When Reformed Worship staff sat down to discuss the worship series for this issue and how it might connect with the year’s theme of mission, we thought of how the church historically has the greatest missional impact when it combines the gospel message with lives of service that emulate Christ. The concept of service fits well with the traditional Lenten themes of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. We were happy to discover that this theme also correlated well with the Revised Common Lectionary texts for Year C. As we continued thinking about this theme, we found Richard J. Foster’s classic work Celebration of Discipline particularly helpful.
Because several people would be creating this series, we drafted a broad outline to keep each worship service for the Sundays in Lent focused on worship’s dialogue between God and those gathered (see sidebar on p. 8). Not all of the worship elements appear every week, but the outline may be a helpful reference if you adapt this series for your context. To help anchor the theme and create some continuity, the ending of each Sunday service is the same.
During Lent there also are weekday services, including those for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Each of these services has its own rhythm and does not closely follow the outline for Sunday services.
We have provided background notes on the theme for each service that could also serve as sermon notes and help you see the thread tying the worship elements together. Following the Ash Wednesday and Sunday services are suggestions for how individuals and households might respond.
Because space is limited, only the services for Ash Wednesday, the First Sunday of Lent, and Maundy Thursday are included in the print/digital issue. The rest of the services appear at ReformedWorship.org and can be found by searching using the title of this article.
The whole series is outlined here:
Ash Wednesday: Coworkers with Christ
Lent 1: The Call to Service
Lent 2: The Committed Servant
Lent 3: The Heart of Service
Lent 4: Service as Radical Hospitality
Lent 5: The Ministry of Self-Giving
Lent 6: The Servant King
Maundy Thursday: The Sign of Service
Good Friday: The Suffering Servant
Easter: The Servant’s Message
Ash Wednesday
Coworkers of Christ
The season of Lent traditionally begins with a service of repentance. Attendees are invited to receive on their foreheads the mark of the cross, made from ashes. We often think of these ashes as a mark of our penitence, but they also mark us as people who live in the way of the cross. What would it mean if we wore ashes on our foreheads every day? When we don’t wear ashes, do the people around us know that we are Christ followers?
This season of Lent, we want to be especially attentive to the ways we co-labor with Christ in lives of servanthood. In Scripture, people called to a particular vocation were often symbolically anointed on the forehead using oil. The prophet Isaiah was marked on the lips with a live coal.
This service blends the traditional Ash Wednesday service with the biblical practice of anointing people for service. Our focus is Isaiah’s account of his calling, which teaches us that repentance is a prerequisite for being commissioned as a servant of God.
This worship outline is intended to get people asking questions that will be explored later in the series. What does it mean that we are coworkers with Christ? What work are we called to do? How much are you willing to give up for that work? Are you willing to give up your life?
Call to Worship: Selections from Joel 2
[for two readers with a congregational refrain (bold text)]
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming.
It is close at hand—
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Spare your people, Lord.
“Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Spare your people, Lord.
Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the LORD your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly; . . .
Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
—Joel 2:1–2a, 12–16a, 17
Opening Song: “Song of the Prophets” (St. 1, 7, 18) Morgan, LUYH 53
Greeting
On this Ash Wednesday, we set aside the distractions that prevent us from hearing this urgent call from God. The trumpet that blows in Zion sounds for all of us; it disrupts our lives’ well-worn patterns and demands that we return, repent, and be renewed. The God who persistently calls us greets us today with ready grace, mercy, and peace.
Call to Confession
We plan to journey with Christ this Lent as co-laborers taking up the mantle of servanthood. But we take time today to remember that the work to which we are called is holy, like the one who calls us, and we are unfit and incapable of doing this work on our own. It is right that we fall on our knees before our holy God. And so we pattern our repentance after the prophet Isaiah, who was first called to repentance and then commissioned for service:
Reading: Isaiah 6:1–5
Song: “Only a Holy God” Farren et al.
Silent Prayer of Confession
Assurance of Pardon: Isaiah 6:6–7
Prayer for Illumination
Holy God, as we come now to the reading of your word, we ask you to illuminate our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit. May the light of your word brighten the Lenten path ahead of us as we journey in the steps of Christ towards the cross.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:10
Sermon: “Coworkers in Christ”
Response to the Sermon
“Throughout These Lenten Days and Nights” Germenian, LUYH 134
Imposition of Ashes
We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes.
This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life,
calls us to heartfelt repentance,
and urges us to place our hope in God alone.
