Pre-Lenten Workshop
The annual Pre-Lenten Workshop is held on campus each year to help pastors in developing their worship resources for Lent.
Friday, Jan. 22, 2021
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Registration: $40 (includes complimentary access to the Lenten sermon series)
Registration deadline: Jan. 8, 2021
Presenter:
Dr. Thomas Egger
Gustav and Sophie Butterbach Professor of Exegetical Theology
The mercy of God for Christ’s sake, illumined for us in the Scriptures, is no small, generic, everybody-knows-that kind of mercy. God is “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4 ESV) and “abounding in steadfast love” (Ex. 34:6 ESV). The enormity of God’s mercy drove Paul to his knees. He fervently pleaded that others, too, might “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18–19 ESV). Such mercy stirred the souls of God’s Old Testament people as well, who exulted, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. … The steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 103:11, 17 ESV).
This Lenten Series explores different facets of God’s enormous mercy for sinners, as our congregations meditate on the holy sufferings of our Lord during the Lenten season. Three sermons reflect on God’s enormous mercy shown in the Creator’s rich and daily provision (First Article), in Christ’s costly death on the Cross (Second Article), and in God’s rich and daily forgiveness in the Means of Grace (Third Article). One sermon ranges through the huge variety of biblical metaphors for God’s merciful forgiveness. Another rejoices in the broad reach of God’s mercy, extending to every single sinner — to people of every nation, race and language. Interwoven throughout these meditations is Jesus’ summons to reflect God’s enormous mercy to our neighbor: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36 ESV). The sermons for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter proclaim the enormous treasures God’s mercy has bestowed on us: true love, true meaning and an everlasting inheritance.
