Lent 2018
Maundy Thursday: The Lord Looked at Peter
March 29, 2018 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Maundy Thursday is a beautiful and solemn service that will focus your mind and grip your heart. After singing, silence, and a short meditation on a passage of scripture, we take the Lord’s Supper, prayerfully and seated at tables. For many this is one of the most powerful and rich communion experiences. At the conclusion of the service the communion tables are ceremonially stripped and we leave in silence and darkness. Symbolically this darkness and silence is broken with the shout of “He is risen!” at the opening of our Easter worship the following Sunday. Due to the late start time, there will be no childcare provided during the service.
Palm Sunday Cheers & Tears
March 25, 2018 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Holy Week begins in two days, and Easter, the biggest Christian holiday, is around the corner. How are you preparing? Over the centuries one of the main ways the Church has prepared for Easter is by remembering Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. When you think of Palm Sunday what do you imagine? Maybe a swelling crowd cheering Jesus on? Maybe the waving of palm branches? Maybe Jesus riding on a donkey? How about a Trojan Horse? There is something very surprising that happens on Palm Sunday. We come expecting a celebration and we leave with a different experience. And it is in that experience that we can best prepare for Easter. Take a few minutes to read the story of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry in Luke 19:28-44. Meditate and pray through it. As you do, what are you surprised by? How does that surprise help you prepare for Easter? I look forward to worshiping with you this Palm Sunday! Pastor Adam
Restore
March 4, 2018 • Rev. David Juelfs
I feel so guilty. What do we do with our guilt? We all know what it feels like to be in its grip, to be caught in its web where every move we make to free ourselves seems to worsen our situation. Psalm 51 can free us. We see in this most famous of the penitential psalms a model of responding to God’s mercy that will burn away the web of guilt that paralyzes so many of us. If you are like me you have tried a multitude of things to save yourself from the guilt: minimizing, excusing, justifying, ignoring, blaming others, self penance, and on and on. Jesus wants to free us from these false ways of dealing with our sin and guilt. Psalm 51 will show us the life and hope that come from responding to God’s mercy. I look forward to worshiping together. Pastor David
Known and Loved
February 18, 2018 • Rev. David Juelfs
So am I supposed to feel bad or what? This Sunday marks the first Sunday in the season of Lent. It is easy to mistake the season of Lent as one of dourly introspection and austerity. Who wants to participate in that? However, Lent is about preparation for something joyful and magnificent! Yes, it is a season when our focus highlights greater self awareness and repentance and that can be hard, but it does not need to be a negative burden. It can be a season of preparing to celebrate the resurrection by untangling ourselves and lightening our load. Lent is about getting ready for joy. Psalm 139 will help us. In preparation for the sermon this Sunday read, meditate on, and pray through Psalm 139. Lent has begun. It is not too late to start. Let Psalm 139 help get you started. I can’t wait to worship together. Pastor David