Frontpage, Feb. 27, 2022

Lent begins this week with our Ash Wednesday service 7pm, March 2 at St. Peter’s.

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Feb. 27 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278

• Bulletin Feb. 27, 2022
• Sermon written Feb 27, 2022
• Commentary Feb. 27, 2022
• Videos Feb. 27, 2022

Feb. 27 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID878 7167 9302 Password 729195

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Feb. 28 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929

March 1 – Shrove Tuesday at Home

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March 2 – Bible Study 10am-12pm on Wed. March 2

March 2 – 7:00pm – Ash Wednesday Service

• Bulletin March 2, 2022
• Join Zoom meeting for 7pm service, March 2 Meeting ID: 890 3908 9514 Passcode: 438980

• Ash Wednesday sermon
• Commentary

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Shrove Tuesday, March 1- at Home

Pieter Aertszen’s The Pancake Bakery, circa 1508.

During the week before Lent, sometimes called Shrovetide in English, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of turning to God.

In the Anglican tradition, Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) was the day all households used up all milk, eggs, and fat to prepare for the strict fasting of Lent. These ingredients were made into pancakes, a meal which came to symbolize preparation for the discipline of Lent.( An article about Scottish Shrove Tuesday maintains this may have faded out in the mid-eighteenth century, at least in Scotland.)

Other names for this day include Carnival (farewell to meat) and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday of the French tradition). Ironically, masks play an important role in many celebrations of Carnival around the world.

1. On Tuesday, March 1 cook your pancakes at home with your family. Your conversation around the table could include the following Shrove Tuesday themes.
2. Recall a past Shrove Tuesday. Share with the others what your plans are for Lent—do you plan to give up something or to take up something with the intent of growing closer to God and to creation? How do you plan to focus on God?
3. Choose a devotional reading to share. One possibility is “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” Psalm 51:10-12 (NRSV)

   Psalm 51 is described as a prayer for cleansing and forgiveness. Why is forgiveness important? What does having a clean heart mean to you?

4. Consider adding a service opportunity during the 40 days of Lent. It may be for a sick or dependent neighbor. Or do something for the neighborhood like picking up trash or planting a tree.

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Lent Begins March 2 with Ash Wednesday

Lent is a 40 day Christian festival beginning Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter (Sundays are not counted).  The 40 day fast of Jesus in the wilderness was responsible for the number 40 being chosen .  It was said by Athanasius in 339 AD to be celebrated the world over.

The word “Lent” comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word lengten, which means “springtime,” named so for the time of the year in which it occurs.   The five Lenten Sundays are followed by the Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday, which begins Holy Week, when we relive the events of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death.

What we now call Lent was originally a period of fasting and study for catechumens who were to be baptized on the Saturday before Easter.  The purpose of this extended fast was to practice self-denial and humility. This was to prepare oneself for receiving God’s grace and forgiveness in baptism, given on Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday.

Lent is:

• A time for looking at the things we do that are wrong or that tempt us, asking God’s and other people’s forgiveness;

• A time for giving up things that keep us from being loving people;

• A time for doing extra things that will help us grow closer to God;

• A time to be more aware of what it means to love as God loves us;

• A time to ask God to help us to be more loving, remembering
that God is always ready to strengthen us.

• A time to let go of our normal routine, try a new spiritual practice, to step out of our box, to reflect on ourselves, to reflect on a relationship with God. It can be a very creative time. At a later time these practices may help us endure trying of challenging times. Lent gives us a chance to practice facing our fears, journeying in the wilderness, confronting the dangers and difficulties we find there, and reaching out for Jesus’ hand the entire trip.

"The forty days of Lent serve as a time for Christians to return to the Sacred Presence, to the God who has never left us, even though at times we have been far away. Lent is a time to renew classic disciplines of prayer and reflection, as well as ancient practices such as fasting and Bible study. All of this is designed to renew a right spirit within us and to prepare us for the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter." ‐The Rev. Gary Jones, St. Stephens, Richmond

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The Call to A Holy Lent

“Our liturgy directly invites us into a holy season of specific practices aimed at helping us reconnect with God in preparation for the celebration of Easter. “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 265)

A. By self-examination. This means setting aside time to intentionally reflect upon one’s thoughts and actions, acknowledging the ways in which we fall short of God’s goodness and love.

B. By repentance. To repent means to have “a change of heart” and to “turn around” from actions and attitudes contrary to God’s will. This means honestly confessing our sins to God and receiving his forgiveness.

C. By prayer. This calls us to take part in the Church’s corporate acts of worship as well as the setting aside of time for personal prayer.

D. By fasting. To fast is to abstain from certain foods or all food for a period of time. Fasting separates you from the distractions of this world and it brings us into a closer union with God. It allows us to hear God better and fully rely upon Him.

E. By self-denial. Denying oneself in Lent means giving up certain luxuries, even legitimate pleasures, in order to focus oneself spiritually.

F. By reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. In Lent, believers are especially called to read and reflect on Scripture in a daily way.

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Lent at St. Peter’s 2022

Information about Lent, 7 Lenten Practices, Events, Christian Ed in 2022 and 2021 during Lent, Special topic including web resources, family activities in Lent, Lenten Prayers and music as well as giving to the Endowment Fund during Lent.

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Ash Wednesday, March 2, 7pm service at St. Peter’s

We impose ashes at this service. Although the imposition of ashes is not a sacrament like baptism or the Eucharist, receiving ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday is a valuable reminder of several things. Receiving ashes reminds us that we are created from the earth, and that God’s grace gives us life. Our life is linked to the earth from which we were created.

Receiving ashes reminds us that we are connected the rest of humanity and to all living things. We are ALL made from the earth. We ALL dwell in skin, bone, blood, and cartilage. And we will return to the earth at the end of our lives here on earth. Ashes on our forehead remind us to sit with our own mortality, an important exercise in humility.

