Resources Available for Lenten Worship
The Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary and the Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice are making available a variety of resources for churches to use in observing the penitential season of Lent, which began today.
Each of the organizations are also providing resources for churches to use as they celebrate Holy Week and Easter.
“This week we pass through Ash Wednesday and so begin once again a Lenten Journey. As always, we are posting a series of resources featuring textual comments . . . sample sermons, links to our ministry partner at the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship, and much more,” says Rev. Scott Hoezee, director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching (CEP).
CEP, says Hoezee, is providing "rich biblical materials" to use throughout the season. These include “Scriptures Applying to the Theme of Passion/Palm Sunday”, “Scriptures Applying to the Theme of Maundy Thursday,”and “Scriptures and Statements of Faith Applying to the Theme of Good Friday.”
CEP is also linking to past articles from the magazine Reformed Worship “that contain a welter of ideas for service and sermon planning for Lent and Easter,” says Hoezee.
Published by Faith Alive Christian Resources, the publishing agency of the CRC,
Reformed Worship is a quarterly magazine that offers churches practical and creative ideas for worship services and programs. For instance, one issue provides a sample Palm Sunday Service.
Meanwhile, the CRC’s Office of Social Justice (OSJ) is recommending that people observe Lent by taking a “journey with us through 40 days of prayer, fasting, and giving when it comes to care of God's creation.”
To help people do this, OSJ is providing a reflection for every day during Lent. Some reflections are calls to prayer, others are invitations to make lifestyle changes, to donate time to service projects, or to become more involved in environmental issues.
OSJ is also suggesting churches check out Lenten resources provided by organizations such as the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which is made up of churches and church-based agencies such as the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee dedicated to ending hunger around the world.
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is making accessible a range of prayers, including a prayer of Confession and one acknowledging the sufficiency of God. It also offers a litany for the broken world.
“Lent is a time of reflection and repentance leading up to the celebration of Easter. In many traditions, Lent is a season where people let go of something from their daily life and learn to rely on God more fully,” says the Canadian Foodgrains Bank website.
OSJ also suggests reading through some of the Lenten reflections that appear on a blog posted by Bread for the World, an advocacy organization that seeks to work as a collective church voice urging lawmakers in the U.S. to end hunger at home and abroad.
Flavia De Souza, Northeast field organizer with Bread for the World, begins one of the reflections by mentioning how Christ spent 40 days being tempted by Satan in the wilderness.
Similarly, she writes, “we spend 40 days in the wilderness of Lent focusing on prayer, fasting, repentance, acts of charity, and justice in order to draw closer to him. We enter into Lent, earnestly striving to mature in our faith so we can truly be impelled by the same Spirit that moved Jesus.
“Let us be like Jesus. Let us come out of this wilderness experience with resolve, knowing that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us. Yes, let us bring good news to the poor.”
