From the Pastor: What and How to Pray

Dear friends,

Here we are, approaching another Lent, and wondering where the time goes. This very important season of the Christian year begins with Ash Wednesday, February 21.

We had some discussion at a recent Worship Committee meeting about whether it was feasible for us to have our traditional "soup suppers" during Lent this year. With no kitchen and limited space, this will present something of a challenge.

Still, the committee felt it was an important tradition for us, and that we can make it work. After all, Hospitality House has been serving hot meals to homeless even without a kitchen–so we can manage it, with some ingenuity.

A sign-up sheet for soup and bread will shortly be going up, for each Thursday evening beginning March 1. Please note that soup will need to be brought in crock pots or other "self-heating" vessels; we have no stove to warm them up! Bread should be brought already warm (or able to be eaten without warming). It will help greatly if you will bring your own bowls and spoons. We’ll have some styrofoam bowls available, but you’d probably rather bring your own!

What’s more important than soup and bread, of course, is the spiritual food of Lent. This year we will share once again in the popular "Holden Evening Prayer" service. Our theme will focus on the Lord’s Prayer–that prayer Jesus taught his disciples in response to their plea, "Lord, teach us to pray."

A good preparation for this theme would be a review of Part III of the Small Catechism. There Martin Luther explains each of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in language that is simple and direct.

For Luther, the Lord’s Prayer is the very essence of prayer. It is, he says, the Lord himself teaching us "what and how to pray." It is thus a prayer to which we must return, again and again, when we want to deepen our own relationship with Christ and grow in our life of prayer. "Return"–that’s a Lenten word, of course. "Return to the Lord your God" is the Lenten theme. I invite you to come along on this Lenten journey this year, resolved to consider again "what and how to pray."

Peace to you,

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

Classic Prayers

We bring before you, O Lord, the troubles and perils of people and nations, the sighing of prisoners and captives, the sorrows of the bereaved, the necessities of strangers, the helplessness of the weak, the despondency of the weary, the failing powers of the aged. O Lord, draw near to each; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

--Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Liturgy Notes: Lent

February 21 is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lent is a wonderful time of the church year, a time for reflection and renewal. It began as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter. Originally this time of preparation was only a few days. As early as the fourth century, there had come to be a six-week observance. By the sixth century, Lent as we know it today had taken its final shape—40 days, from Ash Wednesday to the eve of Easter. The 40 days is symbolic of the time of testing that Jesus underwent in the wilderness (and also, of course, the 40 days of the flood which cleansed the earth of all sin, or the 40 years the people of Israel spent in the wilderness). The name of the season comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring, and is probably derived originally from the idea that during this time the days “lengthen.”

The character of the season of Lent has undergone dramatic changes through the centuries. In the medieval period, it was a very somber time. At first it was a time when those who were felt to be grievous sinners were disciplined. They were actually “excommunicated” from the church during these 40 days—allowed to attend, but dismissed prior to the Eucharist. (We have an interesting relic of that time in our language; the word “quarantine” comes from the Latin word for “forty”, and originally meant the 40 days that sinners were “quarantined” during Lent!) By about the 11th century, the private disciplinary character had been transformed into a sense of penitence for the whole church. All Christians were expected to fast through the entire period (with the exception of Sundays). Weddings were prohibited. Many churches banned the use of flowers. The emphasis was on penitence and remorse.

At the time of the Reformation, some of the more extreme ideas about Lent were overcome. The Reformers saw in them a kind of “works righteousness”—the idea that somehow by all this fasting and soberness we could “pay” for our own sins! But for many Lutherans, Lent remained a time of great penitence and remorse. Often the entire season was spent meditating on the death of Christ for our sins. Luther Reed, great Lutheran liturgical scholar of a generation ago, noted that the season “should prepare us for Easter, not for Good Friday.” He criticized Lenten observances in which “the mind of the church [is] so saturated with morbidity” that the church loses the impact of the events of Holy Week by the time it arrives.

Because of these concerns, the character of Lent has undergone a transformation in the last few decades. It is now understood more as a time of renewal than strictly of penitence. There are

penitential notes, of course, because all true spiritual renewal begins in penitence. But we don’t focus so exclusively on the story of the passion and death of Christ. Most congregations don’t focus their Lenten services on the “seven last words of Christ” or “characters in the passion drama.” Those matters are kept for the passion focus of Holy Week. Rather we tend to take themes that will help us grow in our understanding of the grace and love of God who gave himself to us in Christ.

Of course the season is still set apart in a special way. We begin with Ash Wednesday, with a service that calls us to repentance and reminds us of our mortality (and thus our reliance on God). The “look” of the season is different, with distinctive purple banners and paraments “symbolizing penitence) and perhaps a veil on the cross (suggesting austerity and spiritual cleansing). There are some changes in the liturgy. We typically omit the hymn of praise at the beginning of the service, allowing the subdued prayer of the “Kyrie” to set the tone; and we sing words of repentance at the time of the gospel, rather than the customary “Alleluia.”

In our congregation, our custom has been to gather on Thursday nights through Lent to share a simple supper and to sing Evening Prayer or Vespers together as we reflect on some theme of renewal. Many of us have found this to be a wonderful “midweek” way to keep our focus on renewal during this period. May this season be a holy one for all of us, a season of growth, a time of drawing nearer to the Lord who is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love!