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Conversation about Ash Wednesday

Two priests from All Saints Episcopal Church in Frederick Maryland discuss the Ash Wednesday experience. (click the picture)

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Art for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent

Art expresses the key themes of the season – conflict between secular and religious, the forces of temptation and selfishness affecting all of us, the importance of retreat, repentance, and conversion in this season. We have three pieces of art thanks to the Loyola press

1. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” 1559

Sometimes when the spiritual and the secular clash, we can see the hand of God at work. In Pieter Brueghel’s The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, there is a clash of contrasts happening in this 16th-century Dutch village. Near the center of the hustle and bustle a curious pair is ready to spar: “Carnival,” represented by a well-endowed man riding a barrel, wears a meat-pie hat and is ready for action with a spear loaded with roasted pork. “Lent” faces him, personified by a clear-eyed but gaunt woman on a spare cart, wearing a beehive and holding out two fish on a peel. She is surrounded by loaves, pretzels, and a basket of mussels.

See for two more pieces of Ash Wednesday art

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Voices of Lent

1.  Desmond Tutu   from In God’s Hands

And humans were given dominion over all creation. That is why we were created to be God’s viceroys, to be God’s stand ins. We should love, we should bear rule over the rest of creation as God would. We are meant to be caring in how we deal with the rest of God’s creation. God wants everything to flourish. It gives us a huge responsibility – that we should not ravish and waste the natural resources which God places at our disposal for our wellbeing. 

 2. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Lenten Message

Clarence Jorden of the Koinonia Movement many years ago wrote this:
Jesus founded the most revolutionary movement in human history, a movement built on the unconditional love of God for the world, and the mandate to those who follow to live that love.

The season of Lent is upon us. It is a season of making a renewed commitment to participate and be a part of the movement of Jesus in this world. You can see some of that in the Gospel lesson for the first Sunday of Lent where Luke says that after the Baptism of Jesus he went into the wilderness, there to be tempted of Satan.

After the Baptism. Baptism is the sacrament of commitment to the Jesus Movement. It is to be washed, if you will, in the love and the reality of God, and to emerge from that great washing as one whose life is dedicated to living that love in the world.

In this season of Lent, we take some time to focus on what that means for our lives, whether it is as simple as giving up chocolate candy or as profound as taking on a commitment to serve the poor or to serve others in some new way. Whatever it is, let that something be something that helps you participate in the movement of God’s love in this world following in the footsteps of Jesus.

And the truth is, the fact that Jesus was baptized and began that movement in the world and immediately found himself tempted by the devil is an ever-present reminder that this movement is not without struggle. It is not easy. The truth is, this movement is difficult. It’s hard work. It’s work of following Jesus to the cross. And it’s work of following Jesus through the cross to the Resurrection. To new life. And new possibility. That is our calling. That is the work of the movement. To help this world move from what is often the nightmare of the world itself into the dream that God intends.

So I pray that this Lent, as they used to say many years ago, might be the first day of the rest of your life. It might be a new day for this world.

Read more voices…

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Lectionary, March 6, 2022, First Sunday in Lent

I. Theme – Developing strength and hope in the face of temptation and evil

“ Christ in the Desert ” – Nikolas Kramskoy (1872)

“After his baptism, 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

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm – Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Epistle – Romans 10:8b-13
Gospel – Luke 4:1-13     

Today’s readings offer strength and hope in the face of temptation and evil. Deuteronomy recalls God’s great deliverance and encourages Israel to depend solely on God. Paul declares that salvation comes to those who call on Jesus as lord. In today’s gospel, Jesus trusts solely in God and thus defeats the temptations presented by the devil

Lent begins as a journey to the cross, a journey of repentance and self-denial, a journey of serving others. We are also reminded that our ancestors were sojourners, that we are called not only to seek forgiveness but to forgive and reconcile with others, and that we have faith in the same God, the same Christ, and when we are seeking God, we are seeking relationship with each other. The journey reminds us that we are in this together, pilgrims to the cross, where we put to death what has separated us from God and live in the hope of resurrection.

The journey begins with where we are now and that we are the beloved of God. This week, focus on our most basic routines: eating, drinking, and washing. Try a new pattern of life for a day, a week, or the whole Lenten season. For example, adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet, with every bite reducing suffering and caring for creation. Or, whenever you wash your face, your body, the dishes – whenever you encounter water, intentionally recall the waters of baptism. Remember Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, and hear again God’s voice proclaiming the truth of the Gospel to you: “You are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

We are not alone in facing life’s challenges as Jesus was in Luke. Although we might raise the question about how the indigenous Canaanites felt about the coming of the Hebrews, the key element of this passage is its affirmation that God hears, responds, and acts. God is influenced by our cries of anguish – God hears the cries of the poor, oppressed, and vulnerable. God is present in the soup kitchen, the unemployment line, and the bedside. God does not control the outcome of our quests for wholeness, but is a factor in bringing about moments of comfort, possibilities of change, and the movements of liberation and affirmation.

Jesus Christ, our Champion against the devil, endures and overcomes “every temptation” (Luke 4:13) on our behalf. He worships the Lord, His God, and serves Him only by trusting the Word of His Father: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Jesus’ victory is now ours through His gracious Word, which is not far away but near us — in our mouth and in our heart, in the proclamation of repentance and faith

Read more…

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Arts and Faith – Lent 1, Year C

The scene below of the temptation of Christ comes from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a 15th-century book of hours, or personal devotional book created especially for Duke Jean de Berry. The book offered meditations based on the time of day, as well as the feasts and seasons of the liturgical calendar. As the Latin text on the bottom tells us, this scene comes from the Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent.

Read more…

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