LENTEN SERMON SERIES

You’re invited to worship to worship during the season of Lent.

  • Sundays at 8:30 (chapel), 9:30 (fellowship hall), and 11:00 am (sanctuary) or online anytime
  • Ash Wednesday, February 14 at noon and 5:30 pm, chapel
  • Holy Thursday, March 28 at 6:00 pm, fellowship hall
  • Good Friday, March 29 at 7:00 pm, sanctuary, livestream
  • Easter Sunday, March 31 at 6:45 (garth), 8:15 (sanctuary), 9:30 (fellowship hall), 11:00 am (sanctuary, livestream)
LENTEN SERMON SERIES

“The Way of the Cross”

This Lenten season, we will follow Jesus to the cross.

February 14, Ash Wednesday
First Reading: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Sermon Title: “Now Is the Time”
The sermon will take the time to introduce the Forty Days and will echo the Scriptural themes from 2 Corinthians: “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” As such, we are not to receive God’s grace in vain. Lent is a season of remembering that now is the time to reconnect with God, and now is the time to appropriate and appreciate God’s grace so that we can be even deeper and more powerful stewards of this grace, grounded in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

February 18, First Sunday of Lent
Lay Reading: Psalm 25:1-10
Preacher Reading: Mark 1:9-15
Sermon Title: “The Man in the Mirror”
This week will introduce our season of Lent with Mark’s brief allusion to Jesus’ venture out into the desert. It will also speak to the first words of Jesus in the gospel of Mark: “The time has come…the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” If the time has really come, what do we need to repent of, and what do we need to believe?

February 25, Second Sunday of Lent
Lay Reading: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Preacher Reading: Mark 8:31-38
Sermon Title: “Hard Words to Swallow”
This week will focus on the challenges around living the way Jesus describes in the passage from Mark. His description centers around words or phrases that are increasingly hard to embrace in our culture: “deny themselves,” “cross,” and “lose.” This is the way Jesus will heal the world and heal us. As he vividly told Peter, pushing an alternative way, absent of suffering, comes from the heart of evil. The way of the cross is hard, but it is the way of making a difference in this world and beyond.

March 3, Third Sunday of Lent and Youth Sunday
Lay Reading: Psalm 19
Preacher Reading: John 2:13-22
Sermon Title: “Turning the Tables”
Our youth will preach at all three services and they will be speaking primarily of the story in John of Jesus turning over the tables.

March 10, Fourth Sunday of Lent
Lay Reading: Isaiah 53:1-6
Preacher Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Sermon Title: “Is a Cross Really Necessary?”
In some ways, this week will be an extension of our “Hard Questions” series. There are voices amongst us today that tend to diminish the need for the cross. It seems brutal, even unnecessary given the goodness and love of our God. The sermon will argue the opposite. For God to be both love and justice, there must be a cross. We are both that sinful and that loved.

March 17, Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lay Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Preacher Reading: John 12:20-33
Sermon Title: “Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus”
John hits a pivotal point in this reading. The Greeks are coming, and they want what Jesus has to offer. Jesus replies that the hour has come and then speaks of his death as the seed that dies in the ground and is raised to produce much fruit. There is a reminder in this story. The Greeks are still in our midst, those who “would see Jesus.” Our role is to point them to Jesus, but also to recognize that people come to him by our willingness to deny ourselves, and serve them and by doing, serve our Lord.

March 24, Palm/Passion Sunday
Lay Reading: Mark 11:1-11
Preacher Reading: Selected Passion readings from the Gospel of Mark
Sermon Title: “Were You There?”
This sermon will explore the dual scenes of Palm Sunday and the crucifixion, by putting us in the crowd, through the hymn “Were You There?” We will answer the question affirmatively. That is us in the crowd, celebrating the coming Messiah. That is also us in the crowd, shouting “crucify.” Fickle and broken people that we are, Jesus still went to the cross for us. As such, there is still hope for us. We were there, but so was and is he.

March 31, Easter Sunday
Lay Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Preacher Reading: Mark 16:1-8
Sermon Title: “There is Always Hope”