Weekly Theme Descriptions

The Work of Imagination provides everything you need to engage communities in the spiritual practice of lament and prophetic imagination, equipping all ages in your community to be grounded in the biblical stories of Lent and filled with courageous hope.

Ash Wednesday: Sacred Turning

Ash Wednesday begins a journey of truth, grief, and renewal—a communal turning that makes space for healing. Lent is not about self-denial for its own sake, but about reckoning with the systems within and around us that cause harm. Scripture invites us to honest devotion, not performative piety; to return to God not through empty ritual, but with open hearts and shared humility. This is a season of authenticity, restoration, and grounding our lives in God’s justice and mercy.

Week 1: Rooted Resistance

The Lenten journey begins with Jesus being led into the wildness—a space of formation where he resists the lure of power, spectacle, and security with sacred memory and deep trust in God. Rather than seeking quick fixes, he confronts the scripts of empire and embodies a liberating truth. This act of resistance is echoed in Jeremiah’s pastoral yet radical message to the exiles: settle in, seek the welfare of the city, and remain rooted even in displacement. Together, these texts reframe survival as faithful, grounded resistance and call us to reject escapism and domination in favor of covenantal hope and communal flourishing.

Week 2: Disruptive Blessings

This week dives into Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain,” where he flips societal values and centers the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated. He calls not for passive endurance but for active, counter-cultural love—turning the other cheek, blessing enemies, and practicing radical generosity. This ethic of mercy and equity pushes disciples beyond transactional love and invites them to embody the values of the kin(g)dom. James reinforces this call to embodied faith, insisting that faith without compassionate action is empty. His vision of authentic discipleship includes listening, caring for the vulnerable, and cultivating an unpolluted community. Together, these teachings confront cultural violence and personal complicity, challenging us to love not from comfort but from conviction.

Week 3: Holy Confrontation

This week confronts exclusionary traditions and highlights how sacred truth often emerges from the margins. The Canaanite woman crosses boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and religious purity to plead for her daughter’s healing. Though Jesus’ initial response is unsettling, her persistence reclaims dignity and reframes exclusion through faith. Similarly, the daughters of Zelophehad challenge patriarchal inheritance laws, prompting Moses to consult God and ultimately transform the law. Lent Three amplifies voices typically silenced in scripture and society, reminding us that divine wisdom is often spoken by those denied power. Through courage and holy confrontation, the kin(g)dom advances—inviting reinterpretation rooted in justice.

Week 4: Accountable Leadership

This week confronts systems of exploitation—both within faith communities and beyond—and reclaims Jesus as the Good Shepherd who centers the most vulnerable. Unlike hired hands who abandon the sheep in times of danger, Jesus models leadership rooted not in self-interest but in sacrificial care. Ezekiel offers a parallel critique, condemning Israel’s leaders who fed themselves while allowing the flock to suffer. Together, these texts indict exploitative power and call for accountability, protection, and tender strength. Lent Four insists that love must be enacted, not merely proclaimed, and that true leadership serves rather than dominates—measured by presence, courage, and a willingness to lay down privilege.

Week 5: True Allegiance

This week challenges the tension between civic life and divine loyalty, interrogating how faith interacts with empire and politics. When religious leaders attempt to trap Jesus with a question about taxes, he refuses the binary, instead pointing to the deeper truth of divine image-bearing. Similarly, Paul’s letter to Titus encourages communities to live with mercy, humility, and justice—even while subject to rulers. These texts do not call for withdrawal or blind obedience but for thoughtful, justice-oriented engagement. Lent Five prepares us for the sharp contrast of Palm Sunday by underscoring faithful resistance and inviting discernment: how do we live within unjust systems without losing our prophetic voice?

Palm Sunday: Sacred Protest

Palm Sunday sets two parades in motion: the imperial march of Pilate entering from one side, and Jesus’ humble procession from the other. Jesus, riding a donkey, subverts militaristic power and stages a public critique of empire. In the temple, he overturns tables, exposing economic injustice embedded in religious systems. Paul’s exhortation in Galatians emphasizes mutual responsibility and sowing seeds of the Spirit—calling the community to embody God's justice in practice, not appearance.

Maundy Thursday: Risky Mercy

Maundy Thursday bridges love and lament, communion and conflict. On this night of betrayal and fear, Jesus gathers with his friends for a meal—not just as ritual, but as an act of self-giving love. He breaks bread, offers the cup, and washes feet, modeling leadership through vulnerability and service. Peter’s faltering loyalty highlights the tension between promise and failure, yet Jesus meets it with mercy. Isaiah’s vision of a feast overflowing with mercy and covenant echoes this moment, inviting all to return and trust. Together, these texts call us to linger in the tension—to build community where nourishment is shared freely, and human frailty is held within God’s abundant hospitality.

Good Friday: Empire's Shadow

Good Friday holds grief without resolution. It is not a detour from love, but love laid bare to the world’s cruelty—marked by betrayal, denial, empire’s brutality, and communal silence. Jesus is handed over by friends and condemned by the state. Pilate, attempting to absolve himself, becomes a symbol of moral abdication and the danger of neutrality in the face of injustice. His role invites reflection on how power can be wielded without courage or accountability. Jesus’ cry from the cross echoes Psalm 22, giving voice to abandonment, terror, and lament—yet ending in a fragile trust. These texts together expose the cost of the empire’s violence and reveal God’s deep identification with the forsaken, offering us space to grieve and name what has been broken.

Easter: Fulfilling Imagination

Easter doesn’t erase trauma—it reveals God’s power within it. Before dawn, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb expecting death and instead encounters the risen Christ. When her name is spoken, her grief becomes the soil for the first gospel proclamation. Resurrection is not triumphalism or a retreat from pain, but sacred renewal—a transformation that challenges despair, empire, and the finality of death. Jesus returns not to the powerful, but to a faithful woman who stayed. In Philippians, Paul calls the community to “shine like stars,” holding fast to the word of life with reverent courage. These texts center women’s leadership and witness, declaring that hope rises where mourning has been most honest, and that new life emerges through love that has endured loss.