Lent Year C-The Way - Worship Design Studio

Transcription

The Way
“You don’t choose a life; you live a life.”
Lent Year C
http://www.theway-themovie.com/
Lent is a time of reflection, of soul-searching and taking stock of our lives.
For thousands of years, religious people have made journeys of the heart
as a way of gaining perspective and insight, with pilgrimages of many
different kinds. Inspired by passages in the scriptures that talk about the
journeys, roads and pathways of life, we will make our “way” together
through this poignant season. The movie “The Way” accompanies us as
our modern-day inspiration to live the life we’ve been given to the fullest.
Ash
Wednesday
The Way Back (U-Turn)
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with
weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to
the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
- Joel 2: 12-13
Sometimes things happen in our lives that cause us to be awakened to a
new perspective and we begin to reassess the life road we are following,
the directions we are going. Ash Wednesday is a time in the church where
we talk of “repentance” which literally means to turn around and head in a
new direction. This night will be a movie-night where we will watch “The
Way” together, preceded and/or followed by the opportunity to receive
ashes in the sign of the cross on our foreheads–a traditional sign of our
own mortality and the necessity of making this life purposeful.
Buen
Dramatic Arts
There are lots of wonderful ideas from the
movie “The Way” that you could use to mark
the beginning of the journey through Lent this
year.
Camino
Change your life, not just your clothes.
Buen Camino
Come back to God, your God.
As pilgrims set off, be it at the beginning of their
God is kind and merciful.
journey or at some point along the way, others wish
This most patient God,
them “Buen Camino” (meaning “good journey/way/
extravagant in love,
is always ready to welcome you back.
walk”). Create a small card like this and give it to
- Joel 2:13 (The Message)
people after they have received ashes, saying to
each person, “Buen Camino.” They can keep it with
them throughout the season of Lent as a reminder
of the way of returning that they are traveling this season. Or, instead of a card,
give each person a shell, the symbol of the pilgrim, with the words “Buen
Camino” written on it in permanent marker.
Lenten Pilgrim Passports
Consider creating a passport for the season of Lent that mirrors the passport that
pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago receive. Your passport could include lenten
devotions, bible verses from the season, or quotes and artwork about roads, pathways,
journeys, etc., serving as a devotional booklet. For kids (and adults), create different
stamps and have them bring back their passports each week to be stamped, in
recognition of the steps they have taken on their journey this Lent. It would be a
wonderful addition to the time of offering, giving participants the opportunity to share not
only their monetary gifts, but also to celebrate the gifts of their spiritual journey.
Verbal Arts
Journeying to Jerusalem
by Gay Williams
Lent - an invitation
to reflect, to reconsider,
to slow down, to discover.
Invited by Jesus
to join him on the journey.
Sometimes on that dusty road
I feel lonely, and am fearful.
What lies ahead?
Will I be able to withstand
the challenges?
Will I be enough?
Will I respond with joy
to the blessings
yet to be realized?
We are called forth
out of the winter of ourselves
to turn around,
to re-imagine our relationship with God;
On Ash Wednesday we are marked tagged as Christ’s own;
reminded of the life to which we are called,
too fragile and temporary to be wasted.
As the birds awaken in spring,
the bulbs and the buds break forth
and the animals stir, so too we are roused.
We journey onward,
turning and returning,
having discovered that we are whole,
loved, cherished,
now, and always.
Before the Amen: Creative Resources for Worship
Marn Tirabassi and Maria Tirabassi, Editors
(Pilgrim Press, 2007).
Ash Wednesday Collages
by Gregory Milinovich
http://agentorangerecords.blogspot.com/
2011/03/ash-wednesday-2011-true-grit.html
Music Arts
Congregational Songs
•
‘Tis the Gift to Be Simple
Chalice Hymnal #568
...‘til by turning, turning we come round right.
•
Without Seeing You
Faith We Sing #2206
We return to you deep within, leave the past to the dust;
turn to you with tears and fasting, you are ready to forgive.
