Lent and Holy Week 2013

2013 HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE: 

Sunday, March 24 - Palm Sunday - Worship services are at 9:00 am for contemporary worship and 10:30 am for blended worship. Childcare is provided.

Holy Week, Stations of the Cross: March 28-30
The Community Room will be open on Thursday and Friday from 9am until 9pm, and on Saturday from 3pm to 8pm before Easter. Come and take a self-guided, interactive journey through the Stations of the Cross. A handout will be available for this individual time of reflection and meditation.

Thursday, March 28 - At 7:00pm: Maundy Thursday Communion service for all ages. Childcare will be provided.

Friday, March 29 - Good Friday -At Thornapple at 8:00pm there will be a worship service remembering Christ's death on the cross. Childcare will be provided.

Sunday, March 31 - Easter

Lent Book, Web, and Devotional Resources:

Lent Scripture Reading Suggestion: Read through the gospels during Lent.  If you read 2 chapters a day starting with Matthew on February 22 (Ash Wednesday) you will read through all four gospels by Easter. At BibleGateway.com you can sign up to have them send you the reading by e-mail for each day during Lent.  To do that, click here.

For a list of recommended reading for Lent, click here.

For Website resources which include daily Lent devotionals, click here.

There are devotional materials available at the Welcome Center for both families and adults.

The Covenant Church has some recommendations (both books and devotionals) for Lent on their website. To go there now, click here.

*Background of Lent by Rob Peterson 

Lent is a time of self-examination, repentance, self-denial, conversion and growth. It lasts for forty days, excluding Sundays, and begins on Ash Wednesday (February 13, 2012) and ends on the Saturday (March 30, 2013) before Easter Sunday (March 31, 2013). 

Lent has a long history in the life of the church. In the early church candidates for baptism had to undergo an intense time of preparation (as long as two years) for the baptism service that was held once a year on Easter Sunday. The preparation was a time of study, prayer, fasting, and self examination. Eventually the church as a whole joined in this time of preparation for Easter – a time of celebrating Christ’s risen life.

Over time Lent became connected to the 40 days of wilderness preparation experience of Jesus and to the events of what became known as Holy Week – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Worship spaces are often decorated in purple which is the color of Lent. The word Lent has come to mean springtime or new life and many congregations invite their people into a season of spiritual spring cleaning. Many people are familiar with the practice of giving something up for Lent. This tradition for some is rather silly – I am giving up road rage for Lent! But the practice when done with integrity is meant to foster a stronger will, one that intentionally chooses to make room for God amidst all the competing realities of life. Giving something up for Lent is a choice to say no to lesser desires so that we can say a greater yes to God.

At its heart Lent is a journey into wholeness, a participation in God’s mission of redemption. The journey of Lent for believers follows the journey of Christ to the cross, the tomb, and resurrection. It is a corporate practice that joins believers to Christ’s way of humility and dependence on God. In many ways, Lent is an invitation to a form of dying and rising. Practiced well, Lent nurtures a greater knowledge and love of Christ and a more realistic understanding of believer’s frailties, finitude and need of help from God.

Ash Wednesday by Matt Anderson

On February 13, you will most likely see a few people walking around with black smudges on their foreheads--these people are not hygienically challenged. They are taking part in the church holiday called Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is a day when faithful followers of Christ have their foreheads marked with ashes, in the shape of a cross. This Christian observance is the first day of the season of Lent.

Lent is a season of spiritual discipline, cleansing, and fasting, and occurs in the forty days, excluding Sundays, before Easter. The ceremony reminds us that we should begin our Lenten repentance in a humble spirit. In Biblical times, the faithful would fast, wear sackcloth, and sit in dust and ashes. While we no longer wear sackcloth or sit in dust and ashes, the customs of fasting and putting ashes on our foreheads, as a sign of mourning and repentance, have survived to this day. In the Bible, a mark on the forehead is a symbol of a person's ownership. By having our foreheads marked with the sign of the cross, we have an outward sign that says, “We belong to Jesus, who died on a cross.” Come, February 13 at 7:00 pm, and "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."