From the Desk of Pastor Marsha, February 20, 2025
What’s Happening 2.20.2025
Lenten will soon be upon us, and we will be making some interesting changes in our worship order for Sundays and for Wednesday evening midweek services.
Sunday mornings during Lent, we will introduce ELW liturgy Setting Two. Setting Two comes from the well-known Lutheran musician Marty Haugen who, as you probably know, wrote the very popular “Holden Evening Prayer” for Holden Village as well as “Now the Feast and Celebration”, both of which we have used on several occasions here at Zion. (In case all you Luther alumni didn’t appreciate him enough already, I recently learned Marty Haugen is also a Luther grad.) For our Lenten Sunday worship services, we will include the Kyrie at the beginning of the service and replace the first and second readings with a responsive chanting of the psalm of the day. The Kyrie and the psalm will have a canter most weeks, so if you are interested in volunteering for that role, let Marlys Boote know. We will also include the Song of Simeon following Holy Communion to close the service, a practice done in many congregations. Please remember, this will be just a short break of omitting a few things so that we can focus on other pieces of the liturgy we often leave out.
Additionally, on Sundays and the special holy days during this season, we will be using a resource I found from Sanctified Art, a group of gifted worship professionals from a variety of mainline denominations who are committed to allowing the scriptures to come to life through color, movement, poetry, song, and image. Here is a link to their website if you would like to learn more about them. https://sanctifiedart.org/ourstory
The theme is entitled “Everything In Between”. From their description
“Our theme, 'Everything In Between,' invites us to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed. You will see that each weekly sub-theme explores two supposed binaries, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We often consider these ideas to be opposing. However, as we explore these concepts within the scriptures, we find nuance and complexity. We find that these dichotomies are false. We might begin to see a full spectrum instead of black and white. We might find that God is present in between. And so, this season, we invite you to look beyond black-and-white binaries and easy answers. We encourage you to notice the dichotomies that define our lives, but also imagine where God might be meeting us beyond the categories we create. This Lent, we're trusting that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues, and everywhere in between.”
One more exciting part of our Lenten Sundays will be the enjoyable noisy offering by our Sunday School children who voted to designate the money to go to LA fire relief (through Lutheran Disaster Response) and Lutheran Services in Iowa (part of Lutheran Services in America).
Finally, our Midweek liturgy is an evening prayer service with a compilation of pieces by our very own former organist, Tim Meier, which you have used while he was working here. We are once again asking laypersons to bravely step up and take on the role of “preacher” for the evening. If that is something you might be interested in, please let me
know sooner rather than later.
We will also be having the ever-popular Lenten meals every Wednesday except for the week of March 26, which is spring break. Meals will begin at 5:30 pm and be hosted by a variety of groups from the congregation.
For those who are interested, our Adult Learning Team will host a short devotional time on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 pm – 6:45 pm down in the Gathering room. They will be utilizing a resource from Saltproject.org, entitled “Wendell Berry and the Sabbath Poetry of Lent.” Here is a link to this resource if you would like to learn more about it or the organization itself, https://www.saltproject.org/wendell-berry-and-the-sabbath-poetry-of-
lent/wendell-berry-and-the-sabbath-poetry-of-lent-personal-use
