Transfiguration this coming Sunday marks the end of the Epiphany season, which will be replaced starting on the Wednesday after (Feb 14) by Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. During this seasonal change we will be taking the opportunity to hear from “the Body”, the people connected to University Lutheran, instead of from Pastor Jay. This will include current members as well as alumni writing devotions based on the Psalms from the Lent readings. 
Why do this? This year our annual focus, “We are the Body” seeks to show how we – the Baptized people of God – are made to be the mystical Body of Christ before His return in glory. Pastors have their place in this Body, but so does everyone else. Sadly, in our denomination and throughout American Christendom, there has been a minimization of the role of non-pastors in the Body. This has led to a weakened, or perhaps better stated, a “weekend” Christianity in North America.
Our Lutheran heritage has always challenged notions of ministry that exclude the Body from participation. We have challenged those notions with the clarity of Scripture which shows a Body working together as a priesthood of ALL believers who together are equipping the saints (that is, one another) and building up the Body (that is, all of us together).
Changing the authorship of the newsletter for a church season may seem like a small step in this direction. Perhaps it is. But it is a step nonetheless, a step to show the manifest gifts and talents that the Lord has given us as a gift. A friend of mine who does leadership training is fond of saying, “God gives us gifts, and the gifts are in the people.” And so our aim this Lent is to let those gifts be given through the people, the Body at University Lutheran, in a new way to see what God has to give us.
If you would like to write a devotion and to be a part of this, please visit http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e44adaa2ca2fc1-lent to sign up. We can especially use some female and/or younger writers.