Lent this year begins with Ash Wednesday on Feb 14, and runs till Thursday, Mar 28.\u00a0 Easter is early this year on March 31.\u00a0 It will be here before we know it!<\/p>\n
When I was trying to decide what to write for our newsletter this month, for some reason It came to my mind that the traditional liturgical color for Lent is purple.\u00a0 Purple is a kind of special color.\u00a0 Throughout history, purple has been understood as the color of kings and royalty.\u00a0 Why is this so? Because throughout history, purple clothes have been worn almost exclusively by the richest in society due to the expense of creating natural purple dyes.\u00a0 The natural ingredients used to make purple dye were extremely rare.\u00a0 Phoenician dye, known as \u2018Purple of the Ancients,\u2019 is a famous example made from predatory sea snails.\u00a0 Up until the 1800\u2019s we had no synthetic dyes\u2026they were ALL natural.<\/p>\n
In 1856, 18-year-old William Perkin, a lab assistant at England\u2019s Royal College of Chemistry, was tasked to create a chemical synthesis of quinine, which was used to treat malaria.\u00a0 During his experimentation Perkin noticed while cleaning out a flask that a purple solution had formed \u2013 an observation which led to Perkin becoming one of the most celebrated chemists of the Victorian era. The purple substance was one of the world\u2019s first synthetic dyes.<\/p>\n
Even today, purple is not a common color.\u00a0 You never see a purple street sign. You rarely see a purple car or house. I think I have owned one purple shirt in my life\u2026back in high school.\u00a0 Back in the 80\u2019s If you were \u201cpreppy\u201d you might own a purple IZOD polo shirt.<\/p>\n
Mark tells us that Pilate had Jesus dressed in purple. This was mocking of\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus being called \u201cthe King of the Jews,\u201d As the color of Lent, purple has become a symbol for Jesus\u2019s reign, but also a symbol for his suffering\u2014and a symbol for all<\/em>\u00a0 suffering: His, yours, and mine. So, is the Lenten color of purple magnificent or sad, majestic or mournful?\u00a0 Lent seems to be a little of all of that, I guess. Traditionally, Lent has been a time to grieve our sins and thank God for His grace.\u00a0 As we journey into Lent, I challenge everyone to put a purple object somewhere in your daily field of vision to remind you that this is a special season.<\/p>\n You can give something up for lent, and use that fact, along with the reminder from the purple object to focus on Jesus, and the fact that he died on the cross for your sins.<\/p>\n This Lenten season, whenever you feel sad, pray.\u00a0 Whenever you feel angry, listen to Christian music.\u00a0 Whenever you feel stressed, read your Bible.\u00a0 Whenever you feel tired and burned out, or you miss what you have given up for lent, meditate about God\u2019s goodness and all He has blessed you with.\u00a0 God is so very good, and we have so much to thank Him for!<\/p>\n Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.<\/strong><\/em> –1 Peter 5:6<\/p>\n May the Lord draw you close as we head toward the Lenten season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s good to be your pastor!<\/p>\n In the Lord\u2019s service till the last fish is caught <><<\/p>\n Pastor Chris<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lent this year begins with Ash Wednesday on Feb 14, and runs till Thursday, Mar 28.\u00a0 Easter is early this year on March 31.\u00a0 It will be here before we know it! When I was trying to decide what to write for our newsletter this month, for some reason It came to my mind that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connection-article"],"yoast_head":"\n