Between Sundays for the Week of February 16, 2026
After climbing to the mountaintop with Jesus yesterday and witnessing his transfiguration, we now follow him down the mountain as he continues to reveal God’s love for all people and places on earth and makes his way to the cross.
Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday. This year’s Lenten theme – Inspired Conversations – invites us to listen deeply to Jesus and to the people around us. In a chaotic world rife with conflict, it is easy to succumb to fear and align with those who share our beliefs, while maligning those we believe do not. In the process, we lose sight of our shared humanity and the possibility that “the other” is just as frightened and confused as we are. As we listen, we build community and connections and recognize the many ways our common humanity unites us. Watch our introduction to the Lenten theme here:
We hope you will share in worship at noon or 7pm on Ash Wednesday and make a plan to invite some inspired conversations of your own with these prompts and additional opportunities to meet up for conversation, worship and more.
May God inspire our conversations and sustain our faith this Lenten season!
Faith Connection at Home
BLC’s calendar featuring Inspired Conversation starters allows families a flexible and quick way to connect with each other during this lenten season. If your family is anything like mine, days can pass when it seems the only time we have together is riding in the car on the way to the next activity. Inspired Conversation starters provide an invitation to connect through sharing and listening to each other, if only for a few minutes during a busy day – waiting for the bus, riding in the car, eating a quick meal at Tom Wahls, getting ready for bed.
You can find these questions in several places this lent:
- here in the Family Faith Connection each week
- on a print calendar that you can pick up at church
- digitally on our BLC website (or by clicking here)
- on BLC’s social media Instagram and Facebook accounts weekly
We encourage you to use the questions in a way that works for your family: with tweaks, shuffled around, or with your own created questions.
Ponderings
Once again the readings last Sunday include the central biblical images of light and mountain.
Yet God is not only brilliant light: important for the readings is the image of the cloud. Although contemporary people tend to think of clouds as relating to weather conditions, in the Bible the cloud is a sign of the presence of God. It is as if God covers the earth, brings life, effecting much yet suddenly vanishing. Christians can add that from God as cloud rains down the waters of baptism.