Holy Week

2024

During the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, the church gathers together in devotion to and love for Jesus, to remember the events of His last week on earth, which we sometimes call ‘passion week.’ We use the word ‘passion’ because it’s derived from the Latin word meaning ‘to endure,’ or ‘to suffer.’ Hence, ‘passion week’ is the time every year when we gather together for worship to remember all that Jesus endured and suffered on our behalf. 

            

Holy week in the church is intended to be a sacred time of worship, offering followers of Jesus the opportunity to both deepen our love and appreciation for Him, while also helping us to better understand the shape of a disciple’s life and calling. As we watch the love of Jesus for you and me, empower and lead him to lay down his life for us, we, in turn, also learn how he has called us to live and to love one another. Each service in Holy week helps us to deepen our love for, and sharpen our knowledge of Jesus’ life, in a unique way. 

Palm Sunday

3/24 @ 9am & 11am

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9.  “And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.  And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” -Mark 11:8-9. In remembrance of this, both services for Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, will begin outside with the Liturgy of the Palms and include a corporate reading of The Passion. 

Maundy Thursday

3/28 @ 7pm

Once Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world and go to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he gathered together with his closest disciples in the upper room of a house to be with them, to teach them how his death on their behalf would become the central element of their worship, and to show them what love looked like. ‘Maundy,’ meaning mandate or command, reminds us that on this night, as Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, that he gave them ‘a new commandment,’ to love each other as He had loved them. When we gather and we wash one another’s feet, we experience together what it was like for Jesus’ disciples to be served by Him with such great humility and love.  

 

Stations of the Cross

3/29 @ 12pm

On Good Friday at noon, we gather together for a service of meditation to pray though the biblical events of Jesus’ walk to the cross. We begin with Jesus prayers’ in Gethsemane and end with Jesus’ crucifixion and his burial. Each step along Jesus’ walk to the cross is an opportunity for us to draw near to Jesus and to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us about Jesus’ love for us. Artistic representations of these events are provided at the remembrance of each station (event) along the way to inspire our prayers. 

Good Friday

3/29 @ 8pm

When a loved one dies, we set aside our normal schedules, we cancel and delay work, and we gather together with family and friends to grieve, to give thanks, and to remember. It's good for us to be together in times like this. In addition to gathering as a community in grief over the death of our Savior, we also gather to remember that Jesus’ death was the result of our sin. In order for you and I to be reconciled to the Father (for God to restore our relationship with Him) our sin had to be atoned for (i.e. restitution and repair needed to be offered to God to satisfy the just penalty called for by our sin). He died for us and because of us. The love of God for mankind comes into greatest focus at foot of the cross of Christ as we allow the Lord to bring about true repentance and gratitude in us at the sight of Jesus’ suffering. 

Great Easter Vigil

3/30 @ 8pm

On Saturday night, while we await the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning, we gather to hear the record of how God saved his people through ages past and in the fullness of time sent his Son to be our Redeemer. We begin in the dark with these words, calling out in joy to the whole creation, that Jesus’ victory over death is about to be won: “Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels, and let your trumpets shout Salvation for the victory of our mighty King. Rejoice and sing now, all the round earth, bright with a glorious splendor, for darkness has been vanquished by our eternal King.” Our readings then trace God’s plan of salvation through the Old Testament prophets and the Psalms, ending in the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. As Christ passes from death to life, we ring bells and celebrate His resurrection with joy!  

Easter Sunday

3/31 @ 6:30am, 9am, & 11am

At the heart of the Christian faith is the remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. On this Sunday, we gather in joy to remember and to declare together with Paul that “…Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles” (1 Cor. 15. 3a-7). Our preparations in the season of Lent now culminate in this celebration; that Jesus is alive! The proclamation and celebration of this truth is the central calling of our lives as disciples; to declare to the world and to each other that ‘He Is Risen!’ Come and see what God has done!