Because Lent always coincides with March -- er, March Madness, the NCAA Basketball Tournaments -- Episcopal priests Tim Schenck and Scott Gunn created Lent Madness. For the last eleven years, Lent Madness fills a tournament-style, single-elimination bracket with 32 saints. One by one, the saints are compared and contrasted with one another for their merits, and then the internet votes to save one and eliminate the other. By the end of Lent, only one saint remains and earns "the golden halo." In 2021, Absalom Jones was declared the winner of the tournament. Jones was one of the first African Americans liscened to preach by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Later, he founded St. John's African Episcopal Church, the first black church in Philadelphia. The Lent Madness tournament offers us an opportunity to meditate on the lives of faithful Christians whose lives were undoubtably cruciform and pointed directly to Christ. As Lutherans, we believe we are all saints by virtual of our baptism, but we still recognize and honor exemplary and extraordinary Christians with our liturgical calendar. Explore the 2021 bracket and browse the Lent Madness website. What, in your opinion, makes an exemplary Christian. How do you model your life after Christ?
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