Lent is coming

It is hard to believe but the season of Lent is coming soon. We are excited about the spiritual journey that we will begin together that will move us toward Easter. Ash Wednesday is the day which begins that holy season. This year it falls on February 25th. We will have a worship service in the chapel at 6pm that will mark that beginning and we’ll follow it with a sample of a Passover Seder Meal at 7pm. We hope you will begin this season in worship.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning point for the season of Lent that focuses us on life and relationship examination. It is a time for taking stock of where we stand with God and each other. During that worship service, we will sing and pray together in ways that we pray places us in that spirit. There won’t be a sermon; rather the primary “message” of that service will be conveyed through the imposition of ashes.
According to the tradition of the early Christian church, the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration are burned and the ashes are used the next year on Ash Wednesday. We have done that once again this year. I will have someone assist me who will place the sign of the cross on my forehead and then I will do that humbly with you. While doing, these words will be said to each of us, “repent and believe the Gospel.” With that, we begin the Lenten journey in the right spirit. The powerful prayer of Psalm 51 comes to mind. “Create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” That is a good prayer for this season.
The Passover Seder meal is a new opportunity for faith learning this year. Even though the Jewish Passover Seder takes place during what we know as Holy Week just before Easter, we thought that after the Ash Wednesday service would be a good time for us to learn. There will be samples of food from that meal. We have been guided on the food and the traditions by Patrick Lam, chef and owner of Texas Star Restaurant in Colmesneil, who is Jewish. We hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to learn about our faith heritage through this meal. Take a look inside this newsletter for a schedule of Lent 2009 at Woodville UMC. Our theme this year is “40 Days of Love.”
This Sunday I’ll be preaching from Mark 9: 2-9 on the transfiguration experience of Jesus and three of his disciples. The sermon title is “Embracing the Mystery.”