Lent @ JPUC: Jesus flips the script …

During Lent this year, Jesmond Park Uniting Church in Newcastle, NSW undertook a deeply embodied, creative, and communal spiritual journey shaped around the theme “Jesus flips the script.” 

Rather than focusing on productivity, busyness, or programmatic growth, the community explored Lent as a season of slowing down, silence, shared practice, honest questioning, and creative expression in response to the despair of the world and deep pastoral concerns that some congregants and their families.

The journey wove together:

• Weekly theological reflection through John’s Gospel
• A shared Lenten spiritual practice of candle‑lighting and silence
• Intergenerational, creative worship through Faith@5
• Participation in an international research project on the impact of spiritual practices
• Art installations and storytelling that unfolded week by week

Theological Theme: Jesus Flips the Script

Throughout Lent, the congregation followed stories from John’s Gospel in which Jesus overturns expectations:

• The desert – resisting speed and self‑reliance, God-in-the-dust confronts the “voices” in our heads and our lives to reveal a different way of living;
• Nicodemus – rebirth as Spirit‑led, not human‑driven;
• The Samaritan woman – outsiders becoming witnesses to good news because of the “one who knows everything about us;”
• The man born blind – seeing beyond blame and certainty into God’s action and activity to change the story;
• Lazarus – grief honoured before resurrection hope which reorients how we love, and lose, and live

Rather than offering easy resolutions, each week lingered with disruption, ambiguity, and grace. 

Shared Lenten Spiritual Practice: Candle Lighting and Silence

As part of a social research project led by Dr Steve Taylor (University of Otago), the congregation participated in a simple but increasingly demanding practice:

• Lighting a candle during Sunday worship, followed by increasing periods of silence (from one to five minutes over five weeks)
• Taking candles home to repeat the practice daily
• Using a short, shared prayer:

“In Lent, we light the candle.
May we see ourselves truly.
Help us bear witness to God’s light in the world.”

Participation was open to all, with or without completing the accompanying survey. The practice emphasised presence over performance and invited people to notice what silence does within and among them. 

Faith@5: Intergenerational Creativity in Lent

A significant expression of this Lenten journey was Faith@5, a collaborative, intergenerational community shared with New Lambton Uniting Church.

Faith@5 gatherings take place on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 5pm, combining worship, creativity, and a shared meal. During Lent, the themes followed the liturgical season and echoed the wider congregational journey. 

Lenten Faith@5 Highlights

• "From the Desert to the Garden” 
  • Participants explored contradictory spiritual spaces through hands on art, creating rock figures and flower imagery.

•  “Transformed”

An interactive retelling of The Very Hungry Caterpillar became a lens for reflecting on stages of faith.

• • Prayers were written on leaves
  • Placed inside handmade caterpillars
  • Later transformed into butterflies displayed in the sanctuary

This process allowed children, youth, and adults to see faith as something that changes, sheds layers, and emerges renewed. It made space for the bright sad season.

Art as Spiritual Practice

Alongside worship and study, the congregation engaged in a subtractive art installation throughout Lent.

• Each week, a layer was removed
• The artwork traced themes of desert, wind, water, mud, darkness, and death
• Different members of the community contributed to each stage
• Easter would introduce a final layer of resurrection, created collectively

This visual journey mirrored the Gospel readings and embodied the idea that Lent is not about adding more, but about letting go so that new life can emerge. 

Creator, Cecilia Russell writes:

“The series of images were inspired by the lectionary gospel readings, the idea of Jesus flipping the script on cultural expectations and norms, and finding a theme of the natural environment was able to link them together.

Each layer was created by different members of our community. As Lent progresses each week a layer is removed, from new growth following the challenge of the desert, the wind that blows where it wants, through to the living water of the well, and then the water and dirt that are under it and remind us of the blind man's healing, heading towards the darkness of Lazarus' death and on to Good Friday.

Easter Sunday will bring a new layer to sit over the darkness - with space for all members of our congregation to contribute to the image of new life and resurrection.”

Saltbush Bible Study

We’ve also been using the Saltbush Salt in the Wound series for Lenten Bible study on Wednesday nights - which has been an amazingly rich and deep journey into the complexities of families and the wounds we carry with us.

Quote: “The Jacob-Esau story seems to be about struggling/wrestling with issues and circumstances which are quite appropriate for our personal lives and our church as we struggle with and adapt to change. The Lenten group has provided a safe and intimate space to learn, discuss, and air our thoughts, ponder the Genesis passages and how the experiences and struggles from then relate to our now. It makes me feel more alive knowing that in these times of wrestling we can grow and are never alone.”  (Robyn Johnson)

Other Quotes

• “We find Lent to be a FAST season, instead of a season of fasting.” 
• “Rebirth is not a human project. It is breath, wind, Spirit — something God does that turns our expectations upside down.” 
• “The gospel asks us to trade the safety of certainty for the vulnerability of encounter.” 
• “Resurrection does not pretend loss never happened. Instead, Jesus shows us that love can reach even into sealed places.” 

From a Bible study participant:

“The Lenten group has provided a safe and intimate space to learn, discuss, and air our thoughts… It makes me feel more alive knowing that in these times of wrestling we can grow and are never alone.” — Robyn Johnson

Why This Story Matters

This Lenten journey offers a counter cultural story:

• A faith community choosing slowness over urgency
• Silence over noise
• Creativity over consumption
• Shared practice over individual performance

It highlights how ancient Christian rhythms can speak meaningfully into contemporary anxieties around change, grief, leadership, and belonging.

Rev. Yvonne Ghavalas

“The Lenten group has provided a safe and intimate space to learn, discuss, and air our thoughts… It makes me feel more alive knowing that in these times of wrestling we can grow and are never alone.” — Robyn Johnson