Lent 2015 – Journey to the Cross

Lenten Activities

Ash Wednesday
5:30 p.m. Pancake Supper
6:30 p.m. Service with dispensing of ashes

Soup Dinners
Wednesdays in Lent (February 25, March 1, 8, 15, 22)
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Meditation Space
All are welcome to use the space in the Lounge for reflection and meditation.
Open Monday – Thursday 9:00 – 5:00
Fridays 9:00 – 1:00
Sundays before, during, or after Worship

Mosaic Crosses
March 15 & 22
Congregants will be able to make their own crosses to keep following Worship.

Lenten Theme: The Cross

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suff’ring and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

A good hymn is a dissertation in theology, a road map for action, a balm for wounds, and sustenance for spirituality.  The best hymns serve these purposes with rhythms, harmonies, melodies, and lyrics that inspire hope and faith.
Sacred songs lift up the contradictions and inconsistencies in life and faith; not seeking to escape them, but to accept and engage them.  Most especially they speak to the is versus the ought: the difference between the way life is and the way life, by God, is meant to be.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.

For followers of Christ there is no more powerful symbol of the is and the ought than the cross.  It is where the humanity of Jesus meets the divinity of Christ.  It is an instrument of death and the platform for salvation.  It is where the deepest physical and spiritual pain are overcome by the eternal hope and promise of resurrection.  By the grace of God, this emblem of suff’ring and shame, so despised by the world, is transformed into this wondrous attraction that bears God’s glory.  The cross serves as both the is and the ought.
This year in Lent we will engage the mysteries, contradictions, pain, and promise of the cross.  We will mark our journey to Calvary with the beams that bore the broken body of our Christ.
In worship each Sunday we will hear the gospel passages with the question: what is the cross saying to us today?  Pay close attention to the placement of our cross as each week as it will be moving to reflect our relationship and proximity.
Each Wednesday evening we will gather for a simple meal, share stories of faith, and listen to sacred songs and spirituals seeking understanding and direction in the wilderness.  On March 22 and 29 after worship we will have the opportunity to create our own crosses to keep so that we remember.  Throughout the season the Lounge in the Church School Hall will be set up as a place to pray about, reflect on, and journal about your journey with the cross.
Come Holy Week we will join Jesus and each other on Thursday for the Last Supper in the shadows of the cross in our Church School Hall.  On Good Friday our cross will be front and center in our sanctuary; uncomfortably close in its power and pain.  Then on Resurrection Sunday the cross will stand alone and empty in the distance as the empty tomb takes center stage.
Through it all the hope is that the cross will speak to us not from a hill far away, but from our very midst.  May the cross that we approach with our brokenness and disorientation be the same one that offers our healing and our direction.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory for ever I’ll share.

Peace,
Andy