Come to worship at Bethany Lutheran Church!
Services are Sunday mornings at 9am at the church or online. We are a joyful group of wounded, forgiven, hungry and fed people of all ages and experiences. We love to laugh but we are also ready to bear one another’s burdens and share the love of Christ with others.
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LENT
Lent is the forty-day season (excluding Sundays) of penitence and preparation for the Three Days of Holy Week and Easter.
The term “Lent” originally comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “lencten” which means “spring.” This is the time, in the Northern Hemisphere, when the days are lengthening. The season began as period of fasting leading up to the Vigil of Easter. Catechumens, those preparing for baptism at Easter, would fast and spend days in intense preparation. For those that were already baptized, Lent was a period to be renewed in their faith by studying the Bible, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.
Although it was originally only a two-day period of preparation, Lent was expanded into six-weeks, or forty days. By the end of the fifth century, there was a desire to exclude Sundays from Lent since Sundays are always celebrated as feasts of the Resurrection. Thus Lent begins not on Sunday, but on Ash Wednesday (February 22 this year).
The current practice of forty days of Lent recall Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness after his Baptism (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:1-2) as well as Moses’ forty-day fast on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28). This year’s five Sundays in Lent cover the Gospel accounts of (1) the temptation of Jesus, (2) Nicodemus, (3) woman at the well, (4) man born blind, and (5) raising of Lazarus … all before Palm Sunday (April 2nd) and followed with Holy Week’s Maundy Thursday and Good Friday special services. All in preparation for the most holy day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – EASTER!
Join us this Lenten season! ALL are welcome!
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