The Fourth Sunday of Lent is known as “Refreshment Sunday” or “Laetare Sunday,” laetare being Latin meaning “rejoice.” Traditionally things lightened up for this one Sunday of Lent and then went back into the lugubrious wilderness until Easter.

This Sunday we will certainly have refreshment and rejoicing, if you love beautiful scriptures and hymns. We have an all-star lineup. We begin with one of the most uplifting and reassuring Psalms, number 32, which has one great line after another. Read it slowly, pausing after each verse, and you will feel the power of it. We will follow that by singing the great poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s beloved hymn that starts, “Dear Lord and Father of mankind,/ Forgive our foolish ways./ Reclothe us in our rightful mind;/ In purer lives thy service find,/ In deeper reverence praise.”

That is the theme of the day: God forgiving our former ways, restoring us to our rightful mind and accepting us in the beloved community of the church to serve and worship. It starts in the Psalm and continues in the other two scriptures, the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, and that great passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (5:16-21)

We will sing the classic response to being saved and transformed by God, Amazing Grace. We will also sing a communion hymn that deserves to be better known, Bread of the World, in Mercy Broken, set to a tune attributed to the same composer who wrote our Doxology, Louis Bourgeois, who is an extremely important figure in protestant hymn history. Listen to the youtube recording of the hymn below.

The choir will sing “If I Have Been the Source of Pain, O God,” from the New Century Hymnal, and Ralph Vaughan Williams communion classic, “O Taste and See.” John Atwood will play organ pieces by Frescobaldi, J.L. Krebs (a pupil of J.S. Bach) and Paulus Hofhaymer.

Here is the recording of the communion hymn we will be singing. It is clearest when she plays it the second time through, so be sure to listen at least that far.

This will be the Third Sunday in Lent.  Repentance appears in the Lectionary readings for the day.  That is a traditional Lenten theme, but one that has been widely misunderstood.  Repentance brings up images that focus on guilt, shame and suffering for our sins.  That could not be farther from what Jesus and Isaiah are calling us to experience!  (Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke13:1-9)  The word translated as repentance is metanoia in the Greek, which means to change our heart, mind and soul, to turn them in another direction.  As Isaiah puts it, it is to choose God’s higher thoughts and higher ways.

We cannot move higher if we are wallowing lower in our wretchedness!  Lent is hard, but not because we need to inflict self-denial and deprivation on ourselves.  It is hard because breaking our old habitual thoughts and ways and turning to God’s is hard.  Even admitting that we need to change challenges us to our core.  That is what happens in the Lenten wilderness, but the progression of the church year reminds us that after the wilderness and cross , after the letting go of our old thoughts and ways of life, comes the resurrection into new and greater life.  Lent is about transformation into our true self, which is God’s Spirit of love and life and light flowing through us as it flowed through Jesus.

This Sunday we will explore more about making this joyous transformation.  We will sing the hymn “They Did Not Build in Vain” set to the tune of “The God of Abraham Praise.”  We will also sing two old favorites, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” and  “I Would Be True.”  The choir will sing an Introit from the New Century Hymnal, “Each Winter as the Year Grows Older” with these words: “But I believe beyond believing, that life can spring from death;/That growth can flower from our grieving;/that we can catch our breath and turn transformed by faith.”  They will sing the Anthem, “Hear Thou My Prayer, O Lord,” by Jacques Arcadelt. John Atwood will play organ pieces by Pachelbel, J.C. Bach (J.S. Bach’s uncle) and Palestrina.

Have you seen Bradford’s Town Report? It’s dedicated this year to our own Joe Button, Chair of the church’s Board of Trustees! It is a very well-deserved recognition for his tireless effort and work on the church tower housing the town clock.