The ashes remind us as well that we are called to live lives of the cross—
lives marked by love of God and of neighbor.
Almighty God,
you have created us out of the dust of the earth.
May these ashes remind us of our mortality and penitence
and the call to live as servants.
May they teach us again that only by your gracious gift
are we given everlasting life
through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.
—The Worship Sourcebook, second edition, © 2013 Faith Alive Christian Resources (TWS I.4.4.2, adapted). Reprinted by permission.
[During the imposition of ashes, a song may be sung. Some suggestions are given below. The worship leader(s) imposing the ashes say to each person: Repent, believe, and be reconciled to God.]
Song Options
“Spirit of God, Who Dwells Within My Heart” Croly, LUYH 618
“Give Me a Clean Heart” Douroux, LUYH 621
“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” Hernaman, LUYH 132
Sending
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
—Isaiah 6:8
Sending Song: “Isaiah 6” sung to the tune EVENTIDE, by William Henry Monk, P.D.
Here we beheld you seated on your throne,
robed by the light with angels ringed around.
Here we fell down before our God in awe,
“Oh, holy Lord, we cannot keep your law.”
Coal from your altar purified our lips;
sin was atoned, and guilt from us was stripped.
Then from the light a voice like dove wings beat:
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?”
Boldly we stand, and eagerly we cry,
your sinner-saints redeemed by fire on high,
“Send us to sing, to work, to pray, to love,
all in the name of Jesus Christ above.”
“Go to the lost and tell them they are found.
Freedom proclaim to all in chains fast bound.
Go to the weary, lift their eyes to see,
full and abundant life is found in me.”
—Bethany Besteman, © 2024 Bethany Besteman, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Blessing/Benediction
HOW SHALL WE RESPOND?
Fasting
- Read Isaiah 58. Where do you find yourself in this passage? What might a true fast look like for you or your household?
Prayer
- Pray that the Spirit might reveal your heart and help you discern God’s call on your life to be Christ’s coworker. What does it mean to truly fast and be “all in” for God?
Around the Kitchen Table
- During Lent, designate a chair at your kitchen table or in the living room as a “Christ chair,” a symbol of Christ’s presence in your midst.
- Consider how you might show to others that you are Christ’s coworker without saying anything.
Ideas for Including Children and Teens
- If you decide to set aside a “Christ chair,” encourage your children to think of ways to decorate the chair so it further represents Christ’s presence in your midst. For Ash Wednesday, consider using black crepe paper or construction paper to make a cross on the chair. This marks the chair as “Christ’s chair,” calls us to repentance, and points ahead to the end of the Lenten journey.
Lent 1
The Call to Service
Right after Jesus is baptized, the Spirit casts him into the desert wilderness, where he spends forty days alone, fasts, and is tempted by the devil. Having received assurance of who he was—God’s beloved Son, with whom God was well pleased—Christ’s identity is challenged. Interestingly, immediately following the temptation Christ returns home, goes to the synagogue, and clearly articulates his call by quoting Isaiah 61.
If Christ were asked to share his “calling story,” my guess—and Scripture’s implication—is that he’d say his call was sealed in his baptism, formed and clarified in the wilderness, and then articulated at home in the synagogue.
All of us—even those of us not ordained as an elder, deacon, or pastor—have received a call on our lives. All of us are called to be servants, to join with the Spirit in continuing the work that Christ began. When we think about our own call, we may focus on our baptism or a spiritual high point and forget that our call to service often includes times in the wilderness.
Our faith journeys include high and low points. If that was true for the Israelites and true for Christ, why should we expect anything different? Let’s not be surprised by the wilderness, but embrace it as a time of preparation for service, a time in which we are formed as Christ’s servants and our callings clarified. This Lent, let’s embrace the wilderness—the uncertain aspects of our lives and our faith journeys—and wait expectantly for God’s call.
Call to Worship: Isaiah 43:19–21
Greeting: Isaiah 43:1–3
Opening Response
Praise be to the Holy One of Israel, our Savior!
Songs of Response: [Choose one or more of the following:]
“Our Help / Psalm 124:8” Thé, LUYH 497
“Our Help Is in the Name of God the Lord / Psalm 124” Tel, LUYH 498
“Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above” Schütz, LUYH 572
“All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly” Dunstan, LUYH 534
Call to Confession
Sometimes we experience wilderness because we have chosen to leave God and wander off, to go our own way. For all the ways we have turned away from God and ignored God’s voice, we turn to God in a prayer of confession, asking for forgiveness.
