Dismantle | Lent 2025
Dear St. Luke’s,
Lent is the season where we journey with Christ to the cross. It is common practice to give up something or to engage in more prayer. This season, we are inviting our community to wrestle with white supremacy. To reflect on how it shows up in our communities and to give it up — work toward to eradication of this concept in a way that makes the most sense for us as individuals and community.
At the 2019 Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA adopted the social policy resolution, Condemnation of White Supremacy and Racist Rhetoric SPR19. With this resolution, the church proclaimed that white supremacy is a sin and that “violent rhetoric against persons of color in the name of so-called "Christian Nationalism" is not a true Christian faith. It is idolatry…” With this, a call was made for all congregations of the ELCA to “engage in communal study of the structures and rhetoric that empower and fuel racism and white supremacy and to take to heart the teaching of Scriptures, so we may all be better equipped to speak boldly about the equal dignity of all persons in the eyes of God.”
In response to this, the Racial Justice office, released Dismantle: An Anti-White Supremacy Lenten Devotional. the resource that we will engage this Lenten season. This devotional, spearheaded by Rev. Christina Montgomery, is comprised of “reflections and prayers of rostered leaders (both of Word and Sacrament and of Word and Service); church theologians; members of the Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities; members of the LGBTQIA2+ communities; a director for evangelical mission (DEM); missionaries; published authors; artists; immigrants/ migrants; and chaplains.” Contributors reflect on the lectionary text for their assigned Sunday or holy day and recommend a resource — for example, a book, poem, song or movie — that they believe will help readers to utilize an anti-white supremacy lens in reading, understanding and/or relating to the biblical text.
In addition to the aforementioned devotional, we have chosen to engage a Negro Spiritual each week. Throughout time music has been a vehicle for lamentation and proclamations of prophetic hope and liberation for marginalized people. The negro spirituals of my people were born out of a deep, enduring faith in God’s promised salvation. They served (and still do) as beacons of hope and resistance for people living under the thumb of oppressive empires. I’m excited to engage this marginalized wisdom with you all as we prepare to journey to the cross with Christ this Lenten season.
—Vicar Sharei
Song List:
Lent 1 / March 9 – Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley
Lent 2 / March 16 – Kumbayah
Lent 3 / March 23 – Wade in the Water
Lent 4 / March 30 – Tryin’ to Get Home
Lent 5 / April 6 – I Want Jesus to Walk With Me
Palm and Passion Sunday / April 13 – Ride on, King Jesus and Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Had
Maundy Thursday / April 17 – Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Good Friday / April 18 – Were You There
Easter Vigil / April 19 – Go Down, Moses and Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep
Easter Sunday / April 20 – Every Time I Feel the Spirit