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Archive for Lent

Holy Week and Easter

Posted by Robb Serna on Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 in All Church, Worship & Music

Updated April 1: Please read through the service descriptions below, as some of the times have changed. Links to the livestream to watch each service are included.

The ways in which we spend the days leading up to Easter, and Easter Sunday itself, will look a little different this year. We will miss gathering together to experience the symbolism of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the joyous celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. But we believe the services of Holy Week speak to us even in this time of sheltering in place. Perhaps you have seen the jokes circulating about the disciples gathering in the “Upper Zoom” or Mary and the resurrected Jesus practicing social distancing.

You are invited to walk through Holy Week in a new way this year, both with LAUMC and with the California-Nevada Annual Conference. May these services bring you meaning, comfort, and hope.

Holy Week services commemorate Jesus’ life, death on the cross, and resurrection on Easter. Join Jesus in his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his last gathering with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, his sacrifice and sorrow on Good Friday, his time of waiting on Holy Saturday, and his astonishing resurrection on Easter Sunday. As you journey through Holy Week with LAUMC, may you discover a richer, more joy-filled Easter.

Palm Sunday – April 5, 8:30am, 10:00am, & 5:00pm

Celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This livestream service will feature a special celebration video featuring photos and videos from the congregation waving palms at home.

Maundy Thursday – April 9, 7:00pm

Led by Pastor Dirk Damonte and Pastor Jeong Park, this special livestream service is not to be missed.

Good Friday – April 10

At noon, Bishop Minerva Carcaño and Conference Lay Leader Micheal Pope will lead a Good Friday Memorial Service on the California-Nevada Annual Conference’s Facebook page. The 30-minute service will commemorate the lives of those who have succombed to complications from COVID-19.

At 7:00pm, LAUMC’s Senior Pastor Kathi McShane will lead a meaningful livestream service.

(There will be no Easter Vigil service this year.)

Easter Sunday – April 12

Sunrise Service – 6:30am

Pastor Dirk Damonte will lead this special service on Facebook Live.

Another option is the 6:15am Sunrise Service led by Bishop Minerva Carcaño on the California-Nevada Annual Conference Facebook page.

Traditional Services – 8:30am, 10:00am, & 5:00pm

Celebrate Easter on our livestream page at our regular Sunday service times.

200 Tables Campaign

Posted by Robb Serna on Friday, March 6th, 2020 in All Church

LAUMC has always been a place that values community, the connections that grow between people who come to church here. This church has been a place for people who find their way here, to learn and to practice what it means to “love your neighbor”—which is, as Jesus said, the greatest commandment, right up there with loving God.

This Lent, we are imagining together the possibility that when Jesus said “Love your neighbor,” he meant your actual neighbor. The one who lives right next door to you, or down the street, or around the corner. Someone who never goes to church and probably isn’t interested in coming to church, but who could really use a friend.

Instead of asking you to give something up or take on a solitary spiritual practice this Lent, your church is inviting you be part of a community practice of loving God more by loving, in a concrete and generous and maybe even risky way, your actual neighbors.

This practice is taking shape in a campaign called 200 Tables. The hope is that sometime this spring, our whole congregation will have stretched ourselves to host at least 200 dinners in our homes, shared with our actual neighbors. This is not about one-time or even annual block parties. It’s about gathering people who live in the same neighborhood—adults and children—to sit around a table together, sharing food and conversation about things that matter, about knowing each other’s lives.

Most of us have not done this before: knock on the door of someone you don’t know and ask them to come to your house for dinner. So we’ve published a little book, called the 200 Tables Guidebook, to help you do this. It’s got all kinds of ideas and suggestions in it to make this easier: how to invite people and what to say, what to cook, what to talk about over dinner. You can pick up a copy on Sunday at church, or during the week in the church office, or you can request a copy of the 200 Tables Guidebook by email.

This will be hard. It will require of us some different form of generosity and hospitality than we usually exercise. Maybe giving up of some things we enjoy about our privacy and separation from other people. Does that sound like Lent to you?

Taking Jesus Seriously: The Sacred Practice of Neighboring

Posted by Robb Serna on Monday, February 24th, 2020 in All Church, Worship & Music

When Jesus was asked to reduce everything in the Bible into one commandment, he said: Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. What if he meant that we should love our actual neighbors? For these six weeks of Lent, we will practice together doing what Jesus said:  creating community with the people who live near us. Because maybe … just maybe … this is exactly what Jesus meant.

March 1: Why Not? Time

March 8: Why Not? Fear

March 15: Why Not? Energy

March 22: Why Not? Respect

March 29: Why Not? Boundaries

April 5: Palm Sunday

April 12: Easter

Ash Wednesday Services, Feb. 26

Posted by Robb Serna on Thursday, February 13th, 2020 in All Church, Worship & Music

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a journey of self-reflection and discernment which positions us to more fully understand and live into the miracle of Easter. The journey of repentance is about “turning around” so that we might be in right relationship with God.

You are invited to attend an Ash Wednesday service on February 26. You have two opportunities this year: Come before work or school to the 7:00am service in the Chapel at the Mountain View campus, or come at the end of your work day to the 7:00pm service in the Sanctuary at the Los Altos campus.

The 30-minute service will provide time for you to reflect and pray as well as the opportunity to receive the imposition of ashes on the forehead—a sign that reminds us that we have not always gotten things right, that life on this earth is fragile, and that we have the opportunity, in the person of Jesus, to live another way.

Make This a Lent That Makes a Difference

Posted by Robb Serna on Thursday, March 7th, 2019 in All Church

We need to remember, from time to time, that we can put ourselves in a place where grace can happen. Lent—the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter—is a season for exercising, with a heightened level of intention, the practices of faith. Not because God demands it of us, but because we need it. And so, for this season, we take up practices that turn our attention back to God, emptying us of habits that do not satisfy and then filling us again with something truer.

This Lent, you are invited into a rhythm of emptying and being filled.

Pray

Fast

Give

Every Sunday morning leading up to Easter, beginning March 10, a Lenten devotion will be published to guide you through these practices for the coming week. It will be an insert in the Sunday worship bulletin and available as a PDF here on our website.

If you would like to receive the weekly devotional by email, text LENT and your email address to 650-229-5200 or email your request.

Toeholds for Troubling Times: Lent Sermon Series

Posted by Robb Serna on Monday, March 4th, 2019 in All Church, Worship & Music

When the next steps look impossible, how do you hold onto your faith and find your footing? This Lent, we will explore some practices you can use in troubling times, drawing our scriptures from the Book of Job.

  • March 10: Tell the Truth
  • March 17: Pray Honestly
  • March 24: Reject Easy Answers
  • March 31: Confirmation Sunday
  • April 7: Hang On
  • April 14: Raise Your Eyes (Palm Sunday)

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