Join us as we observe the season of Lent this spring!
Lent Midweek Services: Each Wednesday between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week we gather for worship, prayer, and singing at 7 PM. We also enjoy a meal, often a soup supper, from 5:30-6:30 before the services, with a freewill offering to benefit groups within the church and community.
Wednesday, February 18
7 PM – Ash Wednesday Service with imposition of ashes and Holy Communion – This Ash Wednesday, we introduce our Lent sermon series, which is based on the ancient hymn “O Love, How Deep” (LSB 544). This hymn, written in the fifteenth century, contemplates the love of God in becoming man, taking on our life, dying our death, and rising again, all for us. But for us to understand and appreciate this love, we must first examine ourselves and our lives to see how we have failed in thought, word, and deed. While we may try to get credit for our so-called good works, we all still die with nothing to show for them. But God’s love is not like our love. Our love is self-centered and fickle. God’s love is steady, deep, and beyond all understanding (Ephesians 3:14–19). This love of God will have no end.
Lent worship schedule
Wednesday, February 25, 7 PM Lent Midweek Service
Midweek of Lent 1: Why did Jesus have to come among us as a human being? Why didn’t He come as an angel or some other kind of being that is stronger and more powerful than us? While angels may be a source of endless fascination to the Christian and to the world, they have no power to save us. In this week’s sermon, we will hear why taking on the “robe of [our] human frame” was not only a good idea but also necessary for our salvation. Angels are wonderful, but they are not Jesus. He came as one of us so that He could redeem us as His own.
Wednesday, March 4, 7 PM Lent Midweek Service
Midweek of Lent 2: God’s character, His nature, is self-giving love. Everything Jesus does, He does “for us.” This phrase will be introduced this week in the series hymn. Pro nobis, or “for us,” appears again and again in the series hymn. Jesus is baptized, fasts, is tempted, overcomes temptation, and, in doing so, begins His work of undoing the power of the devil (Mark 1:9–13). It is especially worth noting that because Jesus suffered when tempted, He can “help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). He not only helps us in our weakness, but His love for us extends all the way into the grave.
Wednesday, March 11, 7 PM Lent Midweek Service
Midweek of Lent 3: Jesus talks all about seeking us in our texts this week. He does not wait passively until we get up the gumption to ask Him for help. Nor does He act out of selfish gain, like our health-care system seems to do so often today. Praying, teaching, working. In all these things, Jesus seeks us out and looks for ways to help us. This work is often overlooked because it is so ordinary. Water, bread and wine, the folly of preaching. In all these ordinary works, Jesus continues His ministry among us. This ministry of forgiveness means that Jesus continues to strengthen and help us.
Wednesday, March 18, 7 PM Lent Midweek Service
Wednesday, March 25, 7 PM Lent Midweek Service
Midweek of Lent 5: Jesus foretells His own betrayal, death, and resurrection in today’s text (Mark 8:31–9:1). This shows us that the way of salvation only comes through the path of suffering (Hebrews 2:10). Jesus’ suffering, His Passion, does not simply mean that He sympathizes with us. Rather, it means that He participates in our suffering, and we in His. His betrayal, the crown of thorns, the shameful cross—all of these lead to how Jesus “gave His dying breath,” as we sing in the series hymn. In the Passion reading, we will also hear how He dies (Mark 15:33–47) and what that means for us today.