•
Purify My Heart
Worship and Song #3103
...Turn my heart away from anger, turn my heart away from envy,
turn my heart away from folly, O purify my heart.
Turn my heart toward those who love me, turn my heart toward any neighbor,
turn my heart toward foe and stranger, I want to see my God...
•
Bless Now, O God, the Journey
Chalice Hymnal #489
Bless sojourners and pilgrims who share this winding way;
your hope burns through the terrors, you love sustains the day.
We yearn for holy freedom while often we are bound;
together we are seeking the road where faith is found.
•
Lead Me, Guide Me
Faith We Sing #2214
Lead me, guide me, along the way, for if you lead me I cannot stray.
Lord, let me walk each day with thee. Lead me, O Lord, lead me.
•
Step by Step
Worship and Song
...I will seek you in the morning and I will learn to walk in your ways,
and step by step you’ll lead me and I will follow you all of my days.
•
Winds of Change (especially the rap version)
Sing! Prayer and Praise #104
Winds of Change, come rearrange us, inspire desire, Spirit change us
to praise God, honor, adore; we bless God best by blessing the poor...
•
Change My Heart, O God
Sing! Prayer and Praise #128 / Faith We Sing #2152
Change my heart, O God, make it ever new. Change my heart, O God, may I be like you...
•
Dust and Ashes
Dust and ashes touch our face, mark our failure and our falling.
Holy Spirit, come, walk with us tomorrow,
take us as disciples, washed and wakened by your calling.
Take us by the hand and lead us, lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water, Holy Spirit, come.
Lent 1
The Wandering Way (Maze)
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
- Luke 4:1-2
After Jesus’ baptism, he went on a pilgrimage into the wilderness. A common
practice among spiritual leaders of his day, this was a time to dig deep into the
humanity of his soul. Along the way he encounters what we all encounter along the
paths of life–temptations to stray from the path that God has intended for us. But “all
who wander are not lost”–for it is in the wandering that we find our true selves.
Musical Arts
•
A Wilderness Wandering People
Worship & Song #3113
We are a wilderness wandering people on a journey of the soul.
May we find our destination in our longing to be whole.
Our holy God is calling to us, with Jesus by our side
may compassion be our compass; may the Spirit be our guide.
•
Jesus, Tempted in the Desert
The Faith We Sing #2105
...When we face temptation’s power, lonely, struggling, filled with dread,
Christ, who knew the tempter’s hour, come and be our living bread...
•
To the Wilderness
...In life’s wilderness places we find and serve God. We travel, like Jesus, to the wilderness.
We learn to serve our God in life’s wilderness...
•
Teach Me
Teach me to live within your will. Teach me your peace and hold me still.
Show me the way my soul to fill, when I live within your will...
•
All of My Life
...Teach me your way, O God our Savior. I give my heart, I give my all, to see your holiness in all of my life.
•
All Who Hunger
...Come from wilderness and wandering. Here, in truth, we will be fed.
...Come from restlessness and roaming. Here, in joy, we keep the feast.
...Come from loneliness and longing. Here in peace we have been lead.
•
Lead On, O Cloud of Presence
Lead on, O Cloud of Presence, the exodus in come, in wilderness and desert our tribe shall make its home.
...We are not lost, through wandering, for by your light we come, and we are still God’s people.
The journey is our home.
Visual Arts
The Wander Postcard Project
http://blog.onwander.com/
Looking for some visual inspiration for this week? Check out the wonderful postcards created as
part of the Wander Postcard Project. Illustrators were invited to imagine and create postcards
from everywhere and nowhere at once. The result is a whole collection of wonderful artistic
engagements with the idea of wandering. Not only could some of these postcards be used as
visual art within your worship space (many of them are available as posters), but also, the
depictions of “wandering” by the various designers can offer inspiration for your own visual
centerpiece, be they bicycles or airplanes, animal tracks or luggage tags. Find ways to depict the
wandering that helps you find yourself with these evocative postcards.
