THE FIRST LESSON Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
THE SECOND LESSON 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
SERMON "Ambassadors of Grace"
Worship Notes
Welcome to worship at Westminster on this Fourth Sunday in Lent. Lent began on Ash Wednesday (February 17) and continues for 40 days and 40 nights, excluding Sundays. The liturgical color for this season of penitence and reflection is purple. During our Lenten journey, we have put our "Alleluias!" away as we follow the path of Christ through the "valley" experiences, in part so that we may experience the "mountaintop" of Easter more fully and more completely. Lenten worship is characterized by the use of more purposeful silences, an increased focus on confession, and an opportunity to seek God through corporate and personal prayer.
In worship today, we focus on the lesson of the Prodigal Son and its message to embrace the inclusive grace of God. The music through which we worship today illumines the human experience of seeking reconciliation with our God. Our hymns confess the ways in which we have wandered away from God, but also affirm that God stands ready to welcome us home. The opening hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" indicates just how "prone to wander" we are. The response hymn, "O Come Unto the Lord" is a hymn of invitation for reconciliation with God. The sending hymn, "O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" reminds us that, no matter how far we may stray, God's love for us remains.
The anthem this morning is a representation of the Prodigal Son story from today's gospel lesson. This setting is an example of Sacred Harp music, which is a particularly American form of sacred choral music evolving from separate roots in the southern United States, the Appalachian region, and New England in the mid-18th Century. Sometimes called "shape note singing," this is an unpolished form of participatory three- or four-part singing in which the focus is on the text and an equal balance of voice parts rather than on the melody. In general, the harmonies of Sacred Harp are not centered in concepts of major and minor, but instead use the intervals of a fourth and fifth to leave the listener with a sense of the Holy through shifting and unresolved tonalities. The music of Sacred Harp influenced the hymnody of our faith in measurable ways. For example, one precursor to Sacred Harp music was a collection called "Southern Harmony" (1835), which gave us hymn tunes we still sing today, such as "What Wondrous Love is This."
