Lenten Devotional for February 29

I am a little fellow,
      Though I’m always up to date.
The days I hold within my hand are only twenty-eight;
      But I just save my moments up,
      And count them o’er and o’er,
Till in four years I’ve saved enough to make up one day more.
But little folks that kindly are, and pleasant in their play,
May save enough in far less time to make a happy day.

Pauline Frances Camp, “February,” in St. Nicholas, 

February 1906

Sew What!

What a wonderful time we had today at Sew What! Thanks to Suzanne P. for her hospitality. 

Sew What gathers on the fourth Friday of each month. March 27th will be our next gathering. You don't have to sew to enjoy the fellowship and the fun!

Paid time to care

Paid family and medical leave offers stability to families and supports a living wage for all. Eight states and the District of Columbia have already passed bills that will bring paid leave to millions of people. Join the campaign to provide paid family and medical leave for all.

Read more at this link.

Lenten Devotional for February 28

Note: Each Friday during Lent, one of the Seven Penitential Psalms will be offered. The penitential designation of these Psalms dates from the seventh century.

Psalm 6 (NKJV)

¹O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. 
² Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O Lord—how long?

⁴ Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks?

⁶ I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
⁹ The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer.
¹⁰ Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.

Free resource from Yale Divinity School

Here is a free resource to aid in your faith formation! Whether done in a small group or on your own, this is a fabulous gift to the church! Visit this link from the Yale Divinity School to get started today!!

Today's the day!

The first matchup is the 2020 bracket is Sir Thomas More vs. James the Less!

Check out the 2020 bracket, and then go to Lent Madness every day of Lent to keep up with your favorite saint. Clicking on the bracket will bring up a larger, up-to-date, printable one, or you can download a blank PDF. 

Want to know when your favorite saint will be competing in the Lent Dome? Check out the 2020 bracket calendar. You can also go to the Bracket page and scroll down to find a printable pdf, suitable for framing. 

Lenten Devotional for February 27

“I imagine Lent for you and for me as a great departure from the greedy, anxious antineighborliness of our economy, great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. And then an arrival in a new neighborhood, because it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free; it is a gift to come down where we ought to be.”

Walter Brueggemann, A Way Other Than Our Own: Devotions for Lent

Ash Wednesday at St. Paul's

The season of Lent began this evening at St. Paul's with a moving Ash Wednesday worship service.

From the service:

"O God, maker of every thing and judge of all that You have made, from the dust of the earth You have formed us and from the dust of the earth You would raise us up. By the redemptive power of the cross, create in us clean hearts and put within us a new spirit, that we may repent of our sins and lead lived worthy of Your calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Dr. Laurence Hull Stookey, The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), #353

(Dr. Stookey was a professor of Pastor Charles at Wesley Theological Seminary)

Thanks this evening: Belinda Alkula (Video), Lorie Courier (Accompanist), and Dennis Hult (Liturgist) for their participation in tonight's worship service.

Wednesday with the Wesleys

"It’s #WesleyWednesday and today we have the original Housekeeper's Sink from the New Room Museum. This was the sink used by the Housekeeper of the New Room, Sarah Perrin, and was appointed for the role of Housekeeper by John Wesley in 1743.

If you'd like to find out more about our collection, come along on one of our popular museum tours! Find out more about our tours and book your tickets online here: https://bit.ly/2Heha8Y."

Devotional for Ash Wednesday

Note: Our devotional will be posted here and on our Facebook page each morning during Lent, concluding on Easter morning.

​O my all-merciful God and Lord, Jesus Christ, full of pity: Through Your great love You came down and became incarnate in order to save everyone. O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace! If You save anyone because of their works, that would not be grace but only reward of duty, but You are compassionate and full of mercy! You said, O my Christ, "Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die." If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me, O my God and Creator, for I believe.

Let faith and not my unworthy works be counted to me, O my 
God, for You will find no works which could account me
righteous. O Lord, from now on let me love You as intensely 
as I have loved sin, and work for You as hard as I once worked
for the evil one. I promise that I will work to do Your will, my
Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life and forever
more. Amen.

St. John Chrysostom
(c. 349 – 407, Archbishop of Constantinople)

The beginning of the Lenten journey: Invitation

Today marks the beginning of the church's journey toward Easter. The significance of this time in the church's life is stated clearly and well in the "Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline" in the Ash Wednesday liturgy found in The United Methodist Book of Worship, #322

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: The early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to  observe a holy Lent:
   by self-examination and repentance;
   by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; 
   and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word.”

The beginning of the Lenten journey: Holy Club Questions

Engraving of a meeting of the Holy Club

These are the 22 questions the members of the Oxford Holy Club (begun by Charles Wesley) asked themselves every day in their private devotions more than 250 years ago. They are presented here to help guide your Lenten pilgrimage:

-Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
-Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

-Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?

