April 22, 2007

Third Sunday of Easter

Preparation for Worship

As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, day and night

never cease.

Genesis 8:22

There are two ways to live:

you can live as if nothing is a miracle;

you can live as if everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

When we acknowledge that all of life is sacred

and that each act is an act of choice and therefore sacred,

then life is a sacred dance lived consciously each moment.

When we live at this level, we participate in the creation of a better world.

Scout Cloud Lee

Today is the Third Sunday of Easter.  This liturgical season begins on Easter Sunday and concludes 50 days later on Pentecost.  The liturgical color for the Easter season is white, which is used on the communion table, the bible markers, the choir stoles, and in the drape on the cross.  Our Easter services begin from the rear of the sanctuary, as worship leaders enter the Chancel during the processional hymn to symbolize the gathering of Christ's followers around the word of God.  Our youth will once again serve as acolytes to bring the light and cross of Christ into the worship service.

     During the Easter season, our liturgy changes noticeably from the penitential approach employed during the Lenten season to a greater reflection of the spirit of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For example, during these weeks, our worship services will include a Prayer of Examen, which is a form of silent prayer and reflection through which we seek to identify the presence of God's grace in our lives.  During the Easter season, the Prayer of Examen will be used in place of a Prayer of Confession/Declaration of Forgiveness and it will be followed by an "Alleluia!" acclamation as an energetic and affirming response to God's grace.

     Our worship today focuses on the glory of God as revealed through the majestic beauty of his creation of all things on the earth, in the skies, and in the seas.  The hymns we sing and the service music we hear this morning are all expressions of praise for God and his creation.  From "Morning Has Broken" to "This Is My Father's World" to "God of the Sparrow" to "Let All Things Now Living", we express our jubilant Easter praise as creatures of our God and King.

     Westminster's children join the Chancel Choir in an offering of "All Things Bright and Beautiful."  This is a particularly appropriate hymn for children, as Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander wrote the text for the children of her Sunday School class in 1848 in order to teach them the various truths of the Apostles' Creed.  This text, found on page 267, illustrates the first line of the creed, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth".  Another of her Creed hymns, "Once in Royal David's City ", is used to begin Westminster's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols each Advent.  The setting of Psalm 8 used in today's service was composed by Westminster's own Priscilla White.