Listening to the Prophets—Introduction A Five-Week Series for Lent

This is part of the worship series, 
"Listening to the Prophets” 

Series Introduction 
Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5 

Introduction

As our church made its way through a yearlong focus on the Old Testament (see “From Adam to Jonah”), we wanted to show the relationship between the Old and New Testaments during the seasons of the church year. It’s a challenge to take seasons like Advent and Lent, with their decidedly New Testament story lines, and remember them with Old Testament passages. But we felt the Old Testament could give us a fresh perspective on these New Testament stories. For example, during Advent we focused on the stories of King David, thinking about the type of king Israel was looking for. We wanted to take a similar Old Testament look at Lent. We were convinced that we could use some of the passages from the prophets to focus on why Jesus came to earth and on the need of God’s people, then and now, for God’s saving grace. So this set of services uses the Old Testament prophets to prepare us to hear the New Testament stories of Christ’s triumphal entry, death, and resurrection.

As we drew closer to Passion Week, we turned our attention to the New Testament stories in order to make explicit what we’d been preparing for. Doing so with the Old Testament backdrop gave the story new richness for us.

A few things are included in each of the services. For example, each service uses the gathering song “Holy, Holy, Holy, My Heart,” which has a connection with Isaiah 6. We altered the musical arrangement each week, using different sets of instruments to lead the congregation. We also used the song “What Wondrous Love” at a different point in the service each week. We continued our pattern of picking many of the responsive readings from the common lectionary in order to continue our connection to the larger community of worshipers throughout the world.

Series Outline

Candle Lighting for Lent

At the beginning of each service, during the prelude, a third grader came forward to light the candle, helping the congregation recognize that the light of God’s word draws us to God as we gather together. At the end of the service, during the closing song, the same child extinguished the candle.

We had some wonderful moments during this ceremony as children enjoyed this opportunity to represent the congregation. When new candles that were too tall for the children to light comfortably were placed in front of the church, we asked a parent to walk down the aisle as well and to assist as needed. The visual image of the parent helping the young child light the candle reminded us of our commitment to the covenant and to including children in worship.