The traditional color for the season of Lent is purple.

In ancient times, to produce purple-colored garments was expensive: the 4th-century-BC historian Theopompus reported, “Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon” in Asia Minor. And because it was so expensive to produce the dye and to make clothing dyed purple, these garments became status symbols. A child born to a reigning emperor was porphyrogenitos, “born in the purple”, which may have been a sign of their wealthy status or because the birthing apartment was walled in Purple.

To produce the color purple, people would use the mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several predatory sea snails found in the eastern Mediterranean. These sea snails are called Murex brandaris, the banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus, and the rock-shell Stramonita haemastoma.

We can remember the story of the rich man named Lazarus in the parable of Lazarus (Luke 16:19). His wearing purple was a sign of his wealth and self-righteousness. As such, Purple is a kingly color, the color of royalty and the color of wealth. Purple is also, or has become, the penitential color for the Church.

 In Mark 15:17ff they mention putting a purple cloak on Jesus as follows:

“And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on…”

They would go on to mock Jesus and then to lead him to his own death on the cross. Although the soldiers looked to mock Jesus by clothing him in purple, he went on to his glory on the cross. As such, we use the color purple in Lent as a reminder that Jesus is royalty: Jesus is our true king.

Pastor Dave

What do you think of when you hear the word “service”? Do you think of going to church? Does the word service mean “the time in the worship space when you worship your G-d”? Or perhaps, you think about doing a good deed for someone else. For the purpose of our lesson here today, let me share this story. I once read about a pastor who was traveling in the Philippines, when he passed a farmer on his way to the market. The farmer was running along carrying an enormous load of vegetables and produce hanging from a wooden yoke that he carried across his shoulders. The pastor stopped the car he was driving so he could take a picture of the farmer. The farmer then dropped his load to visit. When the pastor asked if the load was heavy to carry any long distance, the farmer replied, “No, it isn’t, because it’s balanced.”  “Doesn’t that yoke hurt?” the pastor asked. 

“At first it did, but I carved and sanded it with a rough stone, and now it fits and is comfortable.” The pastor also noticed that the man had placed a small cloth across his neck to help cushion the burden.

Remember the text from Matthew 11:28-30:

28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Balance. I believe we all crave to find balance in our lives. All of us are going to face burdens – family burdens, financial burdens, relationship burdens, work burdens, burdens like sadness, grief, loss, the list can go on and on.

Congregations also can carry burdens. We have all heard of the 80/20 rule – where 80% of a congregation or a group of people will do 20% of the work – while 20% of the people will do 80% of the work. There often is a heavy and unmanageable burden that is being carried by too few faithful people, and not enough burden being carried by the many. This unevenness can cause a lot of strain and stress within any organization – especially the body of Christ. The remedy to this uneven burden is to find a way to balance the load and delegate the responsibilities of ministries and committees so that all can carry the burdens of ministry together. 

When the work of service in the church is delegated and carried evenly across the members, then the yoke becomes comfortable and easy, as the Lord said it would.

Pastor Dave