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Lent and Holy Week at Westminster
Lent: A Discipline of Worship - A Message from the Worship Committee Beware! Entering the peaceable Kingdom! - Pastor Alex Thornburg Spiritual Formation in Families during Lent - Marian Bauer, Director of Christian Education Worship through the Music of Lent - Joe Chrisman, Organist and Director of Music |
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On Wednesday, February 6, we enter one of the most important seasons of the church year - the “40 days” of Lent. Starting on Ash Wednesday, the Lenten season includes 40 weekdays and five Sundays before culminating in Holy Week with the triumph of the Resurrection at Easter. The word “Lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, or spring, the time of year when the days begin to lengthen. Lent is an important season of the liturgical year because it is a time of penitence during which we examine our lives and our relationships, consider what we must do to prepare for Easter, and seek to fully experience the spiritual renewal resulting from a time of prayerful reflection. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ mark the season by “giving something up for Lent.” But one of the ways we observe the Lenten season at Westminster is to add, not give up, special opportunities for worship. From our Sunday morning worship, to our midweek prayer services, to our Holy Week services, Westminster draws spiritual strength from the experience of corporate worship. This brochure outlines the variety of worship opportunities at Westminster during this Lenten season. We encourage you to “add” worship as a central part of your Lenten discipline this season. If you have not worshiped with us recently, come and join us. If you are a regular worshiper, consider the ways in which you can approach your Lenten worship anew. For example, consider reading the scripture texts for each service before coming to worship. From the somber mood on Ash Wednesday, to the rejoicing “Alleluias” on Easter morning, we want to experience the peaks and valleys of this special season with you. Come and worship with us this Lenten season. --The Worship Committee-- Westminster Presbyterian Church
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Beware! Entering the Peaceable Kingdom! It is hard to believe but Lent is here. We begin our Lenten journey at the Ash Wednesday service, February 6 at 7:00 PM, and it continues until Easter, March 23. This year our theme throughout Lent is the Peaceable Kingdom and the various aspects of peacemaking in our lives. Peace is a word we throw about with impunity without fully realizing the radical nature of Christ’s call for peace in our lives and in the world. This is even truer today in a world and in our lives characterized by a lack of peace.
This Lenten season we will explore the Peaceable Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus. Each week we will study an aspect of peace and peacemaking. The first week of Lent examines the tempting of Jesus to abandon peace and how our world does the same to us. The second week considers the peace that exists between us and God and the third week observes the aspect of peace with others different from us. The fourth week of Lent analyzes the question of peace in the world and the fifth week brings us full circle as we wrestle with the question of inner peace. Peacemaking involves all aspects of our lives psychologically, socially, individually, and corporately.
To aid us in our journey into the peaceable kingdom, each and every Wednesday of Lent will explore the theme from that week. For those who so desire, a simple supper will be offered at 5:45 PM and classes for children, youth, and adults will begin at 6:15 PM. We will have a short prayer and meditation opportunity from 7:00 to 7:15. These Lenten Peace Workshops will help us explore the practical ways we implement peace in our lives.
We invite you during this season of Lent to a Peace Fast. In this spiritual practice, one identifies an activity in your life that may not celebrate peace. It could be watching a television show, going to a movie, or playing a computer game that incorporates violence in ways seen and unseen. It might be simply striving to not argue with family or friends. The peace fast is an endeavor to identify and fast from those activities. Another aspect of this peace fast is to engage in an activity that makes peace whether it is serving food at the homeless shelter or giving support to a local organization dedicated to creating peace. The challenge of Lent is to fast from those things that prevent our full experience of peace and participate in those activities increasing our awareness of God’s peace.
