MAR 30, 2022 LCR Evening Prayer

The Journey Out: Women who have guided us in the wilderness March 30, 2022 - 7 PM Lent 2022 – Wednesday Worship – 7 PM April 6

The Journey Beyond: Moving Forward

Holy Week Worship Sunday, April 10 9, 11 am

Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion

Thursday, April 14 12 noon, 7 pm

Maundy Thursday

Friday, April 15 12 noon

Jesus’ Last Words from the Cross

7 pm

Choral Tenebrae with folk hymns and spirituals

Saturday, April 16 10 am

Family Easter Celebration

7 pm

The Great Vigil of Easter

Sunday, April 17

The Resurrection of Our Lord

7, 8:30, 11:30 am

Easter worship with Organ and Brass

10 am

Easter worship with Jazz Trio

Standing Invocation of the Holy Spirit / Procession of Fire and Water Hymn

All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down Sing when invited.

Thanksgiving for Baptism Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God, the fountain of living water, the rock who gave us birth, our light and our salvation. | Amen.

A reading from the Psalms: The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is upon the mighty waters. O LORD, give strength to your people; give them, O LORD, the blessings of peace. (Psalm 29:3, 11) Joined to Christ in the waters of baptism, we are clothed with God’s mercy and forgiveness. Let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.

We give you thanks, holy and gracious God, for you created the waters of the earth: wide oceans, rushing streams, clear lakes, mighty rivers.

For the Chattahoochee River which brings life to this land, the traditional homeland of the Muscogee People.

You led your people through the sea and called them to life in covenant with you. Your Son was baptized in the river Jordan to begin his mission among us. You pour out your Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth.

Through this water remind us of the gift of baptism.

Renew us in your promise so that we may serve this world in all its need; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. | Amen.

Almighty God, who gives us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit and forgives us all our sins, strengthen us in all goodness and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. | Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Seated A period of silence will be kept, ending with the music of Hildegard.

Reading

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Born in 1098, Hildegard of Bingen composed music and dramas for her nuns to perform. She wrote poetry, as well as medical treatises offering remedies using plants and herbs. She traveled up and down the Rhine on a preaching tour during the latter years of her life—unheard of for a woman at that time (perhaps for our own time too). Men in power sought her counsel, including royals, clergy, even the Pope. her active life emerged from a deeply contemplative, deeply humble relationship with God. From the age of three, Hildegard experienced rich visions in which the cosmos showed forth God’s love and fidelity, a sign of the Creator’s relationship to his creatures. Unsure of their origin, Hildegard was reluctant to share her visions until she received a command from God: “Write down what you see and hear.”

On worship, she wrote: Be not lax in celebrating. Be not lazy in the festive service of God. Be ablaze with enthusiasm. Let us be an alive, burning offering before the altar of God. On the environment, she wrote: The truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly. Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings. Now, think. What delight God gives to humankind with all these things... All nature is at the disposal of humankind. We are to work with it. For without we cannot survive.

On herself, she wrote: Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God. Reading

Julian of Norwich (1343-1416)

Around 250 years later, a girl we know as Julian was born in Norwich, England, where she lived through the plague of the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt. When she was 30 and so seriously ill she thought she was on her deathbed, Julian received a series of visions of the Passion of Christ. She recovered from her illness and lived in permanent seclusion, writing about her experiences anonymously, seeking isolation from the world, but influential as a Christian theologian and spiritual authority in her community. She devoted her life to prayer, complementing the work of the priests of the church.

In March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the experiences of Julian were offered by one writer as advice for people around the world newly discovering self-isolation. "Julian was living in the wake of the Black Death, and around her repeated plagues were re-decimating an already depleted population. I think she was self-isolating. She would have understood that by removing themselves from life this would not only give them a chance of preserving their own life but also of finding calm and quiet and focus in a chaotic world.”

On being a woman, she wrote: But for I am a woman should I therefore live that I should not tell you the goodness of God? / As truly as God is our Father, so truly God is our Mother. / Our life is all grounded and rooted in love, and without love we may not live. / For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it.

On prayer, she wrote: Pray, even if you feel nothing, see nothing. For when you are dry, empty, sick or weak, at such a time is your prayer most pleasing to God, even though you may find little joy in it. This is true of all believing prayer. / Prayer is the deliberate and persevering action of the soul. It is true and enduring, and full of grace. Prayer fastens the soul to God and makes it one with God's will.

On worship, Julian wrote: Be a Gardener. Dig a ditch. Toil and sweat.

And turn the earth upside down. And seek the deepness. And water plants in time. Continue this labor. And make sweet floods to run, and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink, and carry it to God as your true worship.

On difficult times, she wrote: [Jesus] did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted, but he did said: You will not be overcome.’ / All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

Reading

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826.

After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying the hope that was in her. Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title "Ain't I a Woman?", a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect, whereas Sojourner Truth was from New York and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language.

This is one version of what she said in 1851: Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a

man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [a member of audience whispered, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!

Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

A period of silence will be kept, ending with the introduction to the song.

Seated Annunciation & Magnificat from Holden Evening Prayer Luke 1:46-55 An angel went from God to a town called Nazareth to a woman whose name was Mary. The angel said to her, “Rejoice, O highly favored, for God is with you. You shall bear a child, and his name shall be Jesus, the Chosen One of God Most High.” And Mary said, “I am the servant of my God, I live to do your will.”

-6-

A period of silence will be kept, ending with the sound of bells.

Reflection

Pastor Jenny McLellan

Seated A period of silence will be kept, ending with the introduction to the song.

This is to mother you

Sinéad O'Connor This is to mother you, | To comfort you and get you through; | Through when your nights are lonely, | Through when your dreams are only blue; | This is to mother you.

This is to be with you, | To hold you and to kiss you, too. |For when you need me, I will do | What your own mother didn't do, | Which is to mother you.

All the pain that you have known, | All the violence in your soul, | All the wrong things you have done, | I will take from you when I come.

All mistakes made in distress, | All of your unhappiness, | I will take away with my kiss, yes, | I will give you tenderness.

For child I am so glad I found you; | Although my arms have always been around you, | Sweet bird, although you did not see me, | I saw you.

I'm here to mother you, | To comfort you and get you through; | Through when your nights are lonely, | Through when your dreams are only blue; | This is to mother you.

Seated A period of silence will be kept, ending with the introduction to the song.

Kneeling or seated Prayer

©1991 by Shawn Kirchner Publishing. Permission is granted for all use of this piece.

Lord’s Prayer

Standing Blessing

Peace

The greeting of peace may be shared by all.