Lent 2026: Community Resources
INTRODUCTION TO LENT
“Lent” is Latin for “Spring.” It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter, lasting 40 days. The Lenten season is not an event celebrated in the Bible. However, the Bible is replete with rhythms. Lent adds another valuable rhythm to our spiritual life, inviting us into an intentional season of reflection, repentance, and returning to God as a way to prepare ourselves for resurrection.
The Lenten season in the Christian tradition invites us into an intentional period of reflection, repentance, and returning to God, as we remember our mortality and journey toward resurrection. In this current political moment, we are acutely aware of both our personal and societal need to turn- away from false idols and allegiances that lead to death, and toward God’s ways which lead to life.
The Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday on February 18th, and will conclude on Holy Thursday on April 2nd, a few days before Easter.
2026 LENTEN THEME: SABBATH AS RESISTANCE
As our church explores the theme of faithfulness in the face of empire in 2026, the Lenten season invites us into an intentional rhythm of turning - calling us away from the death-dealing practices of empire and toward resurrection.
Join us this Lenten season as we explore the grounding rhythm of Sabbath, an alternative community practice which has protected and oriented the people of God to sacred rhythms in a world of chaos. How might understanding the Sabbath empower us toward becoming whole persons, inviting us to bear witness to God’s alternative vision of life that will outlast empire?
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Lenten Connection Groups: See offerings and sign up here
Lenten Sabbath Practice- A Guide to Begin the Practice of Sabbath
Lenten Economic Fast - OVERVIEW + GUIDE (note: this was shared to us by a friend who did this in Oakland so the numbers are set to AMI in Oakland)
Sabbath as Resistance: Book by Walter Brueggemann
Questions to help you shape your lenten practice
While the Lenten season invites us to consider the religious practice of fasting,, we invite you to consider fasting not merely as an act of personal piety, but also of intentional resistance. In this current political moment, how might we choose practices that help us divest from Empire and invest in God’s vision of community? Specifically, how might an engagement with Sabbath invite us to practices of intentional boundary-setting, sacred rhythms, and healthy human limitations?
A few questions to reflect on as you consider a Sabbath practice:
Where are you feeling weary? What rhythms, boundaries, and limits might help you engage the tradition of Sabbath in this season?
What are some of the goods of Empire- material goods, particular narratives, oppressive systems- that you want to wean yourself off of or divest from in this season? How might this shape a Lenten fast or Sabbath practice for you?
How have you been tempted to either live as “more than” human or “less than” human? What practices might return you to your humanity during this season?