We continue this week in our Lenten worship series, Hope in Dying, by turning to Mark 8.31-38. This reading is at the center of Mark’s Gospel. It marks a transition from Jesus’ ministry on behalf of the oppressed to the beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross. We will consider Jesus’ call to “lose” our lives in worship this week.
Fred Craddock, in Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death, writes, If we as the church are to carry out our ministry to the dying and if we ourselves are to die well, we need solid support and rich resources because this ministry will test us. Such resources can only come from God’s love for us” (Kindle Locations 930-932). Our worship series will be rooted in the hope we find through God’s love for us as we reflect each week on a different theme related to grief, dying, and death.
HOPE IN DYING OUTLINE
February 22 (Mark 1.9-15) Facing Death & Resurrection in Christian Tradition
March 1 (Mark 8.31-38) How Did Jesus Face Death?
March 8 (John 11.28-36) Grief & Becoming Wounded Healers
March 15 (John 3.14-21) Atonement: What Does Jesus’ Death Mean?
March 22 (John 12.20-33) Writing Our Own Deaths
March 29 (Mark 14.1-15) Dignity in Dying
April 2 6:00 pm Maundy Thursday Meal & Holy Conferencing
April 3 7:00 pm Good Friday Worship
April 5 (Mark 16.1-8) Hope & New Life in Christ
Those who were in worship on the first Sunday of this worship series were confronted with something unexpected. Several artists from our community had devoted many hours to creating an installation for our worship series. On Saturday the installation came crashing down. It died. We quickly swept it all away for a gathering with the Bishop on Saturday afternoon, but the chaos remained in the front of the sanctuary as we gathered for worship on Sunday. This was a first. Invite your Kitchen Table to reflect on the experience. If you were not in worship, encourage others who were present to share what that experience was like for them.
Have you had experiences in your own life when you imagined something, worked hard to see it to fruition, and then stood by to see it come crashing down? What this death was like for you?
Read Mark 8.31-38. Mark writes, 34[Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
Peter, along with many of the earliest followers of Jesus, literally lost his life for the sake of the Gospel.
What in your life, if anything, do you believe in so strongly or love so deeply that you would be willing to die for it?