March 2015
St. Mark’s News Volume 19/Issue 3
From the Rector In last month’s Newsletter Nate+ wrote about sin. He reminded us that, “The most basic sense of sin in Scripture is to ‘miss the mark.’ We do not sin because we are bad. What we do is called sin because it is not true to who we are.” He went on to say that the liturgical season of Lent in which we now find ourselves is a penitential season: a season for repenting of our sins. This season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday. The liturgy for Ash Wednesday is a service of acknowledging and repenting of our sins. In the Invitation to the Observance of a Holy Lent we were reminded that during the season of Lent those people who were “guilty In this Issue of notorious sins” were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness. We were reminded of the need we all have to hear the message of pardon From the Assistant Rector ......... 1 and absolution. On Ash Wednesday we prayed together the 51st Psalm Vestry Highlights ........................ 2 Holy Week Schedule ................. 3 in which the psalmist asks for God’s mercy and compassion, and in Parish Life.................................. 4 which he asks that God might create in him a clean heart. And in the Outreach .................................... 6 Litany of Penitence we acknowledged ways in which we have sinned: Christian Formation ................... 6 we have not loved God with our whole heart, mind and strength nor our Adult Formation ......................... 8 neighbors as ourselves; we have not served others as Christ served us; Parishioner Highlights ................ 8 we have had intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts; and we Celebrations ............................ 10 have been negligent in prayer and worship. But in addition to this ROTA....................................... 11 reminder that Lent is a season for repenting of our sins, it is also a season for remembering that God pardons and absolves us of those sins. Nate+ reminded us that sin is transformative in a negative way – when we sin we “slowly change ourselves over time” because “sinful habits become sinful dispositions.” But forgiveness is transformative as well. As we approach Good Friday and the cross we are invited to remember that Christ died so that we might be forgiven. And in the Litany of Penitence we are reminded that we are meant to forgive others, as God has forgiven us. One of the hymns we sing during the season of Lent is a poem written by John Donne: Wilt thou forgive that sin, where I begun, which is my sin, though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run, and do run still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, for I have more. Wilt thou forgive that sin, by which I won others to sin, and made my sin their door? Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun a year or two, but wallowed in a score? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, for I have more.
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