Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
The Journey of Lent Begins Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday begins a 40-day journey of reflection, repentance, and renewal that culminates in the joy of Christ's resurrection. Join us at 7:00 p.m. on March 5th for the Imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion.
“Return to the Lord Your God” is the oft-sung replacement to the Gospel Acclamation during Lent. The season marks an intentional return to the God who created and sustains us. What does “returning” look like for us? Does it involve acknowledgement of failure? Hope for a new future? Is it a shameful experience or a cleansing one? What is it like to return together, as a community, to God? Let’s explore this together.
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Tuesday, March 4, 5:30 p.m. - Good Shepherd’s Fellowship Hall
Join friends from Good Shepherd and St. Philip’s as we share a meal and fellowship in preparation for Lent.
Wednesday Evenings in Lent
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church & Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd offer a Wednesday evening Lenten Program:
The Lazarus Life
Location: St. Philip's Episcopal Church
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Stephen W. Smith is a cofounder and spiritual director of The Potter’s Inn Ministry, a resource to churches, organizations and individuals in their spiritual growth and soul care. He is the author of Embracing Soul Care, and the editor and compiler for The Transformation of a Man’s Heart series. Stephen and his wife, Gwen, live in Brevard and he is a member of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.
This 5-week series on Wednesday evenings during Lent is based on Steve’s book by the same title. The life of Lazarus is one of the most profound stories in the Bible - the chronicle of an ordinary man who found himself at the center of an extraordinary miracle. It was a divine moment that fully revealed Christ’s power through a resurrection that preceded Jesus’ own. Yet the story of Lazarus also holds a powerful parallel for us today. It tells of a life filled with hope and heartbreak, expectancy and disappointment, death and life. Simply put, it is a story of every person walking the way of the cross and resurrection.
Copies of the book are available for $10.00 each in the Good Shepherd office. Cash or checks made out to St. Philip's Episcopal Church (no checks made out to Good Shepherd, please) will be accepted.
Schedule: Wednesdays in Lent - March 12, 29, 26 & April 2, 9 (if anyone needs transportation, please contact Whitney in the church office).
5:00 p.m., Stations of the Cross, St. Philip’s Nave
5:15 p.m., dinner service begins (soup, salad and bread)
6:00 - 7:00 p.m., The Lazarus Life program
A children’s program led by Abby Glass will be held each week from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. The program will provide plenty of free play and the lesson each week will touch on a theme similar to that of the adult program.
An invitation to poets and creative writers: Each week, two participants will share a poem or a single page of creative writing that responds to the theme of the week. We invite original writing but will also receive poems or writing that you did not author but are meaningful to you and that speak to a theme. The weekly themes are:
March 12: Soul sickness – places in your life when and where you have stumbled
March 19: Lingering Jesus – suffering – disillusionment
March 26: Voice of Love – Being the Beloved
April 2: Messy realities – deconstruction
April 9: Naming Graveclothes and resurrection
To offer your writing or for more information, please contact Elizabeth Roles at rector@stphilipsbrevardnc.org .
Sundays in Lent
March 9: 1st Sunday of Lent - Text: Luke 4: 1-13
RETURNING is: Responding to Temptation
How do you respond in times of temptation? In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus may have dealt throughout his time in the wilderness with continual struggles over food, power and protection. He seemed to lean into the Word of God in formulating a response to these struggles. What can we learn from him and from each other to help us respond effectively when temptation beckons? Come and see.
March 16: 2nd Sunday of Lent - Text: Luke 13: 31-25
RETURNING is: Reimaging Who God Really Is
Jesus’ response to Herod’s plotting yielded an alternate image of the Kingdom of God. Jesus pointed to a mother hen as the consummate image of a God who looks to gather a scattered people. When has a new image of God helped you find your way back to the God who loves you? What old images keep us at arm’s length?
March 23: 3rd Sunday of Lent - Text: Luke 13: 1-9
RETURNING is: The Practice of Patience
Our Lenten journey of repentance involves a return to patience as God is patient with us. Amid the story of Jesus’ call to repent is this marvelous little parable of the barren fig tree and a gardener who is patient enough to spread fertilizer on it for another full year. Patience is a mark of our return to the ways of God.
March 30: 4th Sunday of Lent - Text: Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
RETURNING is: Rejoicing that We are Clothed and Fed by Our Father in Heaven
We rejoice even in the season of Lent. The story of the prodigal son (or the Forgiving Father) revolves around the celebration of a father over a wayward child. Yet the older brother couldn’t bring himself to join in the celebration. What keeps us from putting on our party clothes and feasting over the good fortune of others? What keeps us from seeing how much we have been loved all along?
April 6: 5th Sunday of Lent - Text: John 12: 1-8
RETURNING is: Getting Swept up in the Moment of the New Thing God is Doing
In John’s Gospel, Mary, in an elaborate display of discipleship, anoints the feet of Jesus with a costly perfume. This points ahead to Jesus’ washing of the feet of his disciples and to his burial. When have you been swept ups in the moment to offer a generous gift? How might we respond like Mary to the new thing God is doing among us as Holy Week draws near?
April 13: Passion/Palm Sunday - Text: Luke: 22: 14-23; 56
This Sunday takes us from Palms spread in anticipation of new leadership to the passion and death of a man who was clear that He stood in stark contrast to the powers and principalities of this world. As we stand at the entry of this holiest of weeks in the life of the church, let us hear, reflect, and be changed in the light of the life-giving gospel of Jesus the Christ.
April 17: Maundy Thursday - Text: John 13:1-17; 31b-35 - 7:00 p.m.
Love manifested in serving the needs of those around us: this was Jesus’ message as the time drew near for his suffering and death. Things come into focus when we know time is short. How shall the manifestation of servant-love be crystal clear among us?
April 18: Good Friday, 7:00 p.m. - Listening to the Cry of Creation: Stations of the Cross
Worshippers will be guided through 14 stations for brief reflection and prayer over the brokenness of humanity and its impact on all of creation, with hope for the possibilities of redemption in Christ’s sacrifice. Included are quotes from Pope Francis’ 2015 Laudate Si, in which he calls the whole church and the whole world “to acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face.”
Easter Sunday
April 20, 2025
Contemplative Worship at 8:00 a.m. - Traditional Worship at 10:30 a.m.
Prepared, and Not Prepared
The women who headed to the tomb were prepared for an encounter with a corpse. They had what they needed for this: spices. But there were certainly not prepared to entertain two men in dazzling clothes and their explanation of a body not present. They were prepared for death, but what they encountered was new life. Today we celebrate the surprise of Resurrection and the joy of new life…the one thing we can’t prepare for, that can be received only as a gift.