We are fast approaching Lent which will begin with Ash
Wednesday Services on the 25
th of February. It is a good and long
cherished Custom of Lutherans to observe Lent with Wednesday night services.
Lent is 6 weeks from Ash Wednesday to Easter. You end up with 40 days mimicking
the 40 that Christ spent fasting in the desert, when you take out the Sundays.
Sundays are always a feast day, and never included in the fasts. This is so
because Sunday is when Christ rose from the dead, every Sunday is an Easter
celebration. This is also the reason Christians traditionally worship on Sunday.
We commemorate that glorious event every
week, not just once a year.
This year we will be commemorating Ash Wednesday with the
imposition of 
Ashes at 7:00 PM Ash Wednesday. It is traditional to do this at
noon, but that is difficult these days with work schedules and commutes.
We will then have Wednesday night Lenten Services every Wednesday
night at 7 through Lent, up to Palm Sunday the 5th of March.
Palm Sunday commences Holy week. During Holy week we will not have a Wednesday
night service, but we will have Maunday Thursday and Good Friday Services.
These will also be at seven.
Maunday Thursday is a service that commemorates Christ’s
institution of the Lord’s Supper, His
last will and Testament in His Blood,
where we coheirs of the Kingdom of God receive our inheritance, the forgiveness
of sins. This is a blessed event that deserves to be celebrated by all. In the
Lord’s Supper God pours the gospel down our throats with the blood He shed for
us on the Cross when He gave up His life. It is though a rather somber day, as one
realizes that Christ is putting everything in order and preparing to die.
Good Friday is an even more somber day as we commemorat the
Death of Christ, the Death of the Godman. The Tenebrae service will commemorate
this by repeating the seven words of Christ on the Cross, his last words,
extinguishing one 
candle as each word is read, and finally ending in complete
darkness that over took the land that afternoon in Jerusalem. Somber though it is, our mourning will be
turned to dancing with the Easter Sunrise Service, Easter Sunday at 6:30