February 15

Lent 2021

From the Staff & Leadership at Living Hope…

This Lent and Easter Living Hope has a number of things happening to mark it as a special season in the church calendar. We hope that this can be a meaningful and powerful time of journeying to the cross and celebration of the resurrection together!

Below you will find several resources to utilize during this Lenten season. The Overview document briefly describes them and how it might be best to use them. We hope you are blessed during this time leading up to Easter.

  • LENT OVERVIEW

    In this document you will find an overview of what Lent 2021 will entail at Living Hope.

    Click the icon to read more.

  • LENT LITURGY

    We have prepared a Lent Liturgy card to be used each Sunday for the first 5 Sundays of Lent. We will be speaking the same words each Sunday, growing in our familiarity to them.

    Click the icon to download a copy.

  • COLOURING PAGES

    We have colouring pages that go with the theme of each day lent prayer podcast. These have been purchased from illustratedministry.com and comes in two forms: detailed or simplified colouring pages. Please contact the church office if you would like a copy.

  • SABBATH MEAL

    We are inviting households to try out a new practice: a Sabbath Meal. This is a unique way to welcome the Sabbath. While this is a practice that can be done on any week, we will be encouraging you to partake in a Sabbath Meal on Saturday, March 13th simply as a time we can be doing this as different households – together.

    Click the icon to download the Sabbath Meal Booklet for guidelines on how to implement this practice in your own home.

  • LENT SERIES | STORIES ALONG THE WAY

    Join us in our Lent Series: Stories Along the Way. Click the icon to watch our livestream each Sunday morning.

    “Aslan is on the move!” You hear these words spoken by different characters throughout C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. These are words of encouragement: something is happening! In the gospel of Luke a similar pronouncement is given to signal the second half of the book. In Luke 9:51 he proclaims, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Everything that happens from here to Luke 19 are set in the context of Jesus’ resolute movement towards the cross. Jesus is on the move!

    The parables in Luke show up in this context. These are not just ‘stories along a way’ but ‘stories along the way.’ These are stories Jesus told as he set his face towards the way of the cross, his death and resurrection, and the ascension. You might expect that with Jesus’ recognition that his time before the cross is looming that this is a space of great and urgent preparation. It is time to ensure that his disciples get all their information straight. It is lecture time: gathering the most important and brightest people to copy down his every word and his formulas for how to bring the kingdom. But instead we hear stories of Jesus eating and feasting with outsiders telling short stories about ordinary things: sheep, coins, and lost sons; widows and judges, manure and vineyards. The placement of these parables in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem is unique in Luke. In Matthew and Mark it takes a mere 2 chapters to get to Jerusalem but in Luke it takes 10. In placing these parables in this part of the gospel story Luke gives these stories extra significance. These stories with every-day, ordinary analogies are given a primary space in the gospel as they teach us much about what the kingdom of God is and who God is. They also have much to tell the followers of Jesus with regards to the question: What does it mean to be people of the way?
    This year we will be exploring these parables with pastors Grant Vanderhoek from Mission Hills and Trevor Vanderveen from First CRC as they bring their unique perspectives in what God may be speaking to us through these passages.

Watch below for an Introduction to this year’s Lent Series, “Stories Along the Way.”