Movie Notes: The scenes from the beginning of The Way where Tom considers
starting his journey on the Camino could be a touchstone for this week’s theme.
From Tom’s humorous start going the wrong way down the street only to be
corrected by the troop of other pilgrims, to the poignant encounters between the
police officer and Tom, especially when he gives Tom the stone and points him in
the right direction, the themes of wilderness and wandering are important
throughout the movie.
Dramatic Arts
Lost Stories
Almost every one of us has a story of being lost
and often those stories include important
moments of self-discovery. Invite congregation
members share their lost stories and the
insights they gained from them.
You can
distribute note cards and pencils at coffee hour
with the question, “Tell us a story about being
lost and what you discovered about yourself in
the process.” Or solicit stories using social
media: post the question on the church’s
Facebook page, on the pastor’s blog, or via
twitter. Then select short statements from the
stories that people submit about situations of
lostness and self-discovery and use these as
touchstones throughout the service. Read them on
their own at various moments during worship.
Or use phrases from them to craft into a
prayer of confession and assurance of
forgiveness on the theme of wandering. Or
create a litany that follows petitions shaped
by experiences of being lost with responses
shaped by experiences of gaining insight.
Verbal Arts
Prayer of Invocation
You call us,
Wanderer of seashores and sidewalks,
inviting us to sail out of our smug harbors
into the uncharted waters of faith
to wander off from our predictable paths to follow You
into the unpredictable footsteps of the kingdom;
to leave the comfort of our homes and accompany
You into the uncomfortable neighborhoods we usually avoid.
In our simple, sometimes crazy,
constantly uncertain lives,
speak to us, Spirit of Grace:
of that hope which is our anchor;
of that peace which is our path;
of that grace which is our refuge.
from a worship order prepared by Rev. Bob Gibson for the London Conference of the United Church of Canada.
http://www.londonconference.ca/
Lent 2
The Way Around (Bypass)
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for
Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I
am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the
third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my
way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.'
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent
to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
brood under her wings, and you were not willing! - Luke 13:31-34
We are not always understood. Jesus found this
out, just like so many others whose closest
family, friends and neighbors have created an
idea of who we are and cannot imagine the
possibilities God has called us to. Sometimes
we must go ahead and do what we dream,
claiming who we know we are, taking the way
around what others think we ought to do and
be.
Media Arts
Remaking Your Dream
The Enterprise Community is an organization that facilitates public-private partnerships
in the hopes of realizing their vision that every person will have an affordable home in a
vibrant community, filled with promise and the opportunity for a good life. At their 30th
anniversary gala, several spoken-word poets from Dream Yard performed lyrics based
on rebuilding, remaking lives, communities and worlds. They offer a vision of the ways
in which re-imagining can become a bypass, a way around the expected to the new
possibilities toward which God calls us. You can find videos of these performances on
YouTube. Consider using one of these poems as part of your proclamation this Sunday.
Or find someone in your congregation to write and perform their own spoken-word
poem in this mode, addressing the dreams that take us beyond what others think we
ought to do and be. The poem entitled “How You Remake Your Dream” is a wonderful
example.
Music Arts
Popular Songs
•
•
•
Dixie Chicks, “The Long Way Around” from the album Taking the Long Way. This
song is a great celebration of the “bypasses” we can make to become the people we
want to be, despite notions others might have of us, and the value of finding an
alternative route to the expected.
• See the Dixie Chicks perform it here: http://youtu.be/UtqwL-ZPhAA
• Find the lyrics here: http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/dixie-chicks/the-longway-around-17149.html
• Purchase sheet music here: http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/
mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0053887
August Rose, “Live Your Dreams” from the album Hotel Piano.
• Hear it here: http://www.amazon.com/Live-Your-Dreams/dp/B001L8HLS4
Athena Cage, “All or Nothing (Live Your Dreams)” from the album The Art of a
Woman (used in the movie Save the Last Dance - which, incidentally, is a wonderful
story of someone taking a bypass and in the end finding their dreams).
