Sunday, February 18 – First Sunday in Lent

A rainbow arcs over the people and animals who have just disembarked from Noah's ark.
John August Swanson, The Rainbow

You can join the service, live or later, via YouTube.
The stream begins around 9:45, and the service begins at 10 am (EST). You’re able to watch or re-watch the stream on YouTube at any later time at the same link.

The order of service is available here.
You may want to have it handy while joining the stream The order of service includes the readings and responses, and the words to the hymns, to make it easier to join in participating via the live stream. It also includes prayers you may wish to use during the reception of the Eucharist.

Today is the First Sunday in Lent. The Nativity is running a program for younger folk on Sundays from today through Easter Day, called Tell Me the Stories of Jesus. The young people will join the priest at the steps for a prayer, and then will process out with a work of art depicting one or more of the parables they’ll be using. Today the service proper begins with the Great Litany in procession. This prayer to God is sung together as we process around the church–wrapping the whole community in prayer.

Sundays and Seasons offers this reflection on the readings of the day:
On Ash Wednesday the church began its journey toward baptismal immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ. This year, the Sundays in Lent lead us to focus on five covenants God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and to use them as lenses through which to view baptism. First Peter connects the way God saved Noah’s family in the flood with the way God saves us through the water of baptism. The baptismal covenant is made with us individually, but the new life we are given in baptism is for the sake of the whole world.


Our cover image is a painting entitled “Rainbow” by John August Swanson. The artist has granted permission for the non-commercial use of the image with attribution.
Swanson, John August. Rainbow, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56568 [retrieved February 17, 2024]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.