I invite you in the forty days of Lent to enter the peaceable kingdom of God. You may be surprised by what you find there. May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
--Alex Thornburg, Pastor--
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Spiritual Formation in Families during Lent Lent is a special time when families can share and learn together. Use some of the following suggestions to make it even more meaningful. Mark off the days in Lent on a special calendar together: On the family calendar clearly mark each of the 40 weekdays and 6 Sundays in the season of Lent: February 6 - April 23. Light candles together: Light 6 candles the first week; and one less each week. The light represents the light in Bethlehem and the darkness of Good Friday. Share together: Set aside a special worship center and time in your home during Lent. Do not let things interfere; electronic gadgets should be turned off. Your family can concentrate on prayer, scripture and sharing with one another positive things that have happened and things that could have gone better. Read scripture slowly, really listening to the words and phrases that draw your attention as never before. Read scriptures from the four gospels about Palm Sunday through the Crucifixion. Example of books to use will be available in the Lounge. Give up or give together: - Give up the soda, fries, burgers, a CD/DVD or whatever you really do not ‘need’ and give the money to something like the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. Put the bank in your worship center. - Give up your time to serve someone else, as in the homeless shelter, or visit a shut-in person, together or as a family. - Give up the busyness of your life and give time to your family by reading a book aloud or playing a board game. Study the Lord’s Prayer together. Read Matthew 6 together and discuss what Jesus was doing and saying when he gave this example of prayer. Attend the Ash Wednesday, 7:00 pm, Feb. 6 together: Begin the season of Lent by attending the Ash Wednesday service as a family. Young children are impressed by the tactile ritual of having the ashes placed on their foreheads. Attend the Holy Week services together. Discuss the service together. Attend Spiritual Formation times together. Set aside Wednesday, Feb. 13, 20, 27, March 5 and 12 from 5:45 - 7:15 p.m. for activities, prayer, scripture, and classes, opening with a simple meal. Age 3 - Grade 3 in Room 11; Youth (Grades 4-12) in Room 3; adults in the lounge led by Alex Thornburg. --Marian Bauer, Director of Christian Education—
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Worship Through the Music of Lent "For the common things of every day, God gave us speech in the common way. For the heights and depths no words can reach, God gave us music, the soul's own speech." --Anonymous-- Music plays a central role in the worship life of Westminster Presbyterian Church. In worship, music proclaims God’s word to us and gives our souls the means to express the “heights and depths” that no words can reach. Perhaps no liturgical season is better characterized by “heights and depths” than Lent. “Out of the depths” we cry unto God on Ash Wednesday, and from the highest mountain we proclaim Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning. The journey we travel from the dark desert floor to the bright mountain peak is central to our faith. The hymns, anthems, and service music offered in worship during the Lenten weeks are intended to help us prepare to experience the heights more richly, by enabling us to dwell fully in the depths for a time. In Lent, we put “Alleluias” and “Glorias” away. The music of each successive week gives voice to the increasingly meditative spirit of Lent by creating opportunities for corporate reflection and expression through prayer. The importance of music as a form of prayer was also well recognized by the reformer John Calvin, who wrote, “And certainly if singing is tempered to a gravity befitting the presence of God and angels, it both gives dignity and grace to sacred actions, and has a very powerful tendency to stir up the mind to true zeal and ardor in prayer.” The cultivation of a penitential discipline that nurtures the spirit of prayer through music is a particular focus of our Lenten worship services. On Sunday mornings, we will center our worship on “The Beatitudes” enumerated by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. These Sunday services will begin with a sung “Kyrie,” as an expression of our prayer for mercy and will conclude with postludes that sustain the spirit of penitence and prayer Experienced in the service. The discipline of praying through music will also be practiced in our midweek Lenten services, reflected in the worshipful contributions of the Chancel Choir and other soloists, and expressed in hymns that unite our voices together as a body of Christ. Our prayer is that the music of this season may minister in meaningful ways to your soul and enrich your spiritual journey to the cross. --Joe Chrisman, Organist and Director of Music--
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Ashes - Ashes, the burned palm leaves from Palm Sunday one year ago, are placed on the heads of Christians on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday. Placing the ashes is a sign of humility before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday, begins the season of Lent, a somber time when Christians reflect on the sins and evil in their lives and world that needs redemption. Cross - The cross, the most significant symbol of Christianity, recalls the redemption of humankind through Christ’s sacrificial death. There are approximately 400 variations of the basic shape of the cross. The cross is seen as a sign of the resolutions between the vertical and horizontal forces of life and death - the physical and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly. For Christians, the cross is a symbol of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice, bringing us forgiveness and redemption. Crown - Crowns represent royalty, power or honor; crowns also are rewards for God’s children who do good works. Earthly crowns can cause fighting, war and defeat. Jesus represents all royalty, power and honor. He set aside his crown of honor for a crown of thorns when he died for our atonement. Palm - In ancient times, the palm tree was associated with life and blessing. Found in desert oases, it was referred to as the tree of life. Palm branches were used by Solomon to build the temple. Palm branches were spread before Jesus as he rode victoriously into Jerusalem. For Christian it has become a symbol of victory of faith over difficulty, sin and suffering. Palms depict joy and sorrow - the paradox of Christ’s victory of life through his sacrifice and death. Christian churches decorate their sanctuaries with palms on the sixth Sunday of Lent, now called Palm or Passion Sunday. Purple - The liturgical color purple represents sorrow, mourning, and penitence. As such, it is used during the penitential seasons of Lent. Purple also indicates a costly quality and frequently refers to royalty and high office. During Lent we will use purple on the stoles of the choir, the communion table and the cross.
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