• Hear it here: http://youtu.be/VUUuM-4SG6k
• See the lyrics here: http://artists.letssingit.com/athena-cage-lyrics-all-or-nothinglive-your-dreams-7c6xbf3
•
God of Inspiration
...To the One who carves each one of us with a beauty all our own. To the One who weaves the
web of life, that we need not feel alone. For creating recreation: time to rest, to play, to be. For
surrounding us with wonder that we through Your eyes might see. We praise You, O God of
inspiration...
•
Give Us Vision
Give me vision that I may see my true identity. Give me power that I may do your will in all
things...
•
The One Who Began a Good Work
#2163
Sing! Prayer and Praise #200 / Faith We Sing
The One who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
•
Come Let us Dream
...Prophets are scorned in their own lands...through dreamers die the dream will live for we have
yet our lives to give.
•
Gracious Creator of Sea and Land
...Spirit of Pentecost still blowing free, show us your vision of all we can be.
Call us to boldness, to goodness, to prayer. Summon our courage, our dreaming, our care.
•
The Summons
Faith We Sing #2130
...Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear in side and never
be the same? Will you se the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight
and touch and sound in you and you in me.
Verbal Arts
Dismissal
Use the popular quote from Thoreau’s Walden as the basis
for a charge that calls the congregation to go forth in to the
world in a way that claims and follows their dreams. Use
any one of the wonderful artistic renditions of this quote
(just do a google image search of the quote to come up
with many) as a focal point for the congregation, as
projected image, the bulletin cover, or simply as inspiration
for your own words.
Movie Notes: The ways in which the relationship between Tom and his son
Daniel develops over the course of the movie is an intriguing example of this
week’s theme: finding ways around the expectations of others. Daniel’s
thwarting of his father’s expectations originally confuses and angers Tom as
the movie’s opening scenes depict, but over the course of the movie, Tom
comes to accept and appreciate “the way” that Daniel took and the way that
Daniel’s death impelled him to take. Compare those opening scenes to the visions of Daniel
that Tom gets along the way, seeing him in a new light, with glimpses of understanding:
visions of the truth of his son’s life. Where have you had to find your own way around? How
have you come to glimpse the truth of who you are? of who others are? of who God is?
Lent 3
The High Way (Boulevard)
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price…
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Isaiah 55:1-9
We are taught that everything costs. But our ways are not God’s ways. There are
higher ways. We are all invited, without price, to the table of God’s grace. This is the
high way that we are invited to embody to others. Hospitality is the way… even we do
not agree on everything, we are still one family at one table.
Visual Arts
Open Tables
I love this depiction of a table drawn
in chalk on the road/sidewalk,
inviting you to imagine a table being
set for you in the most unlikely
place. Consider creating moments
of surprise and insight like this for
your congregation around the image
of the table, suggesting that God’s
way of hospitality can show up any
time and any place. Put a table set
for a meal in the parking lot. Draw a
table like this one in chalk on the
walkway into the church. Reposition
the chairs or pews in the sanctuary
http://www.illusionspoint.com/3d-chalk-drawings/fruit-table-illusion/
to allow room for a table for two setup.
Place a table with food on it in
the narthex or entry way. Set a small
table for meal in the choir loft. Use your
imagination and let the extravagant grace
of God’s hospitality infuse your church and
worship space in surprising ways this
week.
Music Arts
•
Come, Share the Lord
Faith We Sing #2269
...We are now a family of which the Lord is head; though unseen he meets us here in the breaking of the
bread...
•
Come to the Table of Grace
Worship and Song #3168 / SIng! Prayer and Praise #112
Come to the table of grace. This is God’s table, not yours or mine. Come to the table of grace.
•
Table of Plenty
Come to the feast of heaven and earth. Come to the table of plenty.
God will provide for all that we need here at the table of plenty.
...O, come and eat without money; come and drink without price.
