Introduction to 2008 Lent Resource
Edited by Rev Elder Glenna Shepherd, Liturgy and Music Resources
Portfolio
Team of Contributors:
Themes and Structure, Other Lessons, Confessions: Rev Elder Glenna
Shepherd (RevGlennaShepherd@mccchurch.net)
Calls to Worship: Mike Holroyd, Living Springs MCC, Bath, England
(mikeandhugh@blueyonder.co.uk)
Images: Rev Wes Mullins, MCC Portland, Portland, OR USA (revwmullins@gmail.com)
Media Suggestions: Rev Andy Braunston, MCC Manchester, Manchester,
England (revandy@mccmanchester.co.uk)
Music: Bob Crocker (crockermusic@aol.com)
Editor’s Note:
This resource offers basic components for Lenten worship,
weaving the theme DAYS OF MYSTERY AND MERCY throughout the
services. Following this theme - which is suggested by the
lectionary texts - this resource includes: inclusive versions of
the lectionary texts (From The New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible, inclusified by Rev Elder Glenna Shepherd), suggested weekly
themes/sermon titles, other lessons – some contemporary/some older
extra-biblical readings, images for Powerpoint or bulletin art,
suggestions for using media in worship, confessions, calls to worship
and music.
Most of the “other” lessons are poems. I have
chosen poetry because, like Lent, poetry slows us down. Poetry
calls us deeper into the language and invites us to meditate on rather
than hurry past the weight of the words.
The images are in a separate image file, but I’ve included a
thumbnail in the resource itself so that you can preview them. All
images are perfectly sized for use in Powerpoint and are sized at a
commercial printing quality setting (300ppi) so they should look great
printed in bulletins. You’ll find each image twice: once
with the weekly theme superimposed on the image and one without the
titles so that you can adjust our titling. You can use the blank
graphic and add your own text.
Days of Mystery and Mercy includes resources for Ash Wednesday, 5
Sundays in Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter
Sunday
Depending on your tradition and structure, you’ll want to add
songs and other liturgical pieces to complete the order of
worship. We do suggest that you refrain from music and texts which
include Alleluias, saving this particular praise for Easter
Sunday. There is not a lot of familiar traditional Lenten music,
but we’ve included some and also newer, less familiar pieces that
you may want to try as well. And, as with the Advent Resource,
we’ve written new texts to a couple of songs to develop the theme,
including the title song which we suggest using each Sunday in
Lent.
The titles for each service are:
Ash
Wednesday
MYSTERY AND MERCY OF REPENTANCE
First Sunday of
Lent MYSTERY
AND MERCY IN TEMPTATION
Second Sunday of Lent MYSTERY AND
MERCY: BORN OF SPIRIT
Third Sunday of
Lent MYSTERY AND
MERCY: WATER OF LIFE FOR ALL
Fourth Sunday of Lent MYSTERY
AND MERCY: BODY AND SPIRIT
Fifth Sunday of
Lent MYSTERY
AND MERCY: LIFE AGAINST ALL ODDS
Palm
Sunday
MYSTERY AND MERCY: POWER AND POWERLESSNESS
Maundy
Thursday
MYSTERY AND MERCY: IN REMEMBRANCE
Good
Friday MYSTERY
AND MERCY IN SUFFERING
EASTER
SUNDAY MYSTERY
AND MERCY: RESURRECTION
A SONG FOR THE SEASON
Days of Mystery and Mercy
Mystery and Mercy
TUNE: KING’S WESTON (6.5.6.5.D.)
Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1925 (public domain)
TEXT: Glenna Shepherd, 2008
ASH WEDNESDAY and Refrain
Mystery and Mercy, God of steadfast love,
In this Lenten wilderness, may your Spirit move.
In our inner being, cleanse us by your grace!
Purge us – make us blameless, as we seek your face.
Lent 1
Mystery and Mercy, in temptation’s hour
Strengthen us and teach us, shelter with your power.
May we follow Jesus – choosing all your ways,
When life tempts and stirs us, be our hiding place.
Lent 2
Mystery and Mercy, Spirit, Wind, and Breath.
Birther of our spirits, Midwife of new life.
Can we trust and let you, birth us once again?
Break the waters of our faith – new life ordain.
