Worship and Devotions

Worship Through the Senses - Lent 2025

During the coming weeks we will explore the embodied God through our senses: sight, sound, scent, touch and taste. Our first week's devotions touch on all of them and succeeding weeks explore them separately.

Notes:

Each week's devotions go from Wednesday to Sunday to Tuesday beginning with Ash Wednesday
Each day's devotions begin with the gathering litany and end with a blessing. (See below) You may choose to light a candle each day, either wax or battery operated.
Each day listen to/sing one of the hymns noting the ways in which the words refer to our senses; read the lesson for the week out loud again and then carry out one of the suggested meditations for the week. Please note that you may not be able or willing to do some of the meditations due to allergies or for other reasons. Just do those you feel able to do.
If you have family with you, do the devotions together.

Gathering Litany

For these forty days, we journey with Jesus down the Lenten path. We seek to experience the ways Christ's embodied life demonstrates God's love for us. We come with hearts ready to learn.

We hear stories of Jesus' life and of God's people, because they teach us how God calls us to live in the world. We come to learn from the stories of God's ancient people, Christ's life, and the church.

We engage through our senses with the power and mystery of the world God made, because this exploration calls us into wonder. We come to learn through the gifts of our senses.

We light candles to remind each other of the fulness of Christ's presence with us in our world. We come to learn how to better see and reflect the light of Christ.

We pray as Jesus taught us and go back into daily life with a deeper connection to the life and love of Jesus. We come to learn how to live more fully in the embodied image of God.

Blessing

May the Creator God, who made us whole, bless us in body and in spirit now and forever. Be open to the presence of Christ all around you. Amen

Week Four - March 26-30-April 1 - SCENT

God incarnate, you have given us a sense of smell to breathe in awareness of the world around us and to connect with our own memories. Open our minds and our hearts to receive the gifts you have for us, and teach us to share these gifts with the world. Amen.

Music

Holden Evening Prayer - Let My Prayer Rise Up

O Living Breath of God - ELW 407

As the Winter Days Grow Longer - YouTube

Reading for the Journey of Lent: John 12:1-8

As we listen to the story of a gift of love and preparation, notice the description of how the scent of the perfume fills the room. Consider how this sensory description underlays and amplifies the heavy emotions at play in this scene.

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. ³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus's feet, and wiped them^[^a^] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it^[^b^] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

Meditations

God gave us a sense of smell to perceive the world around us. Our senses are open for the lessons God provides.

Lighting Prayer Candles

If you are not sensitive/allergic to scented candles, light them and meditate on your prayers rising on the smoke of the flame.

Building a Scent Bouquet

Gather various flowers with differing scents, or go outside to smell them in place. How might these flowers represent the prayers of all believers?

Anointing With Oil

Anoint your forehead with oil in remembrance of your baptism or as you pray for healing. Be strengthened in God's grace, be comforted and accompanied by Jesus our Great Physician, and be confident in the healing power of the Spirit. If others are doing these devotions with you, you can anoint one another and pray for each other's healing.

Scents and Associations

Gather four to six everyday items with strong scents and place them on different pieces of paper. As you sniff each one, write down a word or phrase you associate with each scent. This exercise is one that could be shared with other people.

Music

Breathe On Me Breath Of God (lyrics) - Edwin Hatch

Holy Woman, Graceful Giver ACS 1002

He Comes to Us as One Unkown - ELW 737