Teach Us With Thee to Mourn Our Sins

"Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days" by Claudia Hernaman is one of the few non-Holy Week hymns in the United Methodist Hymnal that is explicitly Lenten. It's commonly sung on Ash Wednesday or the first Sunday during Lent, but it's appropriate for the whole season.

Lord, who throughout these forty days

For us didst fast and pray,

Teach us with Thee to mourn our sins

And close by Thee to stay.

The first verse of this hymn is probably my favorite, and  "Teach us with Thee to mourn our sins" is without question my favorite line. The forty days of Lent mirror Christ's forty days in the wilderness, and so Lent should be for us a time of spiritual discipline as set forth in the Lord's example. Lent is a season of both penitence and reconciliation, and those require self-examination. But we don't observe Lent alone. It's not within our power to keep our Lenten disciplines alone! The point of Lent is our need for God's grace. Without God's grace we would not know what is sin, we would not be able to repent of sin, and we would not recognize in ourselves the image of God. We would not know God. Only by God's grace can we be cleansed, restored, and go on to perfect love.

Lenten Links!

Here are a few links from things I've been reading or listening to over the first week of Lent:

-- Sing the Psalms! They're in an order appropriate for the church season, and each day there's at least one suggested tune. Most of the pieces of music are common settings for hymns, which is helpful. (Today's is to Beach Spring!)

-- Taylor Burton-Edwards, the Director of Worship Resources at the General Board of Discipleship, wrote about not doing Ashes at Home when there were winter storms last Wednesday, leading many churches to cancel Ash Wednesday services. His point is that our repentance is not just personal but corporate and that we gather for penitence.
Drew McIntyre agreed, and he addressed some of the more common reasons given for doing something like Ashes at Home.

-- April Fiet wrote about "Remember that thou art dust," and it's beautiful:
"Ash Wednesday’s earthiness is no accident. It draws us back to the creation of the world and of humanity. It grips us as we recall our own mortality. And it invites us to enter into the places in our lives where we need to get our hands dirty."
"We are following in the footsteps of one who got his hands dirty, who reached out and touched those who needed it most, ate with those deemed unworthy by society, and had no place to lay his head.

Lent is an imperative to go and do likewise."

-- A playlist of St. Louis Jesuits' music. The post is Lent related. The music isn't directly related, but it's all very Lent-appropriate.

Ashes to Ashes

I love "Sunday's Palms are Wednesday's Ashes" by Rae E. Whitney for a lot of reasons. It happens to be set to my favorite tune, but more than that, it perfectly expresses Ash Wednesday and, in many ways, Lent as a whole. It mirrors confessional prayers from Eucharist liturgies, but despite focusing on our failings, it always turns to forgiveness and hope.

Sunday's palms are Wednesday's ashes
As another Lent begins;
Thus we kneel before our Maker
In contrition for our sins.
We have marred baptismal pledges,
In rebellion, gone astray;
Now, returning, seek forgiveness;
Grant us pardon, Lord, this day!

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

We wave the fronds high and shout for joy. We sing loud hosannas and praise the King. If we did not cry out, the stones would do so in our place.

But Sunday's palms are Wednesday's ashes. The week that begins in a triumphal entry ends in darkness, a darkness that would become light, but a necessary darkness all the same.

Christmas Means

Christmas means that we believe the Kingdom is coming and is to come.

Christmas means that Christ is True God, "begotten not made, of one being with the Father."

Christmas means atonement, that is, at one ment: God with us, "pleased as man with men to dwell."

Christmas means that the words of the prophets are fulfilled in our hearing.

Christmas means that God loves us, comes to us, and invites us into relationship. Christmas means that God offers us prevenient grace in the form of God as man.

Christmas means that the True Light is already shining, and we are called to live as children of light.

Christmas means that God fulfills promises; we are still a waiting world, and Christmas is the hope that someday, our waiting will forever cease.

Christmas means lighting the Christ candle, the fulfillment of the candles for hope, peace, joy, and love.

Magnificat

This past Sunday was Gaudete Sunday, the Advent Sunday focused on joy. This is also often a Sunday for the Magnificat. Because of some services I've been to in Budapest, I have a new favorite Magnificat arrangement. This isn't the choir I've seen sing it, but here's a link to a video. Enjoy!

Before Him Shall Peace, The Herald, Go

"Hail to the Lord's Anointed" by James Montgomery is more upbeat and joyful than a lot of Advent hymns. Advent may be a traditionally penitential season (even if we don't always consider it that way), but there is great joy in what we await.

Hail to the Lord's Anointed, 
great David's greater Son!  
Hail in the time appointed, 
his reign on earth begun!  
He comes to break oppression, 
to set the captive free; 
to take away transgression, 
and rule in equity.

We are not waiting just to wait. Christ does not come simply to come. Christ comes as the Promised One, the One who sets free, the King.  We look around and see oppression, wrong, and inequality, but because we await the One who sets all things right, we do not lose hope. We believe that the Lord's Anointed comes in the time appointed and reigns on earth and in heaven forevermore.

We light a candle for hope, and we hail the One who was and is and is to come.

Now The World Is Waiting

One of my favorite GLAD Christmas songs (on "Voices of Christmas") is really an Advent song: Bob Kauflin's "All the World was Waiting."

All the world was waiting for the promised One.
Prophets through the ages claimed that He would come.
Would He be a warrior, or a conquering king?
Could he be the one who’d save us from our sin and suffering?

During Advent, the first Lectionary readings (the Old Testament readings) are almost all from the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Malachi. We hear the despair of a people, even they are just a remnant, and we hear the Lord's promises. God has not forsaken the people. The promised One will come and save.

All the world was waiting the night that you were born.
God of life eternal, in a fragile form.
Shepherds gathered closer, gazing at your face;
Wondering how this helpless child could save a fallen human race.

So often we think we know what will save us. But throughout scripture we see God calling out to the least and the lost, working in ways we wouldn't expect, appearing in places and ways that surprise us. It was the shepherds who gathered around, and a newborn was proclaimed as Savior and Messiah.