My feast of gladness will feed your spirit with faith and fullness of life....
•
A Place at the Table
For everyone born a place at the table, for everyone born clean water and bread...
•
Yours the Wheat
Your s is the wheat and yours the grape, yours is the leaven and the love.
Send your blessing on this bread; send your grace upon this cup.
This is the feast your heart rehearsed. Drinking this well, we do not thirst.
•
Come to the Banquet
Come to the banquet, there’s a place for you!
Though you maybe have no money, though you maybe feel unworthy,
in your strength or in your weakness, you are welcome, come...
•
You Are Welcome Here Sing! Prayer and Praise #26
...Come now all people, join in the song, come be a part of the family of God...
Lifting each other; doing what’s right; standing together, whatever may come;
praising our Savior, shining our light, sharing the joy of Christ...
Verbal Arts
Prayer at the Table
generous god, guardian of the wild spaces,
of feasts on mountaintops
and flasks of tea in snow,
of cloud-covered beaches
and headlights at midnight on the motorway,
thank you
that we find in the bread and the wine
a space to be with you.
throw us the compass
of who we are and whose we are
let your hope be a big sky within us
let your presence be sand in our pockets
by Steve Collins, from the Small Ritual website
http://www.smallritual.org/
Movie Notes: Check out the wonderful feast scene in The Way as inspiration for your
worship this week. When Tom arrives, the host greets him saying, “we were expecting
you,” confusing him until he realizes that the host’s greeting was a signal that all
pilgrims are welcome there. What if you welcomed each person to communion this
week saying, “welcome: we were expecting you!” Even as the group of strangers
eating together argues about the telling of history from their different perspectives, they
eat and celebrate and share together, offering an intriguing vision of what it means to
be the Body of Christ, the family of God, around the a table where all are welcome.
Lent 4
The Way Home (Labyrinth)
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once
knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in
Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
- 2 Cor 5: 16-17
…Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But
we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he
was lost and has been found.'" - Luke 15: 11b-32
No matter what we call “home” in this physical world, we yearn for a
spiritual home within that offers serenity, acceptance, belonging. The
extravagant acceptance of the father for the son in Jesus’ parable of the
wandering son is difficult for us to believe sometimes… that no matter what
we have done, who we are, how far we are from what we want to become,
we are welcomed home by the Loving Parent.
Verbal Arts
Prayer of Invocation
Gracious God, we gather this morning in this house of worship which, thanks to your
love, is our home away from home. We come as we are – distracted and weary,
hopeful and open – knowing that you accept us and welcome us with open arms. As we
worship together, make this place, and each of us, a home where love abounds, justice
flourishes, and peace reigns. Through our praying and singing, listening and speaking,
open our hearts to the gifts of resurrection you offer us with each brand new day. In the
name of the One who welcomes us home we pray. Amen.
Call to Worship
Like a child who comes home after wandering far away,
you are welcome here.
Praise God who loves us unconditionally.
Like a friend who returns from a long journey,
you are greeted with joy here.
Praise God who knows us by name.
Like a beloved one whose face appears at the door,
you are embraced by love here.
Praise God who reminds us that we belong.
People of God, find your place in the home God makes for us here.
There’s no place like home! Let us worship God.
Call to Confession
Robert Frost has written that “Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
they have to take you in.” We know that in God’s love, we have a home where we can
be honest about our lives, about our success and our failures, bringing before God the
good, the bad and the ugly. And we are assured that no matter what, God’s grace will
take us in, welcoming us, forgiving us, and sending us out to try again. Confident in this
love and grace, let us confess our sin using the prayer of confession that is printed in
the bulletin. Let us pray together.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, your loving presence creates a home for us no matter where we
go. Yet, we confess that too often we are hesitant to extend that same gracious
welcome to others. Sometimes our fears and prejudices keep us from creating an
atmosphere of love and acceptance for those whom we encounter. Sometimes
the past hurts we hold onto prevent us from offering someone the gift of a fresh
start. Forgive us when your vision of love, mercy and justice is not reflected in
the homes we create for our families, our communities, and our earth. Open our
minds, hearts, hands, and spirits, so that we can be part of your loving and
liberating home-making in our world. Amen.
