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Brothers and sisters,

Easter is quickly approaching! In fact, by the time the next Illuminator comes out, Easter Sunday will have already come and gone! So, I wanted to write to you all this week and give you a breakdown of the services we have coming up during Holy Week.

First, this Sunday, March 29th, will be Palm Sunday. During worship we will celebrate the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into the holy city of Jerusalem. The children will process in during our first hymn and wave palms in recognition of that first Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode in on a donkey. Be sure to join us for worship at 11:00AM!

Then, on Wednesday, April 1st, we will have our yearly Hand-Washing Service in the sanctuary. That service will start at 6:30PM. For that particular service, we will meditate on the way that Jesus served his disciples by washing their feet, modeling for us the kind of service he calls all of us to. We will wash each other’s hand as a tangible part of our worship, reminding ourselves that we are called to serve others.

Our Good Friday Service will be on Friday, April 3rd at 7:00PM in the church sanctuary. In my opinion, this is one of the most meaningful services all year. Throughout the service, we well read about and meditate on the death of Jesus on the cross and what that means for us as Christians. The service ends in darkness and silence, reminding us that in the immediate wake of the cross, the light of the world seemed to have gone out.

Finally, on Easter Sunday, April 5th, we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in our church sanctuary! Worship will begin at 11:00AM and we will spend the hour singing songs of joy and praise as we remember the truth that Christ is risen, sin’s power is broken, and death has lost its sting. Make plans to be here that day and celebrate the resurrection with our church family.

In addition to all those services, don’t forget that we are having our annual Easter Egg Hunt and Craft Fair on Saturday, April 4th from 10:00AM to 12:00PM. All children are invited to come make crafts, hunt for eggs, and hear the Easter story!

I’ll look forward to seeing you all throughout Holy Week!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Planning for this month has been a challenge for me. It hasn’t been because of any particular kind of stress or worry or anything. Instead, I’ve been combining March 29th and April 5th in my head. The transition from March to April during Holy Week is throwing me off. And so I have to keep reminding myself that, outside of Palm Sunday, none of the Holy Week activities start till April—which is closer than I think, but also not that much closer. It’s this weird sense of almost rushing to Easter.

It does not help my sense of rush and hurry that we’ve had such beautiful spring days of late. The sunshine. The mild temperatures. The flowers blooming. It makes me yearn for spring and summer. I’m done with the cold and the wet and the grey of winter. I’m ready to move on to the good stuff!

Now according to the church calendar, by the time this article comes out we will be over halfway through Lent. We will finally be closer to Easter than Ash Wednesday. Lent is forty days (not counting Sundays), meaning Friday, March 13th will be the 21st day of the season. And there is a natural inclination to want to rush to the end. For three weeks we’ve reflected on sin and confession and repentance. Let’s get on to the resurrection and grace and hope! But there’s an issue with that impulse.

I had a theology professor who used to remind us that Christians often get too focused on one part of the Easter story. On the one hand, Christians can get too focused on the crucifixion, leaning into the idea of the pain and suffering of Jesus, on the sin and brokenness of humanity. They linger there too long and the resurrection becomes almost an after-thought. On the other hand, Christians can get too focused on the resurrection, rushing past the cross because it makes us uncomfortable and leaning into the fact that sin and death have no power over Jesus.

What my professor advocated for was simple: acknowledge the importance of each step along the way. Jesus’ life and ministry are important—it is good to spend time reading about them and dwelling there a while. But we must recognize that those miracles and those teachings led Jesus to the cross—it is good to spend time reading about that terrible event and dwelling there a while. But we must remember that the story does not end with the cross, that it leads to the first Easter Sunday—it is good to spend time reading those stories and dwelling there a while. We should not rush any of them.

So as we move through these final twenty days of Lent, let us not rush ahead to Easter Sunday. Let us spend some time contemplating our sins. Then, let us spend some time remembering the cross. Then, let us spend some time celebrating the resurrection! We should not try to combine March 29th and April 5th. We should not rush the end of winter because we’re ready for spring. Let us take these seasons as God intended, recognizing the value in each of them.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

I must confess something to you. I’ve never been able to stick with a Lenten devotional. Truthfully, I’m not good at sticking with any kind of devotional. Advent? Nope. Lent? Nope. Contemporary theologian? Not happening. Classic of the genre? I’m sure it would be great—if I could stick with it!

