This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, March 29th, 2009,
Jeremiah 31:31-34
March 2009 Archives
THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 23:24-26,32-34
THE COVENANT LESSON Jeremiah 31:31-34
SERMON "The Covenant of Grace: Jeremiah's Story"
Worship Notes
In today's worship, we continue 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 a 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.
Our worship begins and ends today with pieces drawn from Mozart's collection of "Church Sonatas" or "Epistle Sonatas." The church sonatas offered in the prelude (KV 67 and KV 68) and the offertory (KV 144) were composed in 1772. The church sonata offered in the postlude (KV 224) was composed in 1776. These works clearly demonstrate Mozart's composition style, which is void of almost any distinction between sacred and secular music. These short instrumental pieces, which are scored for two violins, cello, and organ, were designed to transition between the reading of the Epistle and Gospel lessons in the Mass. As an organist, Mozart typically would have improvised music on the organ for this purpose. However, an Epistle Sonata offered a variation for use when stringed instruments were available. The short length of these sonatas is not unintentional as the Archbishop was very strict about the length of the Mass. In 1776, Mozart wrote to his friend Padre Martini concerning the Archbishop's directive that "...a Mass, with the whole Kyrie, Gloria, Epistle Sonata, Offertory or Motet, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, must last no more than three-quarters of an hour..." Mozart's Requiem, which will be part of our Good Friday Service of Tenebrae, is itself a relatively short setting of the mass form.
This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, March 22nd, 2009,
Numbers 21:4-9
THE GOSPEL LESSON John 19:28
THE COVENANT LESSON Numbers 21:4-9
SERMON "The Covenant of Courage: Moses Story"
Worship Notes
In today's worship, we continue our journey in Lent to deepen our covenantal relationship with God. The liturgical color of 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 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 a 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.
Today's focus is on the continuing nature of God's covenant with the Hebrew people as they journey through the desert with all its incumbent dangers of hunger, thirst, and snake bites. There is a call of God to have courage as we undergo our own spiritual journeys illustrated in the Call to Worship and Opening Prayer. In our confession, we describe our very human tendency to hunger and thirst for things even as God gives us everything we need. We remember the final words of Jesus in the utterly soulful expression of "I thirst" reflecting this most basic of human needs to God. Our faith and trust in God gives us the courage to stand "Beneath the Cross of Jesus".
THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 23:39-43
THE COVENANT LESSON Exodus 20:1-17
SERMON "Responding to the Commandments with Gratitude"
Worship Notes
In today's worship, we continue 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 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 a single worship service involving all of 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.
The covenant we explore today is that established through the Commandments that God established for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. These Ten Commandments were not intended as a punishment, but as a gift, a way to order life as a community. God gave the Israelites the Commandments as part of God's covenant promise to care for God's people. This promise of order and guidance through God's law is still present for us today. In worship today we will respond to God's gift of guidance and law with gratitude. We hear the gratitude for the law in Psalm 19, which is a song of praise to God thanking God for the law and order that guides the community.
Today we will also read one of the last words that Jesus spoke from the cross in the gospel of Luke. He speaks to one of those being crucified with him, and offers to him the promise of Paradise. This is a promise that is offered to all of us, yet another aspect of God's grace in establishing and upholding the covenant relationship. We respond to this gift, as to all others, with gratitude.
This is the lesson and sermon from Sunday, March 8th, 2009,
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
THE GOSPEL LESSON John 19:25-27
THE COVENANT LESSON Genesis 17:1-7,15-16
SERMON "The Covenant of Community: Abraham's Story"
Worship Notes
In today's worship, we continue 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 a 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.
The covenant we explore today is described in God's promises to Abraham and Sarah to be their God and the God of their descendents, generation after generation. It is God who names us and calls us into community. Both our Call to Worship and Prayer of Confession highlight this covenant relationship as central to who we are as a community of believers.
The psalm lesson for today is taken from Psalm 22, a prayer of adoration for the God of all families of nations. The last word on the cross is Jesus naming his mother and John as family. We ordain and install two officers today as an act of community - where the Holy Spirit is manifested not in an individual act, but in the midst of the whole community.
