Hopes' Liturgy for Ash Wednesday 2019

Order of Worship

Ash Wednesday

March 6, 2019

Gathering Song:  “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” [G2G#418]

Call to Worship

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God? 

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly; gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy. 

Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord,   

and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,

“Where is their God?” ’ Joel 2:12-17

*Hymn: “This Is My Father’s World” 293

First Reading, Isaiah 58:1-14

Psalm: “The Sacrifice You Accept, O God” Psalm 51 196

Second Reading, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Gospel Reading, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

*The Apostles’ Creed P. 14 (Traditional)

Invitation to the Observance of the Lenten Discipline

In the world of ego-centric selfishness

the goal is acquisition.

But in God’s Realm

we strive to empty ourselves of ourselves,

and lose whatever separates us

from God and each other.

For Christ the Lord

empties himself in taking on our mortality

to dwell among us,

Even to the point of dying on a Roman cross

for blasphemy and sedition.

In the season of Lent

we symbolically journey with Christ

on the path of renunciation and divestment,

realizing how much we have to lose,

and that we have to lose it.

We begin our walk with the ancient sign of ashes.

Ashes are what we are reduced to

once the fire of life has gone out of us.

Ash is what this beautiful and holy Earth becomes

when our greed, lust, gluttony, and envy

have exhausted themselves.

Ash is the carbon,

the most basic building block of life,

the element of which we are all made.

So the sign of our death and destruction

is also the sign of our beginning and rebirth.

We wear ashes to remind is that we are nothing.

We wear ashes to remind us that out of nothing

God makes everything!

Responding to his own baptism,

the Lord Jesus himself fasted in the desert for forty days.

I invite you, therefore, in his name and after his example, 

to enter a time of self-examination, prayer, fasting, 

and reading and meditating on the Word of God, 

bearing fruit in works of love, peace, and justice.

Let us bow before God, our Creator and Redeemer, 

and confess how we fall short and veer wide

of of the goodness and truth

for which God creates us.

Litany of Penitence

O God,

you are the Light behind all lights,

the Life of all that lives,

and the Love that pulses

at the heart of all that is.

We are made by your Word,

shaped by your Wisdom,

with your Image indelibly stamped within us.

Body, soul, and spirit,

we are yours and yours alone.

Your steadfast love

endures forever!

Yet we forget ourselves as soon as we are born,

and we fall into a fatal fear,

thinking we are alone and at risk of harm.

And we slouch into existence

spinning a web of lies

around us and within us

for protection and projection.

We carefully sculpt our first and strongest idol:

our supposedly independent, separate, 

self-sufficient, disconnected self. 

Lord, have mercy.

We think we are guilty, 

so we blame others.

We think we are isolated, 

so we withdraw further.

We think we are abandoned, 

so we control.

We think we are lost, 

so we plan.

We think we are wrong, 

so we strive to improve.

We think we are humiliated, 

so we manipulate.

We think we are insecure, 

so we get defensive.

We think we are helpless, 

so we work to achieve.

We think we are unlovable, 

so we lose ourselves in denial.

And we generate a world of violence and enmity,

full of enemies and competitors

threats and assailants,

fear, shame, and rage.

Lord, have mercy.

Silent prayer.

O God, 

we know that idolatry always leads to injustice,

and injustice inevitably attracts your righteous wrath.

We know that you will not be mocked

and that you will correct imbalances,

cleanse what has been defiled,

lift up what has been cast down,

and bring down what has lifted itself up in pride.

As you act in justice and mercy to redeem creation, O Lord,

hear our cry and save us.

Make us new people by the power of your Spirit.

And grant us the blessing of your peace.

Amen.

Offering of Ashes

In the day that the Lord God made earth and sky --- 

before any wild plants appeared on the earth, 

and before any field crops grew, 

because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth, 

and there was still no human being to farm the fertile land, 

though a stream rose from the earth 

and watered all of the fertile land — 

the Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land 

and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. 

The human came to life.                 Genesis 2:4b-7 (CEB)     

By the Lord’s breath

the human came to life.

Generous God:

you have created us out of the soil of this blessed and holy planet.  

May these ashes be for us a sign of our mortality and penitence, 

and a reminder that only by your gracious gift 

are we given everlasting life. 

This we pray through the One who gives us this life

— your life —

Jesus Christ our Savior.  

Amen.

The leader touches the ashes.

Accomplish in us, O God, the work of your salvation,

That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of our Savior,

bring us with all your saints 

to the joy of resurrection.

Offertory Music: 

Those wishing to receive the imposition of ashes may come to the Table.

Remember that you are dust, 

and to the dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19 

After the imposition the service continues.

God of compassion,

through your Son Jesus Christ

you reconciled your people to yourself.

Following his example of prayer and fasting,

walking lightly on the Earth, healing, and humility,

may we obey you with willing hearts

and serve one another in holy love.

As we perceive the darkness, brokenness, and violence of our own self-interest

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

*Hymn: “There in God’s Garden” [G2G#226]

*Blessing and Dismissal

May the God of peace make you holy in every way 

and keep your whole being— 

spirit, soul, and body— free from every fault 

at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Amen. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

All quietly depart.