Prayers of Confession
God, you call us,
but we ignore your voice.
You speak to us,
but we are too busy to listen.
You invite us to see the good things you are doing
even in difficult places and through difficult circumstances,
but our eyes are closed, and we refuse to look and see.
You ask us to join in your work,
to be a part of the renewal of the world,
but we think the price is too high,
the people not deserving,
or the people and creation to be someone else’s responsibility.
You call us to serve others,
but we think only of ourselves.
In the midst of the wilderness of this world and our lives,
you are doing a good thing,
but we prefer to stay in a comfortable place.
We lose patience, demanding you act
instead of resting in you.
Forgive us for all we have done that goes against your will
and for not doing the things you have asked of us.
Help us to turn back to you,
commit ourselves to follow you,
and lead lives of service,
even in the wilderness.
Amen.
—Joyce Borger, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Assurance of Pardon: Romans 10: 8–13
Thanksgiving
“Within the Shelter of the Lord / Psalm 91” Leckebusch, LUYH 459
Dedication to Holy Living
Even as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God was calling them to live holy lives marked by service to God, love of people, and care for creation. Obedience to God’s law was not meant to be a burden, but to arise naturally from a heart of gratitude for what God had done in bringing them out of Egypt and in anticipation of their arrival in the promised land.
As God’s people today, wandering in the wilderness, we too receive the same call to live holy lives out of gratitude for what God has done, with faith and hope that one day all will be well. Let us be reminded of that call by hearing these words from Exodus 20.
The Law: Exodus 20:1–17
Children’s Message
We just heard a very important list. We call this list the Ten Commandments. They show us what we can do to say “thank you” to God. When you want to say “thank you” in a special way, is there anything you do? Do you draw a picture? Give a hug? I wonder what it would look like if, instead of saying “thank you,” we did something to help the person we were thanking. Can you think of a way to help an adult who cares for you? What about a friend? I wonder what it would look like if we did those helpful things for people just because we love them? God does a lot of things for us just because he loves us, and we can do things for God just because we love God. If we are trying to figure out what to do because you love God, the Ten Commandments are a good place to start!
Prayer for Illumination
“Speak, O Lord” Getty, Townend, LUYH 755
Scripture
Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1–11
New Testament Reading: Luke 4:1–13
Sermon: “From the Wilderness to Service”
Response to the Sermon
“From Ashes to the Living Font” Hommerding
“Jesus, Tempted in the Desert” Stuempfle, LUYH 115
“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” Hernaman, LUYH 132
Profession of Our Church’s Faith
Philippians 2
Communion
“All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly” Dunstan, LUYH 534
“Somos pueblo que camina / We Are People on a Journey” La Misa Popular Nicaragüense, LUYH 141
“We Are People on a Journey” DeMey, LUYH 142
Response of Praise and Prayer
Psalm 124
Sending
People of God,
let us claim the freedom Christ gives us
by his self-giving on the cross.
May he enable us to serve together
in faith, hope, and love.
Go in peace, and serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
—Source unknown
Sending Song
“Take Us as We Are, O God” Daw, LUYH 862
Blessing/Benediction
May the God of love, who showed us love,
strengthen us in our love for others.
May Christ, who shared his life,
grant us grace that we might share ours.
And may the Holy Spirit dwelling in us
empower us to be Christ’s ambassadors
wherever we go and to whomever we meet.
Amen.
—Source unknown
HOW SHALL WE RESPOND?
Fasting
- What is something you can give up during Lent (and maybe longer) to make room for sustained silence, reflection, and prayer? How might you make space for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Prayer
- Pray for God to use your times of wilderness for God’s glory. Ask how God might use you.
Around the Kitchen Table
- Where have you seen or felt God’s call on your life? Share your own sense of calling with someone else.
- Have you ever experienced a time in a spiritual wilderness? How did that time stretch you and provide clarity about your calling?
- We often think of our calling from an individual perspective, but having a godly purpose also applies collectively—to families, to households, to small groups, and to churches. If you had to articulate God’s purpose or call for one of those communities, what would you say?
- Share baptism stories. See if you can find the date and place of your baptism if you don’t already know them. How do you see your baptism as an ordination to a life of service?
Ideas for Including Children and Teens
- Children and teens can also experience and live out God’s call. Have a conversation about what God might have placed on their heart, and help them to fulfill those callings.
