This worship moment curated by Eric Herron.

Description:

The following is a prayer station to be used during the season of Lent. It uses scripture, eggs, a poem, and a photo to aid the worshiper’s confession of sin. This “moment” begins with a set-up presented by one leader to the entire gathered group. It then transitions to individual reflection and prayer at stations set up around the meeting space.

Materials Needed:

• A slide of Psalm 51:1-3, projected on a large main screen in the space.
• 8.5 x 11 sheets (two per station) with activity directions printed clearly on them.
• 8 Eggs. Two of each variety: raw, rotten, hard-boiled, plastic. Use an egg carton to display them. (See also: How to make a rotten egg.)
• Provide an additional bowl filled with raw eggs (one egg for each worshiper present).
• Another bowl into which raw eggs may be dropped.
• Towels for cleaning hands.
• “Imagine” a poem by Debra Avery posted on the wall behind the station and printed in a large enough font to be easily read by participants. (Poem is available at the end of this post.)
• A laptop displaying the photograph “Eggs en Masse” by Teresa Mihalko Harbert full-screen. (Photo is available at the end of this post.)
• Small strips of paper (one for each participant) with 2 Corinthians 5:17 printed on them: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (NRSV)

Set-Up:

• Set up tables around the room against the walls. The larger the tables, the more participants can engage each station at once.
• Cover the tables with black table-cloths or sheets. Arrange on each table from left to right: the printed station directions, the egg carton with different types of eggs in it, the bowl with raw eggs in it, the bowl for dropping eggs, the towel(s), the laptop with the photo “Eggs en Masse,” and the strips of paper with 2 Corinthians 5:17 printed on them.
• Print out the poem “Imagine” in a large font and hang it in plain view, on the wall behind the station table.

Script: (optional)

Leader:
[In front of the assembled group, a leader reads or paraphrases this introduction, setting up the station exercise that follows.]

An egg. For much of society, it has become a Springtime symbol of consumerism and candy. We dye eggs with our Paas kits. We place them neatly in baskets lined with plastic grass, along with marshmallow Peeps and chocolate bunnys and maybe even some other small gifts our children would be excited to find on Easter morning. Or, we hide (“hide” is maybe too strong-a-word) plastic, candy-filled eggs and watch our little ones rush about, trying to find as many as they can before the others do.

In pre-Christian Roman times, “omne vivum ex ovo” (“all life comes from the egg”) was a popular sentiment. Springtime eggs produced by fertile chickens represented new life after a cold and barren winter.

Early Roman Christians also associated eggs with new life – and resurrection. The miraculous transformation from an egg to a chick is indeed an apt illustration of resurrection from the dead. Suddenly, from a seemingly inert and lifeless egg, emerges a busy little chick, eager to grow and produce new life of her own.

But eggs can also be an illustration of something else; another important spiritual reality. Eggs can symbolize our fragility. Why else would so many junior high students explore beginning engineering skills in ‘egg drop competitions’? Alternatively, eggs that have been kept around too long are symbols of things that turn horribly rotten without proper attention. And what of our plastic Easter eggs? Could these represent our stubborn refusal to acknowledge our potential for brokenness? Or, the ‘plastic faces’ we wear to disguise what is hidden inside our hearts?

In this season of Lent, we are called to re-examine ourselves, re-orient ourselves. We are called to willfully place the broken pieces of our lives before God – and invite him to restore that which sin has shattered. We are called to repentance.

Psalm 51:1-3 is one passage that prompts our confession and leads us in repentance. Let’s read it aloud together:

Congregation:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Leader:
As you feel ready, rise from your seat and attend to one of the stations set up around the room. You are invited now to participate in the worship experience presented there.

Station Directions:
To be printed and made available at each station.

1. Notice the different kinds of eggs on the table. Pick them up, one by one. Examine them. As you handle each egg, pray this aloud: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” (Psalm 51:3)
2. Think of your sin in this moment. Reflect on your “transgressions” and mentally “place them before you.” Call to mind the last action or attitude your remember that is dissonant with who you are in Christ. Was it yesterday? Today? Last hour? Did you harm someone else with your words? Did you lust after another or another’s possessions in your heart? Did you allow your sorrow to turn into self-destructive behavior? Something else?
3. Choose the egg that best represents you in this moment as you have visualized your sins. Do you feel: Fragile? Rotten? Hardened? Plastic?
4. Now, pick up a raw egg from the bowl. Hold it up high, above your head, and drop it into the other bowl on the table. Look at the cracked shell. Notice the mess.
5. In a prayer of confession, admit your brokeness to the LORD, pray something like: “I am fragile. In my sin, I have been broken. My life is in pieces before you, Oh God.”
6. Pick up and hold some pieces of egg-shell in your hands. As you hold these pieces, meditate on the poem posted on the wall called “Imagine”.
7. In a prayer of gratitude, thank the LORD for his hands that strengthen us in our weakness and restore us in our brokenness.
8. Finally, observe the photo on the laptop. Ask yourself: What do these eggs say about God’s forgiveness and my restoration?
9. Pick up a strip of paper and read the verse that is printed on it: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV)
10. Take this verse with you and meditate on it every morning for the remainder of the Lenten season.

Imagine by Debra Avery

Imagine
The hands of God
Cradling
Holding
Relishing the beauty of her creation.
The scars,
the bumps,
the open wounds
the bits and pieces of shattered dreams,
of fragmented existence
Notwithstanding.

Imagine
The hands of God
Salvaging
Re-creating
Redeeming
the wreckage
the mess
the broken
the pain-filled and pitiful creatures
Unconditionally.

Imagine
The hands of God
In the evening.
In the morning.
It is good.

© Debra Avery