I still remember cringing when my first Seminary professors started talking about the THE SCANDAL of the Gospel. I had never thought of the Gospel being scandalous. Loving? …yes; Forgiving? …yes; Comforting? …yes; but never scandalous and discomforting. And I didn’t want to start now. But they persisted.

My first understanding came as somebody walked me through all the people in my life who had hurt me or exploited me …then whose who had hurt my parents and sister …then those who had hurt and murdered people I knew and masses of people I didn’t know. Now I was asked to picture GOD Embracing these perpetrators, Loving these murderers, giving a Second Chance to these chronic offenders. The Point was to portray the Grace of God (a grace which incidentally it would also take to forgive, embrace, and love ME…). But the Effect in me (since I couldn’t picture mySELF forgiving these gross sinners) was to acquaint me with a Gospel Grace that was indeed Scandalous.

My second understanding of the Scandal of the Gospel came in Biblical study of Paul’s statement (I Corinthians 1:23): “That we preach Christ Crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” Paul knew how offensive the Gospel of a CRUCIFIED Messiah (normally thought of as a kingly warrior) WAS to the Jews. He also knew how RIDICULOUS (folly) such a Gospel of “Zeus-ly Strength” coming through “Suffering Weakness” would seem to the Gentile. Hence, the Gospel was scandalous to Both groups, Jew and Gentile.

ENTER: this year’s Community Lenten Series, The Scandal of Lent. We pastors of Cedar, Timothy, and Michael of Nativity will be using a book of the same name, written many years ago by Dr. Robert Kysar, a pastor once on our own Synod territory, as our jumping-off point. It is Dr. Kysar’s point of view that perhaps over the years we have made a pablum of Christianity, reducing it to the most ­easily digested form possible. It is his conviction that unless one is scandalized by the Gospel message, she or he can never embrace it with authentic faith. Come and See. The schedule of the scandals and churches follow:

Baptized, sometimes to be discomforted,