Maundy Thursday
The Sign of Service
Can you think of a situation in which explaining what to do wasn’t effective, so you needed to show the person how to do it? Jesus reverses this pattern: He starts by showing, then spends some time explaining. In the gospel of John, much of his final time of teaching the disciples has to do with love—his love for them, his hope that they will continue to love him, and his command that they love each other. But he begins all his teaching with a vivid demonstration of love: He washes his disciples’ feet. This act is set in the middle of John’s account of Judas’s betrayal. Jesus’ love is not dependent on his disciples’ behavior. It is offered in advance of and with full knowledge of all their coming cowardice, denials, and betrayals. And this act ends with a clear application: Show this same humble, servant-like love to each other.
God So Loved the World
Call to Worship: John 13:1
Opening Words: Selections from Psalm 116
[An arrangement for two voices with sung congregational refrain is included in the online version of this liturgy.]
Song: “I Love the Lord” Watts, LUYH 439
Greeting
God has heard our cries and sent his servant Son, our Savior, whose final hours among his friends we commemorate tonight. We will once again be witnesses to the gifts Jesus gave his disciples before he left them: his modeled servanthood and his precious body and blood. In the retelling and reenacting of these familiar words and deeds, we will join the disciples in receiving Jesus’ gifts to the church.
Now receive this greeting from our Lord: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
—John 14:27
But People Loved Darkness
Call to Confession: John 13:2, 21–27, 30
Prayer of Confession
Like Judas, we have felt the influence of evil on our lives.
We have opened ourselves to Satan’s manipulations.
We have been instruments of betrayal for our Lord.
O Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Song: “O Christ, the Lamb of God” LUYH 630
Assurance of Pardon: John 17:1–3
Not to Condemn, but to Save
Declaration of God’s Invitation and Promises
Jesus, to whom the Father granted authority over all people, came among us and used that authority on our behalf to ensure our eternal salvation. Now, along with his disciples, we hear that first invitation to the table of grace:
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:26–28
Preparing the Bread and Cup: “As He Gathered at His Table” (st. 1, 3–4, 7) Richardson, LUYH 155
Prayer for Illumination
Like the disciples
reclining at the table in the upper room,
we too have been fed.
Now, in the growing darkness,
our Lord gets up from the table.
He has things to teach us
before his final suffering.
Give us, O God, ears to hear,
eyes to see, and hearts to receive. Amen.
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Scripture Reading: John 13:3–17
Sermon: “I Have Set You an Example”
Hymn of Response: “As In That Upper Room You Left Your Seat” (st. 1) Dudley-Smith, LUYH 156
alt.: “Great God, Your Love Has Called Us” Wren, LUYH 153
Invitation to Foot Washing
Like Peter, we too may be tempted
to pull away from this uncomfortable space
and declare:
“No, you shall never wash my feet.”
But Jesus reminds us,
“Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
Let us therefore approach the basin in humility,
receiving from each other
the cleansing waters
as from the Lord.
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Foot Washing
[One option is to invite representatives of the congregation who have been asked ahead of time to come forward and have their feet washed by elders and/or the pastor. If time and other logistics allow, you might choose instead to invite all who wish to participate to come forward. In this case, consider having several foot-washing stations at different locations in the sanctuary.]
Prayer
Lord Jesus, may these waters be to us
reminders of the waters of baptism,
through which you’ve claimed us
as your covenant people,
and also of your cleansing blood,
which washed away our sin.
Refresh our hearts and minds in the truth
of your self-sacrificial love,
symbolized for us here
in the basin, towel, and water. Amen.
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
[During the foot washing, a song may be sung or instrumental music played. The suggested song can be sung congregationally, but is especially powerful as a solo sung a cappella.]
Song: “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Calling” Iona, LUYH 128
alt.: “Ubi Caritas et amor / Live in Charity” Taizé, LUYH 154
Response
You are clean!
Thanks be to God!
Do you understand what I have done for you?
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,
you also should wash one another’s feet.
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
We have been given a new command: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
And so we show we are our Lord’s disciples, if we love one another.
—adapted from John 13:10, 12–15, 34–35
Sending
People of God, hear this charge:
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
This is my command: Love each other.
—John 15:12–13, 17
Sending Song: “God, the Father of Your People” Mulder and Newton, LUYH 927
Blessing/Benediction
May the God of love, who showed us love,
strengthen us in our love for others.
May Christ, who shared his life,
grant us grace that we might share ours.
And may the Holy Spirit dwelling in us
empower us to be Christ’s ambassadors
wherever we go and to whomever we meet.
Amen.
—Source unknown