Mid-Lent Check In
Don’t just pass through today, checking the things off, watching the sun go in and out, one meal at a time. This is a sacred day! Why? Because God is available to you. He’s currently both enthroned in heaven and listening to all of us and walking with you. That makes this moment particularly sacred.
One of the gifts of setting aside a church season to observing Lent is this powerful sense of momentary sacredness. We don’t celebrate Lent; we don’t do Lent. We observe it. We notice that God is partnering with us in a season of anticipation. And there’s nothing like 6 weeks of lament to make me anticipate celebration!
I hope partnering with God’s passionate sorrow as a community has made your soul antsy for celebration. It certainly has mine! If you’ve missed us week by week, please do listen to the podcasts or take just 5 minutes now to look at the outline for the prayer of lament we’ve been working through and write your own. Saying Why? And Help! over and over have left me excited to see God answer!
So while I’m continuing to observe Lent, I’m also leading us toward celebration. I wanted you to have some moments in particular to be planning for coming up in Holy Week.
Palm Sunday Our final in the Jonah series, we’ll be lamenting our corporate lack of celebration. But really, we’re starting the celebrations (yes, with palms!)! Rod Tayet will be put forward as an elder candidate during a congregational meeting at 9:30am followed by our worship service at 10am complete with his ordination and installation. That’s Sunday, April 2nd. All those who have completed Practicing the Way and have committed to the community of Kitsap House are especially requested to come at 9:30am.
Egg Hunts Can you gather a handful of friends and neighbors for an Egg Hunt? It doesn’t have to be just for kids! Last year, we hid cans of our favorite beverages high in the trees for the adults, too. Starts out a happy hour with a fun surprise, don’t you think? We sent invitations to Reed’s class into school last year, and we connected with 4 new families in Reed’s class, 3 of whom returned for Wonder Week (our summer backyard VBS). Talk with Maddy Terry to get your starter kit to host your own neighborhood egg hunt (by Tuesday March 28th)! We recommend the Saturdays before Palm Sunday or Easter.
Good Friday We have both communal and individual opportunities for you this year. We will repost the Good Friday walking reflection which narrates Holy Week with interspersed questions for reflection. It was designed for walking from the Soroptomist Lookout downtown Port Orchard, up Sidney, and back down Cline Streets. But listen or walk from wherever you are. We’ve also been invited to join in with New Life and First Christian in offering a Good Friday worship service. Join us Friday, April 7th at Sidney Commons at 6:30. Prayer stations are open 5:30-8:30pm.
Easter We’ll finally move from Lament to Celebration! Join us Sunday, April 9th at 10:00am for a true celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and in anticipation of our own.
Pastor Megan