Words of Assurance and Hope
Today and everyday, God reaches out to us with open arms.
No matter how far away we wander, we are always welcomed home.
In the embrace of God’s love we find acceptance, forgiveness and freedom.
Praise God for the gift of resurrection and the grace of new beginnings!
Prayer of Dedication
Generous God, we celebrate the home you make for us through your love and
acceptance even as we acknowledge that so many people in our world live
without a place to call home, both physically and emotionally. We dedicate our
offerings to the work of home-making to which you call us. Empower us to
uncover the roots of every kind of homelessness, while we strive to create homes
that reflect your love, compassion and justice. Amen.
Movie Notes: This movie is filled with thought-provoking reflections on
the relationship between fathers and sons, but none is more poignant
than the exchange between Tom and the gypsy father of the boy who
stole Tom’s pack. Consider the elements of forgiveness, obedience,
welcome, and acceptance that are embedded in those scenes. How
could your worship service portray the rich complexities of home and
family relationships in this light?
Media Arts
There’s No Place Like Home
Many different television shows have created
episodes exploring the theme of home. A simple
Youtube search of the phrase “there’s now place like
home” reveals clips that range from the Wizard of Oz
to Lost, from Family Guy to Little House on the
Prairie. Explore some of these clips and the themes
they lift to expand your thinking about what home
might mean in different contexts. Whether or not you
would actually show these clips in worship, you can
use images and ideas from them to create a litany
that celebrates all the ways that we experience the
unconditional acceptance and belonging that we long
for.
Music Arts
Congregational Song
•
Welcome to this House
Sing! Prayer & Praise #7
...Welcome to this house, caring and accepting. In God’s
Son, we are all one. Welcome to this house of God...
•
You Are the One
You are the one who sees me. You are the one who
hears me when I call. Even when I run away from you,
you still speak my name, calling me back to you...
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No Matter
The God who spoke through Christ, speaks to us; listen to
our Savior’s call. Welcome home, welcome in, welcome
one and all.
•
House of God
This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.
This is a holy place. You are always welcome.
•
There’s a Spirit of Love in this Place Sing! Prayer
and Praise #33 / Worship and Song #3148
There’s a spirit of love in this place...You can’t see it, but it’s
there, just as precious as the air. There’s a spirit of love in
this place...
•
You Are My Hiding Place
Faith We Sing #2055
You are my hiding place. You always fill my heart with songs
of deliverance, when ever I am afraid, I will trust in you...Let
the weak say, “I am strong in the strength of the Lord.”
•
Help Us Accept Each Other
#388
New Century Hymnal
Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us; teach us as
sister, brother, each person to embrace. Be present, God,
among us, and bring us to believe we are ourselves accepted
and meant to love and live.
Lent 5
The Free Way (Thoroughfare)
Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings
out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are
extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the
things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I
will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43: 16-19
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the
prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. - Phil 3: 13-14
New paths are possible through freedom in Christ. And these ways are made plain
before us if we have eyes to see. Yes, we will strain against adversity–such is life.
But new life is always possible. New horizons are ours through relationship with
God and with each other. We will offer symbols of our efforts this day in the form of
rocks (which can be both stumbling blocks and stepping stones along the way) and
affirm that God, our rock and our redeemer is with us every step.
Visual Arts
Stony Paths
I’ve always been drawn by this wonderful quilt by fabric
artist Karen Eckmeier. Her evocation of a rocky path
seems to be a wonderful expression of the journey of faith
and the inner journey through Lent. Create your own
fabric art celebrating the rockiness of the way we travel
when we follow Christ’s paths, and the solid ground God
provides beneath our feet. Make the aisles in your church
into stone paths using earth-toned paper cut into stone
shapes. Or encourage people to think about the stepping
stones that God has offered to them on their faith journey
by drawing stones on the walkways into the sanctuary. To
explore the new paths that are open to us, have some
artists rearrange the “stones” in the aisle to create new
pathways as the service
continues, so that people
with take a different route
out of the sanctuary than
they did coming in.
