◼︎Journey Stations of the Cross: Sunday, March 21 – Sunday, April 4 ◼︎
Our Stations of the Cross experience will take us on a journey following the footsteps of Christ, immersing us in the biblical account of the last hours and days of Jesus' life. Take a few minutes each day to watch a short video and to respond and reflect. Connect with Jesus and prepare your heart as we head into Good Friday and Easter.
The following is the script from the video. You may also follow along using the downloadable reflection booklet.
◼︎ Station 8: Helping◼︎
Jesus is Helped by Simon the Cyrenian to Carry the Cross
Mark 15:21
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.
...
We don’t know why Simon was chosen from the crowd to help carry the cross. We don’t know what his connection to Jesus, or to this movement, might have been before this moment; why he was passing by; what he knew of the events unfolding.
But he was conscripted to join in, and he did, in a different way than many of the others gathered. With angry voices and violent threats being raised all around them, Simon came alongside Jesus.
Simon took some of the burden from Jesus, shifting the weight of the cross onto Simon’s own shoulders. What a gift that kindness must have been to Jesus.
Do you know someone carrying a heavy burden now? Someone weighed down by struggle? Maybe it’s a close friend or family member; maybe it’s someone whose story you’ve only heard about or seen on the news.
Choose someone, and come alongside them in prayer in this moment. You don’t need to know all the details of their pain to help, to hold them in your heart.
Spend a moment in silence, centering yourself in the story you’re remembering, calling to mind the face of the person you’re thinking of.
Let us pray as we recite this prayer together:
Gracious One,
You know every person and every story.
You are a part of all that is.
I pray now for this person and their story.
I pray they might know your presence,
that they might sense your nearness,
that they might feel their burden lightened.
I join my heart to their story now,
and I ask you to show me
how else I might come alongside them,
that they might know they are not alone in this.
Thank you for sharing with us in all things,
and for giving us to one another.
Amen.
Station 8: Helping
Stations of the Cross
March 28, 2021
Station 15: New Life & A New Beginning
April 4, 2021
◼︎Journey Stations of the Cross: Sunday, March 21 – Sunday, April 4 ◼︎ Our Stations of the Cross experience will take us on a journey following the footsteps of Christ, immersing us in the biblical account of the last hours and days of Jesus' life. Take a few minutes each day to watch a short video and to respond and reflect. Connect with Jesus and prepare your heart as we head into Good Friday and Easter. The following is the script from the video. You may also follow along using the downloadable reflection booklet. ◼︎ Station 15: New Life & A New Beginning◼︎ The Resurrection of Jesus Mark 16:1–6 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” ... If the cross is expansive—reaching down, into the depths of who we are; reaching out, to include every one of us—so is the resurrection. The women arrive at the tomb only to find out the body, and the story they thought it held, could not be contained. Death burst forth into life! The resurrection is God’s reaching into the world, with a boundless love, to gift us all with new life and a new beginning. Practice the traditional Easter greeting while you reach to embody the scope of this good news. I’ll say, “Christ is risen!” and invite you to respond “Christ is risen, indeed!” with the fullness of your voice and your body. Reaching high up to the sky: Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Reaching way out to your sides: Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Reaching far out in front of you: Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Station 14: Burial
April 3, 2021
◼︎Journey Stations of the Cross: Sunday, March 21 – Sunday, April 4 ◼︎ Our Stations of the Cross experience will take us on a journey following the footsteps of Christ, immersing us in the biblical account of the last hours and days of Jesus' life. Take a few minutes each day to watch a short video and to respond and reflect. Connect with Jesus and prepare your heart as we head into Good Friday and Easter. The following is the script from the video. You may also follow along using the downloadable reflection booklet. ◼︎ Station 14: Burial◼︎ Jesus is Placed in the Tomb Matthew 27:57–60 Supplies: Lit candle When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. ... At this station, we witness how a friend honored Jesus by caring for his body, treating it tenderly, and providing a place for burial. The honor given in death is a reflection of the respect felt in life, a testimony to the connection these two men shared. By offering his tomb, Joseph found a way to extend his care for Jesus even past death’s boundary. Turn to the candle you lit at the beginning of our time together. Watch it for a few moments. See how the flames flicker and dance. Observe how the light stretches and shrinks. Pay attention to the life in the fire. In just a moment, I’ll ask you to blow out the candle, but to remember what remains, even as the flame is no more. Before you do that, let us pray. Join me as we recite this prayer together: I extinguish this candle but not the flame of truth, not the light of hope, not the warmth of love. These, I carry in my heart and I know they will carry me through the days to come. Amen.
Station 13: Darkness
April 2, 2021
◼︎Journey Stations of the Cross: Sunday, March 21 – Sunday, April 4 ◼︎ Our Stations of the Cross experience will take us on a journey following the footsteps of Christ, immersing us in the biblical account of the last hours and days of Jesus' life. Take a few minutes each day to watch a short video and to respond and reflect. Connect with Jesus and prepare your heart as we head into Good Friday and Easter. The following is the script from the video. You may also follow along using the downloadable reflection booklet. ◼︎ Station 13: Darkness◼︎ Jesus Dies on the Cross Luke 23:44–46 Supplies: Paper, pen or pencil It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. ... Darkness fell over the land, like a covering. Like the curtain in the Temple was a covering. In the hardest times, like when Jesus is on the cross, and in the most sacred spaces, like the Holy of Holies in the Temple, reality is sometimes obscured. Clarity is sometimes sacrificed. Darkness makes space for the unknown: a sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrible allowance. When the Temple curtain is torn, when that covering rips in two, the notion that God could be contained there was challenged. The holy space the curtain had concealed, had kept in darkness, was suddenly revealed. We can never build anything—in our structures or our hearts—that keeps God from reaching us. On a piece of paper, write down what seems to separate you from God. Maybe you’ll write thoughts, emotions, habits, convictions. Maybe for you there’s just one thing; maybe there’s a long list. Whatever it is, take this time to write it down. When you’re ready, rip it up. You can make one big tear, like the story tells us about the Temple curtain. Or you can tear your paper into lots of tiny pieces. Let the tearing be a denial of artificial boundaries and an affirmation of God’s ever-presence: behind a curtain, on a cross, in the darkness— God is always with us.