Lent 3
Mystery and Mercy, Source of Truth and Hope,
Gushing in abundance from the depths of Love!
Not regarding status, quench our thirst anew;
Feed us, wash, renew us, as we drink of you.
Lent 4
Mystery and Mercy, Love Incarnate, Christ,
Healer and Anointer, touching all of life.
Body joined with spirit – heal us, too, we pray,
Challenge all divisions as you show God’s way.
Lent 5
Mystery and Mercy, bringing life from death,
Filling desolation, solely with your Breath!
Then to tomb and sorrow, tears and love astound!
With your call to “Come out!” death is now unbound!
Palm Sunday
Mystery and Mercy, expectations grow!
Rule us, we’ll just follow, and our praises show.
Now we shout “Hosanna!” “Save us now!” we
pray.
Take our Holy City - claim the royal way!
Maundy Thursday
Mystery and Mercy, power not understood,
Water, towel and basin – signs of servant-hood
Broken bread and body, cup of promises,
Glimpses of your nature, sacramental ways.
Good Friday
Mystery and Mercy, O forsaken One,
Thorn and cross betray and unthinkable is done.
All for love and justice, trusting God alone!
Shouting turns to silence, seeming death has won.
Easter Sunday
Mystery and Mercy, Light and empty tomb.
Death just could not hold him – hearts prepare him room!
No more sadness, weeping; hope and joy arise –
Jesus Christ is risen! Shout it to the skies!
Overall suggestions for Lent Music
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy is the best hymn
text combining a sense of mercy and mystery, and could provide a
wonderful theme hymn. Sadly, The New Century Hymnal (#23) cuts two
excellent verses, and many other hymnals shorten this text due to
discomfort with Faber’s bold theology or fervent, purple language.
Here is an inclusive language version of the complete text.
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy Like the wideness of
the sea;
There’s a kindness in God’s justice Which is more than
liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows Are more felt than up in
heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings Have such kindly judgment
given.
For the love of God is broader Than the measures of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make God’s love too narrow By false limits of our own;
And we magnify God’s strictness With a zeal God will not own.
There is plentiful redemption In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members In the sorrows of the Head.
There is grace enough for thousands Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations In that upper home of bliss.
’Tis not all we owe to Jesus, It is something more than
all;
Greater good because of evil, Larger mercy through the fall.
If our love were but more simple, We would take you at your word;
And our lives would be all sweetness In the sunshine of our God.
Notice the striking, Pauline emphasis on the extravagance of divine
love evinced in verse one’s more than liberty, and the critique of
the church’s narrowness in verse two’s false limits of our
own. Verse three claims enough grace for yet-undiscovered planets
and their fallen inhabitants. Notice the echo of Lent I’s
epistle’s insistence that the free gift is greater than the
trespass in verse four’s It is something more than all, and the
echo of Easter Eve’s Exultet proclamation, O happy fault! that was
worthy of so great a Redeemer! in the astonishing Greater good because
of evil, larger mercy through the fall. Our paltry sins are in no
way equivalent to the superabundant sufferings or wasteful love of
Christ’s heart: this is the mystery of the divine Mercy.
Americans have often sung this text to BEECHER, which is quite
singable but usually played too fast. It is sung to IN BABILONE in The
New Century Hymnal, a good match. Gay composer Calvin Hampton composed a
tune, ST HELANA, to which it is set in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the
new ELCA hymnal. It has been well matched to Lord, Revive Us and
Pleading Savior. Any 8787 double tune will work.
Alleluias are suppressed in Lent. In place of a Gospel
acclamation with an Alleluia verse, Return to God by Marty Haugen, with
a text from the Ash Wednesday Hebrew Bible reading, makes a good Lenten
acclamation. Verses can be sung by one cantor or the choir, while the
congregation sings the refrain. As the song becomes more familiar, the
choir can add the easy and effective harmony.
Return to God
Marty Haugen
Pepper 1901958, or online at Giamusic.com.
Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is appointed for Lent IV. Marty Haugen’s
setting, Shepherd me, O God beyond my hopes, beyond my fears, from death
into life, could make it work as a weekly psalm orienting the dramatic
journey of Lent and Holy Week toward its denouement at Easter.
Shepherd me, O God (Psalm 23), Marty Haugen, Pepper 1626582
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