2/12/14  

1  

There is a misconception about the meaning of the season of Lent…

In our earliest traditions, Lent was a season to prepare candidates for baptism at Easter. Lent was designed to help people be purged from sinful ways in order to live fully into the way of Christ.

§  Lent was and is the final stage of labor before the new birth – it’s a season for the Church to be the midwife for people seeking new life in Christ

2/12/14  

2  

Lent is about DISCIPLESHIP and TRANSFORMATION!

§  Repentance §  Transformation §  Preparation for new life

Despite all of the time and energy (and money) spent trying to reinvent the wheel of how to understand discipleship, we can turn to our baptismal vows to give us a picture of how we are called to live as disciples of Jesus Christ

2/12/14  

3  

1.  Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?

2.  Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

3.  Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?

4.  According to the grace given you, will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy Church and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world?

We’ll come back to how these vows can inform the ways we preach and teach during the season of Lent

Ash Wednesday can be among the most accessible of our rituals if it’s not handled in an overly “stuffy” or formal way

§ The symbols of oil and ashes are very tangible § Remember: Multi-sensory worship is more embodied

than merely using the sense of hearing to listen to a spoken word

2/12/14  

4  

Basic Elements (see BOW p. 320-324) ¡  Greeting

ú  Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins God’s mercy endures forever

¡  Prayer ¡  Hymn ¡  Old Testament Scripture

ú  Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

¡  Psalter ú  Psalm 51:1-17 (UMH #785)

¡  Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline ¡  Thanksgiving/Imposition of the Ashes

Ash Wednesday worship does NOT have to be overly formal… ¡  Adapt the liturgy to fit your context

ú  Use the basic elements but be creative with the liturgy – keep the character of the liturgy intact while making it an expression of the people

¡  Make the service accessible to children ú  Avoid using different language for children and

adults

2/12/14  

5  

Matthew 4:1-11 ¡  Temptation Narrative ¡  We begin Lent by remembering who we are called

to be ú  Baptimal Vows

­  “On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you: Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin”

ú  Lent offers us a season to consider again our baptism in preparation for Easter ­  A season to prepare to die and rise with Christ

¡  Guiding Question: In what subtle ways does temptation control our lives?

The Walk By Ann Weems

Those of us who walk along this road do so reluctantly. Lent is not our favorite time of year. We’d rather be more active – planning and scurrying around. All this is too contemplative to suit us. Besides we don’t know what to do with piousness and prayer. Perhaps we’re afraid to have time to think, for thoughts come unhidden. Perhaps we’re afraid to face our future knowing our past. Give us the courage, O God, to hear your word and to read our living into it. Give us the trust to know we’re forgiven, and give us the faith to take up our lives and walk.

2/12/14  

6  

John 3:1-17 ¡  Very familiar passage – try to stretch yourself to

consider it in new ways ¡  Baptismal vow

ú  “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?”

¡  Guiding Question: How can we love others like Jesus?

¡  Canticle of Love (UMH #646) ¡  If you’re doing a baptism in Lent, this is a great

Sunday to schedule it ú  Baptismal Covenant III directly refers to the text from

John (BOW p. 106)

2/12/14  

7  

John 4:5-42 ¡  Baptismal vow

ú  “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?” ­  Christ’s living water = freedom and power to be who

God calls us to be

ú  Guiding Question(s): In what way(s) do we need this water? How can we share this living water with others?

John 9:1-41 ¡  Baptismal Vow

ú  “…in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races.” ­  The Church gives us the eyes to see how to live as a

follower of Jesus ­  How can we look up to one another in the Church?

ú  Guiding Question: How does the Church help us see how to live as followers of Christ?

2/12/14  

8  

John 11:1-45 ¡  Baptismal Vow

ú  “According to the grace given to you, will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy Church and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world?”

¡  Guiding Idea(s): We are Christ’s representatives in the world. How do we share in his life-giving power? In what ways do we try to live by our own power? How can we share this power of Christ in dead spaces in our lives and in our world?

