The Lenten season offers musicians myriad resources for solos, ensembles, and choirs. Since this series is focused on embracing the Resurrected One with a whole heart, we will look at hymns and modern songs that point us in that direction. Lent gives us space to clean house and to receive the one we call Lord. And, although Lent can be an intense time as we lean into some of the more somber moments of Jesus’ life, we must also hold in counterpoint the joy and hope that our congregations need to hear on the journey. During Lent, we have the opportunity to claim the life that Christ teaches and lives out before us. As you plan music for your worship services, find the tension between what is and the promise of what will be.

Ash Wednesday – Yet Even Now

February 17, 2021 – Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

The reading from Joel reminds us that we should rend our hearts and not our garments. Make it real. Make it visceral. As we begin the journey into Lent with Ash Wednesday, here are some hymns that work well for this service setting the stage for what is to come.

“Lord, Who Throughout these Forty Days,” The United Methodist Hymnal, 269
“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” The United Methodist Hymnal, 121
“Dust and Ashes,” Worship & Song, 3098

Based on Psalm 51, the traditional psalm reading for Ash Wednesday, “Give Me a Clean Heart” is a song for modern worship. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_NaVTpWIOI.