February 2009 Archives

THE GOSPEL LESSON Mark 15:33-35

THE COVENANT LESSON Genesis 9:8-17

SERMON "The Covenant of Trust: Noah's Story"

Worship Notes

In today's worship, we begin our journey in Lent to deepen our covenantal relationship with God. The liturgical color for the season is purple. Each Sunday in Lent, we will explore an aspect of God's covenant with creation. This covenant is not only vertical, but also includes a horizontal dimension emphasizing how our relationship with God is reflected in how we relate to one another. Each Sunday in Lent, we will also reflect on one of the last words of spoken by Jesus from the cross. This we do to remember that our Lenten journey culminates in the crucifixion on Good Friday, which this year will be observed in single worship service involving all Madison's Presbyterian congregations. These seven last words of Christ will be the basis for this joint Good Friday Service of Tenebrae, which will also include the music of Mozart's Requiem. In order to highlight these words, we will place them on our wall each week.

Our theme for today is trust as embodied in the covenant God makes with Noah and in the powerful words of Jesus from the cross -

"My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me."
The opening hymn reminds us that in the covenantal relationship, God is always faithful. The anthem sung by our Galilean and Joyful Noise choirs is an interpretation of the story of Noah. The hymn following the sermon lifts up again the theme of trust as we sing "Who trusts in God's unchanging love Builds on the rock that nought can move."
In our communion we embody this trust sharing the bread of life and the cup of salvation. We close with the stirring hymn In the Cross of Christ I Glory realizing that this season of Lent always ends in the cross. We pray your worship experience will aid you on your Lenten journey as you grow deeper in your relationship with God and with each other.

This is the lesson and sermon from Ash Wednesday, February 25th, 2009,

Mark 6: 1-6, 16-21

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Mark 6: 1-6, 16-21

Sermon "A Covenantal Journey"

Worship Notes

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our forty-day journey through the desert of Lent. As we embark on this journey, we travel a path of discipleship that has us look to the cross of Christ, consider our sin, and see that the grace of God always acts first through his covenant with us. The liturgical color during the season of Lent is purple. During this penitential season, our worship leaders will enter the sanctuary to the sound of a tolling bell.

This worship service focuses on our personal confession of sin and culminates in the imposition of ashes. The ashes, which are created by burning the fronds from palm branches used in the 2008 Palm Sunday worship service at Westminster, are imposed in the shape of a cross on the foreheads of individual worshipers. This outward sign of our repentance before God also serves as a visible reminder of our own mortality. This reminder of our sinful mortality and finitude make similar this Ash Wednesday service that begins our Lenten journey and the Good Friday service that will mark its end. The imposition of ashes will occur in silence, allowing us to experience the universal nature of the repeated phrase "Dust you are and unto dust you shall return."

The music through which we worship is chosen to enlighten the themes of repentance and penitence. For example, we will sing a setting of Psalm 51, which is a cornerstone scriptural text for Ash Wednesday. The psalms are the earliest hymns used by the reformed church and, through singing this setting tonight, we connect this aspect of our worship into the timeless roots of God's larger church. The prelude is a setting of a Bach chorale that expresses a cry for mercy. The choir's anthem, composed by Richard Farrant (1530-1580), is a prayer that we may walk with a "perfect heart" alongside our God. A similar prayer is expressed in the postlude setting of the African American Spiritual, "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me," which is found as hymn 363 if you choose to follow along as you prepare to begin your Lenten journey tonight.

This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, February 22nd, 2009,

Mark 2:2-9

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THE FIRST LESSON 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

THE SECOND LESSON Mark 9:2-9

SERMON "The Road to Discipleship on the Mountains and in the Valley"

Worship Notes

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, which is observed on the last Sunday before Lent. Transfiguration is a high point before we begin our reflective and penitential Lenten journey, which commences with the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday (February 25). The liturgical color for Transfiguration Sunday is white.

In worship today, we focus on the light of God that shined on Christ's face as God declared: "This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased!" The scripture lessons describe the transforming experience of Jesus during this mountaintop encounter with God. The music through which we worship today also reflects these themes of light and transformation. The gathering hymn is a hymn of proclamation the text of which describes Christ's transfiguring experience. The anthem by French composer Josquin des Pres (1450-1521) proclaims the greatest of God and offers a prayer that we, too, may be changed through relationship with God. The hymn, "Fairest Lord Jesus" is a hymn of praise that describes the visual beauty in which we encounter God and makes clear the fact that "Jesus shines fairer." Written in 1987, the sending hymn, "Shine, Jesus, Shine" encourages us to carry the light of Christ with us into the world. The postlude by German organist and composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) travels a number of twists and turns as its musical identity is transformed through a variety of colors, tempos, and modulations before arriving at a triumphant conclusion

PSALM 30 Hymn 181 "Come Sing to God"

THE FIRST LESSON 2 Kings 5:1-14

THE SECOND LESSON Mark 1:40-45

SERMON "Passion For and With the Broken"

Worship Notes

The Word at the heart of our worship this morning is Mark's account of a healing of a leper. What characterizes this encounter is the compassion and personal touch Jesus brings to this healing.

The Psalm for the day is Psalm 30 lifting up the ways God lifts us even out of the pit of death. We have incorporated this Psalm in our opening sentences as well as singing it this morning as part of our proclamation of the Word.

The opening hymn reflects the excelling love we encounter in Jesus as we sing "Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art..." The profession of faith is taken from the Social Creed for the 21st Century, a new creed developed and approved by the National Council of Churches of the USA and by the Presbyterian Church USA. This creed is a reflection and update of the Social Creed of 1908 in which the public church attempted to address the social problems and inequalities that existed in the age of industrialization. This Creed reminds us that God heals not only our personal hurts but also the ills that plague our society.

The hymn following the sermon includes the reminder that when we come to God in a quiet place we can pray "You never said, "You ask too much, To any troubled soul. I long to feel Your healing touch; Will you not make me whole?"

This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, February 8th, 2009,

Mark 1:29-39

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THE FIRST LESSON Isaiah 40:21-31

THE SECOND LESSON Mark 1:29-39

SERMON "Healing and Wholeness for All Humanity"

Worship Notes

In our worship today, the central text is taken from the gospel of Mark recounting the many ways Jesus was encountered as a healer and preacher. Our Psalm for the day is Psalm 147 which is incorporated in our Call to Worship and celebrates how God heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds.

Our opening Hymn included the verse "Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find: may Jesus Christ be praised!" The Prayer of Confession reminds us that while we are called to be a place of healing, we often contribute to the pain of the world through our inaction and exclusion.

The profession of faith is taken from the Social Creed for the 21st Century, a new creed developed and approved by the National Council of Churches of the USA and by the Presbyterian Church USA. This creed is a reflection and update of the Social Creed of 1908 in which the public church attempted to address the social problems and inequalities that existed in the age of industrialization. This Creed reminds us that God heals not only our personal hurts but also the ills that plague our society. The hymn following the sermon evokes the image of Christ the Healer and the final hymn sends us out into the world to be healers ourselves. We sing the first verse of this final hymn which calls us to "heal the sick and preach the word."