A Creative Service For The Sundays Of Lent

The service below is intended for use by those from a Protestant evangelical tradition including those who seek to combine the traditional and the contemporary in their worship.

The Basic Pattern Worship Space. You will probably want to display an Ash Wednesday banner; consider also adding a banner for the first Sunday in Lent. This banner could express, representationally or abstractly, the theme of this Sunday's Service of the Word, namely, our prayer and longing "to see:" to see and receive Jesus as our way and our truth. A brief explanation of the symbolism of the banner could be given in the church bulletin. (You might provide banners for each Sunday in Lent, to remind the people and encourage them along their Lenten journey. Since the service will stress our creatureliness, you can give this emphasis more visual force by arranging the chairs or pews (if they are moveable) in a circle, symbolizing both the earth and the community in which we are members. The Eucharist table or altar could then be placed in the center, to represent Christ our Creator. Call to Worship Leader: This past Wednesday, which we call Ash Wednesday, was the first day of Lent. Lent is the season during which we focus our desire upon Jesus and his passion. This focus will often lead us to a more acute awareness of our sinfulness and of our tendency to yield to temptation. During Lent we also choose to face our mortality and to walk with the humility that our finiteness forces upon us: we are God's created people, God's human companions. Our fallenness is, over the course of our journey in faith, often a source of deep discouragement. But as we enter this Lenten season, we want to recall that both our beginning and our goal are, in God's perspective, "very good." What God created and called good is for us a cause for gratitude. So, as we enter into our worship today, we want to begin by celebrating and glorifying God for the depth, the expanse, and the wisdom of all God's creation. Underlying this desire to express gratitude is our prayer for the Lenten season: Lord, help us to see. Help us to see your grace in creation, help us to see where we are blind, to see our pains and fears, to see where we are in bondage, to see where we—for the sake of our religion—distort your truth. Help us to see Jesus. Let us stand together, and honor the God of creation. Opening Hymn of Invocation: "O Worship the King" Opening Prayer Leader: Let us pray. Our loving Creator and ever-redeeming God, we bless you and we desire to fittingly worship you this morning. We desire to offer gratitude to you alone, O God among the gods. For your greatness is evident in both the vastness and the intricacy of what you have made. You who have created us, receive back with pleasure our worship we pray. From us who lack the endurance of your mountains the depth of your oceans the breadth of your heavens. You who created time, and placed us within it, receive our praise, weakly though it may flow within the constraints of our finitude. May both your grace and your wisdom accompany us during this holy season. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen. (Congregation is seated.) Reading From Psalm 104 (Complementary psalm to "O Worship the King"): Commentary: The eight designated readers will be prepared in the outer circumference of the sanctuary or worship center. In succession, each one will stand and read, slowly and dramatically, as though they were heralds, announcing to the people the goodness of their creating and sustaining God. Reader 1: Psalm 104:1–4 Reader 2: Psalm 104:5–9 Reader 3: Psalm 104:10–13 Reader 4: Psalm 104:14–17 Reader 5: Psalm 104:18–24 Reader 6: Psalm 104:25–26 Reader 7: Psalm 104:27–30 Reader 8: Psalm 104:31–35 Leader: This is the Word of the Lord. People: Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. [pause of silence] Response Leader: Let's stand together and, in faith, offer praises to God: "I Sing the Mighty Power of God," "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" (Congregation is seated.) INTRODUCTION TO THE SEASON OF LENT Leader: Most of us are familiar with the traditional theme of Lent. Lent is a time of repentance and preparation for the gift of Easter, the celebration of Christ's resurrection. Often we perceive Lent as a time of self-denial, as a time to begin a specific form of imposed self-discipline in order that we might remind ourselves of the depth of our sinfulness and of the frequency of our failings in our journey with God. While such reflection is essential to Lent, it will be most fruitful when it is motivated by faith and driven by trust, that is, faith in the fact that God finds pleasure in his human creation, and sent Jesus in order to bring God's redemptive love to us; and trust in the fact that he has given us repentance as a grace, a personal gift of God to us that comes for the purpose of instilling life. As we listen to the Word of the Lord, let's be attentive to God's Spirit. Is God drawing my attention toward an attitude or specific quality of spirit that he desires to purge or to enlarge in me? Or is God perhaps forming in me a vision or a picture of my journey in faith, a gift of hope to encourage me? Let us receive the Word of the Lord. Old Testament Reading Leader: (reads Jeremiah 17:7–10, 12–14) This is the Word of the Lord. People: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for you are my praise. Responsorial Psalm (A quiet reflection time with taped or instrumental music of Psalm 62) Epistle Reading Leader: (reads Romans, 7:14–25a.) This is the Word of the Lord. People: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (silent pause) Introduction to the Gospel Reading Leader: We want now to allow ourselves a time for confession based upon a reading from the ninth chapter of John's gospel. As we listen, let's pay close attention to our personal responses to the story. We will listen to the narrative in segments. There will be guided times of silent reflection and prayer in between. Try to pay attention to any feelings that arise within you as you listen. Are you aware of anger? If so, to whom? From what source does it arise? Do you feel joy? From what does that joy spring? Do you feel fear, or confusion? Why? And so on. If you are easily able to picture yourself within the narrative, you might notice which person or group of people you most readily identify with. Pay attention to the reasons for this identification and to your response to it. Prayer Leader: Blessed hovering Holy Spirit, we pray that you would alight upon us and enliven us as we listen. For Christ's sake. Amen. Gospel Reading Reader 1: John 9:13–17, followed by silent reflection Question for the congregation: At this time in my faith journey, who is Jesus to me? (silent response) Reader 2: John 9:18–23, followed by silent reflection Question for the congregation: Of what am I afraid? (silent response) Reader 3: John 9:24–25, followed by silent reflection Question for the congregation: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." What grace or healing have I experienced that provides me with a rootedness in faith? (silent response) Reader 4: John 9:26–34, followed by silent reflection Question for the congregation: In what areas of my life do I lack certainty, but see that I have continued to walk in trust? (silent response) Reader 5: John 9:35–41, followed by silent reflection Guided Prayer Reflection Leader: Let us ask God's Spirit to reveal the ways in which we are blind. Areas where we are confident of seeing God's truth, but where we are in fact, turning our back on the light of the gospel. (silent response) Our loving God, we confess to you that in thinking we see, we become blind, and that in our blindness we have, both wittingly and unwittingly, blinded others to your truth. We pray that you would forgive us, continue to enlighten us, and heal us from our sin. We also confess that at times our inability to see comes from our sinful desire for the approval and respect of others. We pray that you would forgive us. Continue to enlighten us, and heal us from our sin. And loving God, as we now approach your Eucharist, we pray that you would free our human spirit and send your Holy Spirit. Cause us to see anew, qualities inherent in your gospel that we have, heretofore, neither seen nor tasted. For the sake of your kingdom we pray. Amen. CELEBRATION OF EUCHARIST Leader: (reads John 15:1–11) Our call during Lent is "to abide." If we abide, and if we listen, we will bring glory to God and we will have joy: the joy that is ours when we can trust that we are growing in faith. Jesus taught in order that "our joy may be complete." And he gave us the Eucharist, in order that we might have the confidence of his presence and help in our journey. Jesus offered the bread and wine to his disciples, symbolizing both his broken body and his new covenant, given on their and our behalf. Let us partake with gratitude for our creating God who is continually working out our redemption, not through our own unaided efforts but by the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Prayer of Consecration for Bread and Wine Participation in Eucharist Exchange of Peace Leader: God is redeeming each one of us, as individuals, but God is forming us into a community of redeemed people. Let's express our unity and support for one another by extending the peace of Christ toward one another. Worship Hymn of Response: "All Creatures of Our God and King" Benediction (Jude 24–25) Leader: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you standwithout blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Commentary Preparation. Lent is a sober time of reflection, but it is a means toward an experience of grace; the inwardness is not to become an end in itself. This service, therefore, is designed to offer a broader picture of the possibilities for a Lenten focus. This service serves to remind the congregation of God's initiative in Creation. It underscores too the ironic emphasis that the apostle John places on "blindness" and "sight" as he writes the Passion narratives. You might be able to picture your congregation being drawn by a different theme from the gospel narratives. Worship Space. Since this service follows quickly upon the very full and rich Ash Wednesday worship, you might want to keep the service plain and simple. The symbolism can be of a quieter kind: the use of banners, the arrangement of seating for the congregation, as well as the "heralds," who represent the Word of God as it encompasses and protects God's people during their times of temptation. Entrance. Although this service closely follows Ash Wednesday, wherein a fuller explanation of Lent might have been given, the leader cannot assume that all of his congregation participated in that service. In fact, this service is offered with the hope that the Sunday attender who has previously, for whatever reason, avoided participating in Lent might be drawn toward it. The creation emphasis in the accompanying service is given not to deny the often painful time of Lent, but to remind the congregation that God's intentions for us are rooted in goodness. Word. Rather than have a homily, the Service of the Word is given to brief explanations, offered to make Lent accessible to the congregation, and to a guided reflection and prayer time. Because the reflection time is based upon extensive use of Scripture, you need to pay attention to the overall rhythm, being careful not to overload the congregation with verbal input. The responsorial psalm comes at a place in the service where it would be timely to allow an instrumental rendering of a familiar psalm or a psalm (such as Psalm 62) that is available on a tape recording. Using such an option allows the congregation to be refreshed and center their thoughts midway. If the congregation is small and informal, you might want to allow people to stand and express some of the fruit of their reflection. The other members of the congregation could join with spontaneous choruses of praise in response, or with a time of bidding prayers, or intercessory or community prayer, depending on the responses that are shared. If the congregation is more spiritually mature, you might want to eliminate the specific guided question format and simply allow time for personally discerned times of silence. Celebration of the Eucharist. During this time it would be appropriate to play again an instrumental version of Psalm 62 or of the psalm that was used during the earlier portion of the service. With the Communion table or alter in the center, you could use any number of formats for participation. The leader/server could initiate the passing of the bread and wine by serving one person, and then the congregation, subsequently, will take on the role of server, passing the bread and wine around and around the circle until everyone has been served. If the leader wanted the people to come forward to receive, they could come in a traditional way, being prompted by an usher, or they could come as they are ready. The focus of the Eucharist is that God provides us with what we need for our journey in faith and we are therefore able to participate with grateful joy. We want to extend that joy and that hope to one another through the kiss or hand of peace. Dismissal. The congregation is dismissed with the reminder that God created the world and all that resides therein. We appropriately offer God's due praise, and sing with hope. The benediction is most appropriate to this season of the church year. Because this particularly encouraging benediction grounds the believer in Christ, this passage could be used as the closing benediction for each of the services during Lent. At the close of Lent, the congregation could then be asked to give testimony to how they experienced the grace and truth of it for themselves.