-Can I be trusted?

-Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

     -Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

-Did the Bible live in me today?

-Do I give it time to speak to me every day?

-Am I enjoying prayer?

-When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

-Do I pray about the money I spend?

-Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

-Do I disobey God in anything?

-Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

-Am I defeated in any part of my life?

-Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

-How do I spend my spare time?

-Am I proud?

-Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

-Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it.
-Do I grumble or complain constantly?

-Is Christ real to me?

Are you ready for Lent?

We invite you to take a short quiz to test your knowledge of the season of Lent. Be sure to share the link with friends so you can compare scores later.

THE place to be on Wednesday!

This week @ St. Paul's

Monday:
9:00 am, Yoga with Rebecca

Tuesday:
7:00 pm, Insight Meditation

Wednesday: ASH WEDNESDAY

3:00 pm, STEMrev @ Columbine Elementary
6:15 pm, A.A.

6:30 pm, Ash Wednesday worship service

7:30 pm, Choir

Friday:

10:00 am, Sew What @ Suzanne P.'s

Saturday: Leap Day!

Sunday:

8:30 am, Hand bell practice

8:45 am, Church school
10:15 am, Worship 
11:30 am, Fellowship

11:30 am, Trustees

12:30 pm, Beautiful Boulder Korean Church

Scripture lessons for March 1

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula - Brussels

We enter the Lenten Season on the first Sunday in Lent with two scripture lessons that feature the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday): John 12:12-15 and Mark 11:1-11.

Why would we celebrate Palm Sunday on the first Sunday of Lent? Because Holy Week is a sacred time for Christians everywhere; but the week passes by so quickly that we don’t have the time to reflect deeply on what it means. Instead of cramming our reflection time into one schedule-packed week of special services, we are going to slow down and spend the entire season of Lent on the events that took place during Holy Week.

It just makes good sense that if Jesus' final week begins on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem that we begin there. Each week afterwards we will spend our time examining a day-by-day account of what Jesus did during His final week before His crucifixion and resurrection.

Ideas for Lent

The Season of Lent begins on Wednesday here at St. Paul's with the Ash Wednesday worship service (6:30 pm).

To help you in growing in your faith this season, we want to remind you of resources available to you:

Digital Lenten Devotional: The Mountain Sky Conference invites you to an on-line devotional each morning starting at 6:30 am for a twenty minute worship. Details may be found here.

St. Paul's UMC Lenten Devotional: Pastor Charles has collected a variety of readings, prayers, scripture lessons, and more to aid in your Lenten reflections. Print copies are available at the church and there will be posts each day on our Facebook page, @boulderstpauls, and on this blog.

Lent Madness: Visit this link to take part in Lent Madness! This interactive Lenten experience begins on "Ash Thursday" (the day after Ash Wednesday).

Epiphany Season draws to a close

Early morning fellowship

Making our way to worship

Transfiguration Sunday

A joyous offering to the Lord

Fellowship time!

The Season after Epiphany draws to a close this week, on Tuesday, as we turn our focus to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Before we begin the Lenten journey, we paused today to remember the Transfiguration of the Lord.

The Lenten devotional booklets were passed out along with a battery operated candle to help us stay focused during the upcoming season of the church year. The devotional entries will also be available daily on this blog and on our Facebook page.

This morning, the choir shared "Healing River" for the anthem. Pastor Charles' sermon came from 2 Peter 1:16-21. Thanks this morning to: Belinda Alkula (Video), Angela Baker (Liturgist), Jerry Beaber & Austin Cooper (Ushers), Jessica Bishop (Nursery), Wally Cleaveland (Alpha & Omega / Saxophone), Pat Cleaveland (Fellowship), Tim Cook (Church school / trombone), Lorie Courier (Accompanist), Ben Glancy & Josie Glancy (Microphone wranglers), Scott Glancy (Youth class), Dennis & Marcia Hult (Fellowship), Sandra Jordan (Counter/Flowers), Molly Nunnery (Counter), Suzanne Polacek (Bells), Ron Revier (Choir), Polly Stowe (Flowers), and Christopher Wahl (Accompanist / Sound board). 

Collect for Transfiguration Sunday

Church of the Transfiguration - Mount Tabor, Israel

Father in heaven,

Whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured

before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,

and spoke of the exodus He would accomplish at Jerusalem:

give us strength so to hear His voice and bear our cross

that in the world to come we may see Him as He is;

who is alive and reigns with You,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

The Book of Common Prayer

Church of the Transfiguration - Mount Tabor, Israel