The season of Lent is a special season in our church year where we reflect on Jesus’ work on the cross and how he
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)
A good friend of the composer George Frederick Handel called on him just as he was in the middle of setting the words “He was despised” to music. The friend found the great composer sobbing with tears – so greatly had this passage affected the master. The suffering and death of our Lord overwhelmed Handel but also inspired him to compose some of the greatest music ever written. Handel was not content to view Christ only as “despised”. In what was surely a reference to the resurrection and Christ’s coming again, Handel composed his greatest work The Messiah in which he quoted from Isaiah 40:5 writing the lyrics,
“And the glory, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”
In the season of Lent, we remember Jesus who was despised and rejected by men. Yet, Lent does not end with a “despised” Jesus but at Easter where the “glory, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”
I invite you to join us in the Lenten season. Each Wednesday Evenings beginning March 6th and continuing for 6 weeks through April 10th, the Youth will be serving a Supper meal starting at 5:30 followed by our Lenten Service. Come for dinner anytime between 5:30 and 6:15, then at 6:30 for our Lenten Service. This service will include hymns, confession, a short devotional, Scripture reading, and a Youth presence. At 7:15, the choir will practice.
Consider making this Lenten Season part of your family life.
Pastor Mark
Leave a Reply