Dramatic Arts
Paving New Paths
In the movie The Way, the four main characters, pilgrims on the camino come to a place of ritual
reflection near the end of the journey. At a site where other pilgrims have left rocks and other
items as part of their pilgrimage, these travelers lay down their burdens, the elements of the past
that have weighed them down and that they have come to understand better as they have
journeyed. Even though their journey has not yet come to an end, they use these rocks to
symbolize their letting go so that they can be open to whatever insight and new paths away them.
On this last Sunday before Holy Week, invite your congregation to lay down their burdens, to let
go of whatever they have discovered on their Lenten journey that they need to let go of in order
to make room for new life. Give each person a stone into which they might press their intentions,
their burdens. Then invite people to come forward and lay their stones at the foot of the cross,
either a free standing one, one laid on the floor, or one hanging on a wall of the sanctuary.
Conclude the ritual with a prayer like this one:
Pilgrim God,
our shoes are filled with stones,
our feet are blistered and sore,
our faces are stained with tears.
As we stumble and fall
may we know your presence
in the weariness and the tears
and in the healing and the laughter
of our pilgrimage.
Unburden us from these weighty things.
Use these stones to pave new pathways
of love, of hope, of faith
through which we may travel with joy.
Release us and set us free to new life.
Amen.
adapted from a prayer by The Iona Community,
from The Pattern of Our Days: Liturgies and Resources for
Worship (Wild Goose, 1996).
For another ritual using stones and the theme of burdens, see “Laying Our Burden Down” in Stages on the Way:
Worship Resources for Lent, Holy Week and Easter by the Iona Community (GIA Publications, 2000).
Music Arts
Congregational Song
•
Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land
Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm.
•
Glory in the Cross
Let us bring our burdens to the cross of Christ who has known our sorrow and our tears.
In the great compassion of the heart of Christ, God has walked in our hopes and fears...
•
I Will Call upon the Lord
Faith We Sing #2002
...The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
•
Stay with Us
Faith We Sing #2199 / Sing! Prayer and Praise #93
...Walk with us, the road will bend: make all our weeping, wailing end.
Wipe our tears, forgive our fears: Jesus, lift the heavy cross...
•
Cares Chorus
Faith We Sing #2215
I cast all my cares upon you. I lay all of my burdens down at your feet,
and anytime that I don’t know what to do, I will cast all my cares upon you.
•
Like a Rock
Like a rock, God is under our feet. like the starry night sky, God is over our head.
Like the sun on the horizon, God is ever before.
Like the river runs to the ocean, our home is in God evermore.
•
Just One Word from You
Let me not be just a hearer of your word. Let your word not fall on stony ground. But may it find a resting
place in my heart, that I might do the things that you command...
Verbal Arts
Opening Prayer
Keeper of every moment in eternity:
we come, not only to hear
those words which can transform us,
but to be filled with your grace and hope.
We have come, not out of habit,
but to respond to your call,
willing to be called away
from the familiar ways of our lives.
When uncertainty fills every block
in our daily planners,
you come, Grace's Companion,
to offer that hope which anchors
us in God's heart;
to place our feet firmly
on that rock called peace;
to bring us safely to that haven
filled with God's steadfast love.
Walker of our journeys,
in the midst of our harried lives,
you call us to lay aside all that entangles us,
to follow you into service to others.
You invite us to step into
the waters of life and hope,
reaching out to draw others
to our side so, that together,
we might enter your kingdom
of laughter and joy.
God in Community, Holy in One,
Rock of every age,
we offer our prayer in your name. Amen.
by Thom Shuman, and posted on his Lectionary Liturgies website. Visit that site for many other wonderful
lectionary-based resources for worship.
