Lenten Worship Series: “The Way”
Join us on a journey of pilgrimage during the season of Lent. This year’s Lenten series is inspired by the popular pilgrimage route known as El Camino de Santiago. (Click here to learn about the Camino.) During worship each Sunday we’ll reflect on how the scriptures relate to the journeys, roads, and pathways of life.  ​

And on Sunday mornings from 9:15 – 10:00 you’re invited to a discussion of the book, Are We There Yet? Pilgrimage in the Season of Lent.   
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Make plans to join us as we make our “way” together through this holy season. 
 
The Way Back
February 14 – Ash Wednesday at 6:30 PM

• Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. God is kind and merciful. This most patient God, extravagant in love, is always ready to welcome you back. (Joel 2:13)

We begin our Lenten pilgrimage with a time of reflection, the imposition of ashes, and a blessing for the journey ahead.
 
The Wandering Way
Sunday, February 18

• Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. (Luke 4:1-2)

After Jesus’ baptism, he went on a pilgrimage into the wilderness. Along the way he encountered what we all encounter along the paths of life – temptations to stray from the way that God intends for us. But “not all who wander are lost”. We may just find the Lenten wilderness a fertile place for spiritual growth.
 
The Way Around
Sunday, February 25

• Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! - Luke 13:33-34

We are not always understood. Jesus discovered that, just like so many others whose family, friends and neighbors have created an idea of who they are. Sometimes our faith calls us to claim who we know we are, and to take the way around what others think we ought to do and be.
 
The High Way
Sunday, March 4

• Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… (Isaiah 55:1-9)

We are taught that everything costs. But our ways are not God’s ways. We are all invited, without price, to the table of God’s grace. This is the high way that we are, in turn, invited to offer to others, embodying for them God’s hospitality.                                                            
 The Way Home
Sunday, March 11

• Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'" (Luke 15: 31-32)

No matter what we call “home” in this physical world, we yearn for a spiritual home that offers us acceptance and belonging. The extravagant forgiveness of the father in Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Son is difficult for us to believe sometimes. Yet, no matter what we have done, who we are, or how far we are from what we are called to be, we are welcomed home by the Loving Parent.
 
The Free Way
Sunday, March 18

• Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43: 18-19  

New paths are possible through our relationship with Christ. These ways are made plain before us if we have eyes to see. When we stop focusing on the past, we will discover that we can find healing and freedom. New life is always possible. 
 
The Other Way
Sunday, March 25 – Palm Sunday

• Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! (Mark 11:1-11)

For much of Jesus’ ministry – and especially as he entered Jerusalem and the last week of his earthly life – he chose to live and teach an “other way” that often put him at odds with the culture around him. It eventually cost him his life. Following the way of Jesus often puts us in tension with our own culture. While rarely life-threatening, Christian discipleship is not without its costs. As our Lenten pilgrimage nears its destination, we must ask ourselves: Which “way” will we follow?


Inspiration and materials for this series come from the Worship Design Studio.