Community of Joy

Lutheran Church
Text Box: Pastor’s REFLECTIONS Text Box: FEBRUARY 2007 NEWSLETTER Home 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2

ASH WEDNESDAY

 

Ash Wednesday is February 21st.  We are

Each time we can’t have what we normally like to have - then we can remember what Jesus did for us.

 

 Some may not want to give anything up - and that is fine as well.  Often though, some folks decide to make a contribution each time they eat their favorite food during Lent.  You may want to pledge to put a certain monetary amount in a safe place each time you have a cookie (or whatever you designate).  At the end of the Lenten season you can contribute that money to the ELCA World Hunger Fund (or your charity of choice). 

 

 Whether we “give up stuff” or not, the overriding emphasis of Lent is to focus on the suffering and death of Jesus.  We are to come away from this season with a better understanding of what Jesus did for us - the enormous price he paid to wipe away our sins!  I call upon each of us to refocus our daily lives on Jesus and his love for us.  We are to be thankful for the love God showed to all of us by sending his only Son to suffer and die for us.

 

 This Lenten season - may we all repent, care, and share as we realize that God loves us more than we can even imagine.

 

 I’ll see you in church (and don’t forget to invite others!).

 

 In God’s Peace,

110 Balboa Road   Hot Springs Village, AR  71909

501-915-9569

quickly approaching the Lenten Season.

 

 The English word lent stems from the Anglo-Saxon word for “spring” and is related to the English word lengthen - referring to

the lengthening of the days in the Spring.  Lent - in the religious sense, refers to the penitential period preceding Easter.  In that sense it is much like Advent.  During Advent we prepare for the coming of the baby Jesus - God in the flesh - God with us.  During Lent we prepare for the suffering and death of Jesus and the eventual glorious resurrection of Christ.  Because of this suffering and death of Jesus (normally called “The Passion of Christ”) the tone and mood of Lent is somber.  It is a time of repentance, remorse, and contrition.  It is a time in which we can focus clearly on our need for the saving grace of God.  It is a time to admit to and regret our sinful nature and wrongdoing and resolve to change our ways.

 

 Lent is also a time in which many of us “give up something.”  This activity is actually related to the forty-day fast of Jesus in the wilderness, and it gives us an opportunity to realize how much Christ suffered for us.