselves. We stand ready to receive from God what we cannot muster on our own.

Lent allows us to be real about our humanity. We acknowledge that we are sinful, while remembering we are only human. We make mistakes. We are imperfect. The only way to receive the cleansing God offers our hearts is to admit our shortcomings and grant ourselves grace.

Is it harder for you to extend grace to others or to accept grace for yourself? I have found that true lightness of heart comes only when I continually hand over my rumination to God. Instead