Welcome to our online worship resources for the second Sunday in Lent, which we provide for anyone who can’t be with us in person. The scripture readings are those appointed for this Sunday, and most of the hymns were recorded by our talented music director and her youth intern, Rhonda Stanton and Zoe Pouliot, during the Covid lockdown.
Lent is a unique season in the church year, a time when we attend to spiritual housekeeping, as it were, ahead of celebrating the the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ at Easter. It’s also an excellent time to revisit the foundations of our faith. We invite you to consider Lent as a journey towards the sacred.
On Fridays at noon, members and visitors are invited to come and walk the Stations of the Cross, led by Pat Woods. In this traditional and meaningful Lenten devotion, we retrace Jesus’s last days on earth, the better to understand and prepare for his triumphant resurrection.
Children’s Resources for Lent
The Second Sunday in Lent
Children’s Lesson: Godly Play Story of the Week
Opening Hymn: 401 The God of Abraham Praise
1 The God of Abraham praise,
who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days,
and God of love;
the Lord, the great I AM,
by earth and heaven confessed:
we bow and bless the sacred Name
for ever blest.
2 He by himself hath sworn:
we on his oath depend;
we shall, on eagles-wings upborne,
to heaven ascend:
we shall behold his face,
we shall his power adore,
and sing the wonders of his grace
for evermore.
3 There dwells the Lord, our King,
the Lord, our Righteousness,
triumphant o’er the world and sin,
the Prince of Peace;
on Zion’s sacred height
his kingdom he maintains,
and, glorious with his saints in light,
for ever reigns.
4 The God who reigns on high
the great archangels sing,
and “Holy, holy, holy,” cry,
“Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same,
and evermore shall be:
eternal Father, great I AM,
we worship thee.”
5 The whole triumphant host
give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”
they ever cry;
hail, Abraham’s Lord divine!
With heaven our songs we raise;
all might and majesty are thine,
and endless praise.
Kyrie S-91
The Collect
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament Reading
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
The Psalm
Psalm 22:22-30
22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them; *
but when they cry to him he hears them.
24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.
25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
“May your heart live for ever!”
26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.
28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.
29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the Lord’S for ever.
30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.
The Epistle
Romans 4:13-25
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
Gospel Hymn: 675 Take up your cross
1. Take up your cross, the Savior said
If you would my disciple be
Take up your cross with willing heart
And humbly follow after me.
2. Take up your cross, let not its weight
Fill your weak spirit with alarm
His strength shall bear your spirit up
And brace your heart, and nerve your arm.
3. Take up your cross, heed not the shame
And let your foolish heart be still
The Lord for you accepted death
Upon a cross, on Calvary’s hill.
4. Take up your cross, then, in his strength
And calmly every danger brave
It guides you to abundant life
And leads to victory o’er the grave.
5. Take up your cross and follow Christ
Nor think, ’til death, to lay it down
For only those who bear the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.
The Gospel
Mark 8:31-38
Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The Sermon
Closing Hymn: 688 A Mighty Fortress is our God
1 A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing:
for still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
2 Did we in our strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God’s own choosing:
dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabbaoth, his Name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.
3 And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us;
the prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure,
one little word shall fell him.
4 That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth:
let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
his kingdom is forever.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.