7:00 PM February 18th - Ash Wednesday - "Mortal Recognition: We return to dust so that Christ may raise us." - We were saved 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. - Scripture: Genesis 3:1-24;2 Corinthians 5:21–6:10;Matthew 5:13-16
5:00 PM February 25th - "Divine Initiative: Christ comes to us, not us to God." - God alone saves us. He doesn’t need our work. - Ezekiel 37:1-28;Philippians 2:5-11;Mattthew 4:23-25 / (John 3:1–17)
March 4th - "Imputed righteousness: Jesus makes us 'right' through the cross." - The righteous sinners. - Zechariah 3:1-10;Philippians 3:1-11;Mark 10:17-31
March 11th - "God in Suffering: God revealing himself in suffering." - We have a God who comes to us even in the most humble of conditions. - Isaiah 53:1-12;Romans 8:18-39;Mark 8:34-38
March 18th - "People and Work: God showing up in ordinary work." - Your daily life is the arena where God loves the world through you. - Deuteronomy 6:1-25;Romans 12:1-21;Matthew 25:31–46
March 25th - "The Community of Believers: God bringing together repentant sinners." - A community shaped by Word, Sacrament, and mutual service. - Acts 2:42–47;Hebrews 10:5-25;Matthew 4:23
HOLY WEEK 8:30 AM March 29th - Palm Sunday - "A King and a Donkey: The praise to a humble king." - The paradox of a humble king. - Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-9aRomans 15:1-7Matthew 21:1–11
7:00 PM April 2nd - Maundy Thursday - "Means of Grace: God giving himself through physical means." - God gives himself to us and is present with us. - Scripture: Exodus 24:3-11; Hebrews 9:11-22; Matthew 26:17-30
April 3rd - Good Friday - "Theology of the Cross: the cross and the center of the Christian faith." - God does not resist suffering but endures it for us. - Scripture: Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; John 19:17-30
8:30 AM April 5th - Easter Sunday - "The Crucified One Risen: God's suffering saving plan revealed." - New life promised to us through the resurrection of Jesus who was crucified for us. - Scripture: Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 28:1-10
INTRODUCTION Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we approach the season of Lent, our hearts turn once again toward the Cross of Jesus Christ—His suffering, His love, and His victory for us. This year, our mid-week Lenten series will draw from Gene Edward Veith Jr.’s book The Spirituality of the Cross, a work that explores how the message of Christ crucified shapes not only our salvation but the whole pattern of our Christian lives.
Veith writes out of his own journey through various Christian traditions before finding a spiritual home in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. What drew him in was not only the depth of Lutheran theology but the way it consistently points to Christ’s finished work on the cross as the center of our faith, worship, and daily life. He describes Lutheran spirituality as profoundly nourishing because it refuses to separate “spirituality” from the concrete truths of Scripture and the saving work of Jesus.
In today’s world, many people say they want spirituality without doctrine—an uplifting experience without the demands of belief. But Veith reminds us that genuine spirituality cannot exist apart from theology. Without the truth of who God is and what Christ has done, spirituality becomes little more than a self made search for meaning.
When the cross is minimized, something else always rushes in to fill the void. Often that “something” is moralism—the idea that Christianity is mainly about being good, trying harder, or proving our worth. But Lutheran spirituality begins with the opposite: we cannot justify ourselves. Christ justifies us. And because He has done so through His cross, we are freed from the exhausting cycle of self-righteousness, comparison, and guilt. True goodness flows not from pressure but from the transforming work of Christ in us.
Veith argues that this “spirituality of the cross” is not only vital for Lutherans but a gift to the wider Christian world. It offers clarity in a secular age, comfort in suffering, and a way forward for Christians wrestling with questions of identity, culture, and faithfulness.
If you would like me to order you a copy of this book for your own personal reading and devotion, I can do that for you. Just let me know. But whether or not you read the book, I pray that our Lenten services this year will help you experience the depth, honesty, and consolation of a spirituality rooted in Christ crucified and risen. May this season draw us into His grace—and into lives shaped by His love.
