Ash Wednesday

March 5, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Freely Gives

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He says, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3). Jesus is emphasizing that our good works need not receive special recognition within ourselves, let alone the accolades of others. Jesus cuts right to the heart of our sin, knowing that our condition is so entrenched in us that we will manipulate even that which is good for our own pride. We ought to rend not simply our garments but also our hearts when confronted with this truth (Joel 2:12–13). But, like a master surgeon, Christ takes us in His hands, makes our hearts clean, and renews our spirits (Psalm 51). His hands were stretched out upon the cross, purely out of His divine love for us.

Midweek Lent 1

March 12, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Creates and Saves

When Peter walked out onto the water, he began to sink as he took his eyes off Jesus. But the Lord was quick to reach His hand down to save him. When Christ walked on the water, He demonstrated that He is God in the flesh, through whom all things were created. It is all the work of His hands. In saving Peter, He also showed that He is compassionate. In our helpless state, Christ has reached down to pull us from the pit of despair.

Midweek Lent 2

March 19, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Casts out Demons

Adam and Eve took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil into their hands after listening to the deception of the crafty serpent. Since that time, the devil has attempted to hold humanity in his clutches like a strong man. No mere human being can escape the thralls of this bondage—that is, until one stronger than the strong man comes, binds him, and plunders his possessions. By the “finger of God” (Luke 11:20), Christ has bound the devil in order to bring us into His loving care. Jesus overcame the devil’s temptation in the desert and cast out demons, and He was faithful to go all the way the cross to defeat the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. Though the devil still “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” his days are numbered; thus, we humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God” that protects His church

until Christ’s return (1 Peter 5:6–11).

Midweek Lent 3

March 26, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Heals the Sick

The outstretched hand of Jesus is willing to reach out to the lives of the untouchable. The leper asking if the Lord willed that he be clean is greeted not only with a yes but also with the hand that touches the unclean. No one is out of the reach of Jesus. In Jesus, the unclean become clean. In Christ’s cross, He “took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:17; see also Isaiah 53:4). He who did not know sin even became sin for us in order to make us righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). In reaching out to us, touching the unclean, our Lord has taken our infirmities to the cross and given us His perfect forgiveness and life.

Midweek Lent 4

April 2, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Raises the Dead

When Jesus reached out and touched the bier of the widow’s dead son, the funeral processionwas stopped dead in its tracks. Like the prophets Elijah and Elisha before Him, Jesus raised theonly child of a woman in need. When Jesus touches death, it can only mean life. Above all, in Christ’s cross, He destroyed death by His death (2 Timothy 1:10). Christ touched death, and death was overcome by His resurrection life. When our sin and its deadly consequences are touched by Jesus in Baptism, we are united to His death and resurrection. So we are now “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

Midweek Lent 5

April 9, 6pm Soup Supper

6:30 Service: Holds All Things

All things are in the hands of Jesus. There is no authority that is above Him, and He will continue to exercise that authority for us until the end of the age. Salvation itself is in the hands of Jesus. As we have seen throughout this series, Jesus continues to use those hands for our good and,above all, for our salvation. He has given that authority to the church for the sake of making disciples by baptizing and teaching. As we prepare to enter into Holy Week, we see the specific ways that those hands, into which the Father has given all things, have worked forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Holy (Maundy) Thursday,

April 17,

6pm Service: Serves and Feeds Us

Christ, seeing that all things were in His hands, chose to use them to serve His disciples (John 13:3). Taking the form of a servant, He took their dirty feet into His hands and washed them. Above all, He served His disciples by feeding them. He took bread and wine into His pure and holy hands, blessed them, and then gave us so much more: His very body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith.

Good Friday Tenebrae,

April 18

7pm Service: Was Pierced for Us

The Lord’s hands, feet, and side were pierced for our transgressions. The hands that the Lord used to show compassion, lift up those who were afflicted, and bless the poor in spirit were pierced by nails driven into a cross, all for us. On the cross, our Lord’s outstretched hands show the heart of His compassion for us. By the mere sight alone, one would have to wonder how Jesus could do anything with His hands nailed to the cross. However, these are not just any hands. They are the hands of the Son of God, who has atoned for the sins of the world.

Easter Vigil,

Saturday, April 19

8pm Service: Made Us

The hand of the Lord is at work in all of creation, and all things were made through Jesus. On Good Friday, the lifeless body of our Lord was received into the hands of Joseph of Arimathea, who wrapped it and placed it in a new tomb. Pilate tried his best to secure the tomb that contained the hands of our Lord at rest. Just as on the Sabbath of creation, Christ rested from all the work

that He had done—this time, work done on the cross to forgive and redeem us. Holy Saturday is not the end of the Lord’s handiwork. A new day of creation is coming on Sunday, the first day of the week. Even on this day of rest, the Lord is calling us to trust that all things are in His hands.

Easter Sunday
Sunday, April 20

9:30am Service: Is Risen

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! When the women came to His tomb, carrying spices in their hands, they expected to find a dead body. However, they found a stone rolled away and angels proclaiming that Christ lives. Oh, how their sorrow turned to joy! It was necessary for Jesus to be delivered into the hands of the sinful men. He is not to be found in the place of death, and soon He will meet His disciples, all as He said. David knew this joy nearly a thousand years before Christ’s resurrection. Jesus is the one who did not see corruption in the tomb and fulfills these words: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!