Community of Joy - Church Pictures

Lenten Midweek Services

Lent is a special season of the church year. During Lent we (as a church) try to emphasize the fact that Jesus suffered and died for us. We want everyone to know that Jesus paid an enormous price for our salvation - it wasn’t easy. In an attempt to make our parishioners fully aware of the “specialness” of this time of year we do a few things differently.

First, we hold services on Wednesday nights. It’s tough to get Lutherans to church on any days other than Saturday and Sunday - except during Lent. Many of us grew up knowing that we would be going to church on Wednesday nights during Lent. Many of our churches have added a small meal (a soup-supper) before the Wednesday service. It has become a long, time-honored tradition which is very popular in most Lutheran churches. We enjoy such a wonderful tradition here at Community of Joy.

The short “meditation service” follows the soup supper. This service includes a couple of Lenten hymns, a couple of prayers, a gospel reading and a short meditation. This year the meditation is based on songs from the musical Godspell. A song from Godspell is chosen and played and then we have a dialogue - a discussion about what that song means to us and how it relates to our understanding of God and Jesus Christ.

We also remove any live plants or cut flowers from the sanctuary during Lent. Again, it just helps us realize that this is a different - a “special” season.

One other tradition we now have at Community of Joy is the special Lenten cross. A very rugged cross - almost six feet tall - is brought into the sanctuary on Ash Wednesday. That cross is purposely moved from place to place each week so that it is easily seen and recognized by everyone (I actually want it to be “in the way” so people have to look or walk around it). This lends itself to helping everyone realize that this is a special season. It helps us all realize the significance of the cross in our salvation. And this somewhat “ugly,” rugged cross is turned into a beautiful cross on Easter morning when we decorate it with beautiful spring flowers. It symbolizes the fact that something as horrible as a cross (used to kill people like an electric chair was used for executions) can be turned into something beautiful because of what Jesus did for us on such a cross. All of these special “Lenten things” help our parishioners journey through Lent in a way that (hopefully) makes them feel closer to our Lord. We thank and praise God for Jesus’ sacrifice for us - that we might be saved. Amen.