Lent 6 - Palm Sunday
The Other Way (Service Road)
As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now
approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the
disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power
that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" - Luke 19: 28-40
This moment on this road for Jesus feels both like the end and the
beginning. Such are so many moments of our lives. A pilgrimage may reach
its destination but the hope, the wisdom, the lessons learned along the way
have offered a new starting point for us. What have we learned and what
transformation–what “other way”–are we called to in the name of right
relationship in our lives?
Music Arts
Congregational Song
•
Please Enter My Heart, Hosanna
Faith We Sing #2154
Please enter my heart, hosanna. O please lead my life today.
...won’t you enter my heart today?
•
Hosanna! Hosanna!
Faith We Sing #2109
...Everybody brought their hopes and dreams. Life just isn’t always
what it seems. Need somebody who can help us be liberated from captivity....
•
In the Midst of New Dimensions
Faith We Sing #2238
In the midst of new dimensions, in the face of changing ways,
who will lead the pilgrim peoples wandering in their separate ways?
God of rainbow, fiery pillar, leading where the eagles soar.
We your people, ours the journey now and evermore.
•
Make Way
Make way, make way, for Christ the King in splendor arrives.
Fling wide the gates and welcome him into your lives.
Make way for the King of kings. Make way and let the kingdom in.
•
Hosanna
...we welcome him...we’ll follow him...we’ll walk with him to Calvary.
•
Lead On Eternal Sovereign
New Century Hymnal #573
Lead on eternal Sovereign, we follow in your way;
loud rings your cry for justice, your call for peace this day:
through prayerful preparation, your grace will make us strong,
to carry on the struggle and triumph over wrong.
•
Pave the Way with Justice
Jesus is coming. Pave the way with justice. Hosanna...
•
We Will Take What You Offer
We will take what you offer, we will liv by your word;
we will love one another and be led by you Lord.
Verbal Arts
Hold on to the Hosannas
Let us stay with the Hosannas for a while
Let us let them keep on ringing in our ears
Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord
Instead of rushing on to hear the cries
that came later in the week
Let us stay with the Hosannas
Maybe once we have heard those in a new way
we will be ready to make the rest of the journey
A journey that was hastened
and given new purpose
by those Hosannas
For those Hosannas were not
simply the innocent cries
of palm branch waving children
Those Hosannas were the war cries of adults
tired of the oppression
of occupying forces
Those hosannas
were the hopeful cries
of a nation seeking liberation.
Those Hosannas
were an investment of hope
in one they thought would deliver.
Those Hosannas
that we have sanitized over the years
rang out in clear insurrection
sealing the fate of one who rode on a donkey.
so, let us stay with the Hosannas
Let us wrest them from the lips of children
and allow them to ring in our ears
and spew from our mouths
as a call to action
a call to justice
a call to love.
Let us stay with the Hosannas
even as we journey
with the Christ
who carried those Hosannas
all the way to the cross
and ensured their fulfillment
as the justice and love of God.
Let us stay with the Hosannas.
by Rev. E. Crumlish of Castlehill Church, Ayr. Posted on
the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.
Media Arts
The Road Ahead
The Work of the People has a powerful video using this prayer by Thomas
Merton:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I
cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact
that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I
believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that
desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that
desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may
know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will
never leave me to face my perils alone.
http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V01135
It could provide a wonderful meditative reflection on the end of the Lenten journey and
the beginning of the journey through Holy Week to Easter, centered on God’s
faithfulness and guidance on every new path we embark on.
Movie Notes: Take a look at the final scenes of the movie The Way. While there
is some closure for each character at the conclusion of their journey,
both in the church and at the ocean you get the sense that their
journey will continue, even if in a new way. How might the way this
movie concludes inform the way in which you conclude the season
of Lent and move into Holy Week and Easter? What new
beginnings has this journey enabled?

Lent Year C-The Way - Worship Design Studio

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