The thing is, I like the idea of a devotional. For those that may wonder what a “devotional” is, it’s most commonly a book that has short readings for a set number of days. The idea is that you read one part per day over the course of however long the book is. They’re usually themed to help you contemplate something in particular. And, again, I’d love to be the kind of person that can do a devotional, but I’m forgetful enough that I’ll forget to read it one day, then decide I’ll just read two entries the next day, which defeats the whole purpose of the devotional format (one reading per day). Inevitably, I forget multiple days in a row and suddenly I’ve got a week’s worth of readings I need to catch up on and so instead I just say, “I’ll try again next year.”

That being said, there are two devotional books that I have kept over the years. I still have not read them cover-to-cover, but they are both collections of spiritual writings by be-loved authors. Sometimes, I do think to pick them up and read a passage. Often, their writing inspires me. The first is an Advent devotional entitled, Watch for the Light. The second is a Lenten devotional entitled, Bread and Wine. I wanted to share a poem with you all in Bread and Wine that comes from Oscar Wilde, a renowned playwright, called, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” (pronounced “Redding Jail”):

…And thus we rust Life’s iron chain
Degraded and alone:
And some men curse, and some men weep,
And some men make no moan:
But God’s eternal Laws are kind
And break the heart of stone.

And every human heart that breaks,
In prison-cell or yard,
Is as that broken box that gave
Its treasure to the Lord,
And filled the unclean leper’s house
With the scent of costliest nard.

Ah! happy those whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?

During Lent, if we will recognize our own sin, if we will allow our hearts to be broken by the good news of the gospel, we will find that sin has now power over us, that death does not have the final say, that life is worth the living just because Christ lives.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Within broader theological circles, there is an argument to be made over which holiday is more important to the Christian faith — Christmas or Easter. At Christmas, of course, we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus and the miracle of the Incarnation. At Easter, of course, we celebrate the resurrection of the adult Jesus and the salvation Christ brings for all of us. And this debate can go round and round, with both sides making compelling arguments and neither one quite nullifying the other.

On the other hand, it feels like there’s very little debate over which season leading up to those holidays is more important — Advent or Lent. Advent ends up getting so much of the focus because, let’s be honest, it’s more fun to anticipate the birth of the baby Jesus as opposed to dreading the inevitability of the cross. Advent has Sundays dedicated to various themes — hope, peace, joy, and love. Lent’s Sundays are not themed; rather, they are just part of the journey toward Good Friday. And since our wider culture has adopted Christmas as a holiday for all, Advent feels much more mainstream.

That means Lent often gets disregarded, but it is a distinctly Christian season. The season of Lent runs from the night of Ash Wednesday through the Saturday before Easter (Holy Saturday). When you don’t count the Sundays involved, Lent lasts for forty days, mirroring the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. These forty days, for us, serve as a time of contemplation and reflection. They call us to reflect on our own sinful nature, our own propensity to give in to temptations, and our inability to “earn” the grace God offers to us. Because of those things, Lent has gained a reputation as being a sad, depressing season. And if all Lent focused on was our own sin, then I could see how that makes sense. But it doesn’t only focus on our sins.

Within the Eastern Orthodox church, Lent is known as “the bright Sadness” because even though it is a time of reflection, confession, and repentance, it is also a season that recognizes that sin’s power has already been broken. It is a season that recognizes that death does not have the last say. It is a season that sees the sacrifices of Jesus throughout his ministry and reminds us that those sacrifices were made for you and me. It is a season that prepares us for the miracle of Easter, when Christ rises up from the grave and proves, definitively, that grace is available for all. Easter is the day that gets all the celebration, but Lent is the season that prepares us for that celebration.

So, in the coming weeks, be sure to take time to reflect on all that God has done for you. Take an honest stock of the sins you’re regularly tempted to commit. But then recognize that you worship a God who loves you, even though you are a sinner. Recognize that you worship a God who walks alongside you and tells you that you are not defined by those sins. Recognize that you worship a God who came and dwelt among us, the Incarnate Word, who faced the same temptations we face, and who broke the power those temptations have over you and me. This season starts on Wednesday, February 18th at 6:30 in our sanctuary. Come and be reminded of God’s infinite goodness.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben