Beloved,
Lent is a reckoning. A time to tell the truth about the world as it is—and about the world we are called to build. It’s a season where we turn toward justice, toward love, toward the liberation that Jesus preached with his whole life. For some of us, Lent is about fasting, about giving something up, but not for the sake of suffering—no. We fast from the lies that keep us bound to stories that no longer work. We lay down despair and pick up hope. We reject apathy and choose resistance.
And you know what I’m fasting from? Some false notion that we can’t have joy even as we struggle. I’m claiming joy! In the face of all that tries to steal our breath, I am going to breathe, eat, and live joy. Because joy is resistance. Joy is fuel for the fight.
The world is on fire. Christian nationalism is raging, trans kids are under attack, the rights we fought for—bodily autonomy, voting rights, the very freedom to exist—are being stripped away by politicians who claim to follow Jesus. Our Lenten faith demands we love the stranger and care for those who the world despises. This faith does not share the values of empire. This faith rejects tyranny and oppression. This faith is a fire shut up in our bones, calling us to act, to build, to love fiercely.
Our Lenten faith calls us home to our best selves. And this Lent, we are preparing to leave the wilderness of spacelessness and move back into our physical home! We’re going home to love. Home to joy. Home to gather in a community that refuses to let hate have the last word. Home where we will grieve, rage, dance, and strategize together. Home, where we will find joy in the fight, and make space for each other in our physical and digital spaces.
When Easter comes, we will rise. We’ll celebrate the resurrection of our 50 E 7th Street building. We’ll rise into a new reality, a new space in which it cannot die.
Come walk this Lenten journey with us. Join us for special programming like what is below.
Love is calling us home.
With fierce, unshakable love,
Jacqui