Ash Wednesday
Worship in Sanctuary
March 2, 7:00 pm
Join us this evening as we begin our journey into Lent, with a service of repentance and forgiveness.
March 9- April 6
7:00pm
Holden Evening Prayer Services
Our Mid-week Lenten Series:“Created for Community”
Using readings from Mark’s gospel, this series invites the assembly to reflect on what it means to be in community with one another, with the world, with creation, and with God.
Week 1 – March 9
In Community with Creation
Gracious Creator, you fashioned us in your image in the midst of a world beyond our knowledge and understanding. Continue to weave us together in community with all created things, and deepen our awareness of the ways you connect us to the earth. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Mark 4:35-41
Jesus calms a storm
Our reading highlights the destructive power of the flood as well as the power of God’s promise represented there. In the gospel reading Jesus is with the wild animals in the wilderness. While we often think of community as limited to human beings, our human existence is interdependent with all the created world. This theme is especially apparent in Mark 4:35-41, the account of the fishermen whose lives depend on the sea but who become afraid of its power in the storm.
Week 2 – March 16
In community with all the saints
Timeless One, you renew your promises in every generation. Deepen our awareness of the communion of saints who have gone before us, the saints in our own time, and the saints who will carry on your message of grace after us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Mark 9:2-8
Jesus is in conversation with those who have gone before him
The Sunday readings for Lent 2, year B highlight God’s promise to many generations; the passage from Romans reminds us that our faith is intertwined with those who have gone before us. The understanding of community expressed in our creeds extends beyond the present time to include those whose faith has influenced our own and those we influence after us. We hear this connection to what has been established before us echoed in Mark 9:2-8, the account of the transfiguration.
Week 3 – March 23
In community with our neighbor
Neighbor to all people, you call us into human communities to serve and be served by one another. Open our hearts to the needs of all our neighbors, and teach us to recognize the gifts you have given each of us to use in service to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Mark 2:1-12
A community comes together to bring a neighbor to Jesus
The Sunday readings for Lent 3, year B center us in the ten commandments, which serve, among other things, as a way of living in community with our neighbor. Jesus’ actions in the temple are, in part, a reaction to dishonest dealings with neighbors from near and far who have come to worship. Being in community with our neighbor is complicated and beautiful. Mark 2:1-12, the story of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus through the roof of a crowded room, highlights the way in which it takes a community to care for one another.
Week 4 – March 30
In community with those on the margins
Mender of division, you sent Christ to heal the world and to gather those on the margins. Bring your healing power to us. May we extend your power and grace to those separated from their communities and those longing for a tangible sign of your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Mark 5:1-20
Jesus crosses barriers to attend to those on the margins
The Sunday readings for Lent 4, year B include the visit of Nicodemus to Jesus at night. Though he is a leader in the community, his interest in Jesus pushes him to the outside of his own group and to the edges of Jesus’ followers. We continue to read of the Hebrew people wrestling with their wandering in the wilderness, not being part of a settled community. Those on the margins are also a part of our communities. When Jesus crosses over to the land of the Gerasenes in Mark 5:1-20, he encounters and brings healing to a man who has been left on the margins and restores him to community.
Week 5 – April 6
In community with Christ
Mysterious One, in Jesus you redeem us and invite all people to a place in your glory. Draw us closer to you, and in so doing, draw us closer to one another, that we may be strengthened to follow in the way of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Mark 10:32-45
Jesus reminds us that we are walking the way of the cross
The Sunday readings for Lent 5, year B remind us where we are headed in this season and always—to the cross. When we are at the limits of our own power, overwhelmed by guilt or shame, or confronted with death, we find ourselves in the company of Jesus, who is our community even when all else fails. In Mark 10:32-45, Jesus once again reminds the disciples and us that our call will lead us to the cross.