2/12/14  

9  

¡  Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem ú  Tradition of children waving palm branches

­  What if adults joined in the processional?

¡  Begin in celebration but end pointing us toward Holy Week ú  What if we did Cantatas differently?

­  If you’re holding services during Holy Week, you want to bring everyone to this week together, let them experience the passion of Jesus together, and THEN let them share in the joy of Easter together

“Holy Week” By Ann Weems

Holy is the week . . . Holy, consecrated, belonging to God . . . We move from hosannas to horror with the predictable ease of those who know not what they do. Our hosannas sung, our palms waved, let us go with passion into this week. It is a time to curse fig trees that do not yield

fruit. It is a time to cleanse our temples of any

blasphemy. It is a time to greet Jesus as the Lord’s Anointed

One, to lavishly break our alabaster and pour perfume out for him without counting the cost. It is a time for preparation . . . The time to give thanks and break bread is upon

us. The time to give thanks and drink of the cup is

imminent. Eat, drink, remember: On this night of nights, each one must ask, as we dip our bread in the wine, “Is it I?”

And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand beneath the tree and watch the dying if we are to be there when the stone is rolled away. The only road to Easter morning is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday. Only then will the alleluias be sung; only then will the dancing begin.

¨  Proclamation of the Entrance Into Jerusalem ¡  Read Luke 19:28-40

¨  Hymn ¨  Poem ¨  Hymn

¡  Use UMH #297 (“Beneath the Cross of Jesus”)

¨  Homily ¨  Invitation

¡  Invite people to join together for Holy Week

¨  Closing Hymn ¡  Use UMH #298 (“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”)

2/12/14  

10  

¨  Make sure Holy Communion is a part of Maundy Thursday

¨  Additional ideas: ¡  Strip the altar by removing all paraments and even

the stoles of the pastor ú  Dim the lights over the congregation leaving the

scene of stripping the altar as the visual focus ú  Process in silence as though it’s a funeral ú  Remind the congregation to leave in silence

¨  Maybe try a Tenenbrae service or do stations of the cross on Good Friday ¡  Open your sanctuary for prayer beginning that

morning or from noon to 3pm

¨  Remember: the mood of this service is somber. Try to avoid jumping to the good news of Easter too soon. Let the sorrow of the day take its effect so that Sunday can truly be Easter

My Jesus, who by your own will took upon your back the most heavy cross. Oh, make me feel the heavy weight of my sins, that I may glory in your self-giving love for my sake and for the sake of the world. Amen.

Gracious God, you are a Father who knows the pain of losing a child. Grant that my heart might be moved by your pain and the pain of your Son, Jesus Christ, that I might know the depth of your love for this world. Amen.

God of the silence, as we come to the hour of death for Jesus, we are weighed down by the heavy pain of silence. Come to our aid that we might know it is in the silent and dead places in our lives where your saving power is most at work. Amen.

2/12/14  

11  

The week(s) of prayerful considering our sins in light of our baptism has brought us to this glorious day where we share in the Easter resurrection

ú  We prepare to share in the death of Christ so that we might be raised with him in new life

Greeting Christ the Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Hold your head high, Christ has risen! Death has been conquered. Christ has restored us to new life. All that is broken has been made whole. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Hold your head high, Christ has risen! From a triumphant Palm Sunday to a dark Friday, passing through sorrow, through death, to life and joy, we arrive at Easter. We know that joy and sorrow, life and death are bound together. By the power of God, the cross could not defeat Christ. The tomb could not hold him. Hold your head high, Christ has risen! Carry forward God’s healing. By the power of Christ carry it to a world where truth and justice can triumph over evil and oppression. You have been called out of death and into new life! Rejoice! Life bursts through death. Jesus Christ is alive forevermore! Alleluia!

2/12/14  

12  

After the seas are all cross’d After the great captains and engineers have

accomplished their work, After the noble inventors – after the scientists, the

chemists, the geologists, ethnologists, Finally shall come the Poet, worthy of that name; The true Son of God shall come, singing his songs

– Walt Whitman