March 5, 2025 - Ash Wednesday

Lectionary Readings

Gracious God, you hate nothing that you have made, so keep us forever in the knowledge of this great love ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This warmer weather has been a nice change. Baseball is again being played and early flowers are budding. All of this means one thing: spring is nearly here. And along with Spring break and March Madness often comes spring cleaning – when we realize that we didn’t quite make the progress on the New Year’s resolution to be better organized and so, bolstered by warmer weather, we spring to action.

March 2, 2025 - Quinquagesima

Lectionary Readings

O God of grace and glory, help us to behold that which you are helping us to become ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Church Year, today is known as Quinquagesima – that’s a fun word, isn’t it? Quinquagesima: it means that we’re approximately fifty days from Easter and that this is the Sunday before Lent begins. On these Sundays between the Epiphany and Lent, the sermons have been focusing on our worship – exploring what we mean when say that foundational to our identity is “intentional worship.” Our worship is intentional in that it is deliberately and prayerfully planned and led, and it is intentional in that it is done with a purpose in mind. Today, as this sermon series concludes, I want to consider that last bit – what is the purpose of worship?