Ash Wednesday 2008
Service starts with a time of silence and reflection
This evening service is the start of the Season of Lent. Lent coincides with Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness being tempted, as well as the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert. You may remember the Israelites did not go into the promised land until the generation of doubters had died out. But Lent also coincides with the time between Jesus’ disciples recognizing He is the Messiah, and Jesus being crucified. So for this time, Jesus was preparing Himself to die for our sins.
So Lent is a time to prepare for death, not only physical death, but the death of sin and ungodliness in us.
And so this evening’s service reminds us that we are from dust, and to dust we will return.
Greeting
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
And also with you
Bless the Lord, o my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy Name
Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits
Who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities
Who redeems your life from the grave, and crowns you with mercy and loving kindness
Opening prayer
Let us pray (A brief silence)
Almighty and everlasting God
You hate nothing You have made
And forgive the sins of all who are penitent
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
That we, worthily lamenting our sins
And acknowledging our wretchedness
May obtain from You, the God of all mercy
Perfect remission and forgiveness
Through Jesus Christ out Lord
Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit
One God, forever and ever
Amen
First Hymn Lord I come to You
First Lesson : Joel 2 v 1 – 2 and 12 – 17a
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was of old
nor ever will be in ages to come.
12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and have pity
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord.
Second Hymn When I survey
Second Lesson 2 Corinthians 5 v 20b – 6 v 2
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6 As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
Response to reading from 2 Corinthians 5
Cry and God will answer
Call and the Lord will say, “I am here”
If you do away with the yoke
The clenched fist, the wicked word
If you give your bread to the hungry
And relief to the oppressed
Call and the Lord will say, “I am here”
Your light will rise in the darkness
And your shadows become like noon
The Lord will always guide you
Give you relief in desert places
Cry, and God will answer
Call, and the Lord will say, “I am here”
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 6 v 1 – 6; 16 - 21
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Sermon
WET PANTS
Come with me to a third grade classroom...... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how
this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!" Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!" Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."
Body of Talk
Do you remember your most embarrassing moment?
Like this boy, we all have them, those moments when your face turns red and you just want to disappear.
Imagine how embarrassing it could be sitting with Jesus and He starts pulling out all those things you’ve always tried to hide from Him. Scripture says, “If we confess our sins, He forgives them”.
I’ve wandered if forgiveness is a blanket amnesty, or if the Holy Spirit actually brings some specifics to mind so we can own up to them. Maybe just so that we know He knows so we can drop the act.
Have you ever experienced the mercy of someone like Susie?
How did that leave you feeling?
I’d like to explore two possible responses we may choose to the embarrassing reality that we still sin.
Poor Response.
This school boy could have joined with the crowd, and laughed at the one who took his shame.
Have you ever sat down feeling quite lousy,
and then you find yourself in a conversation where you can talk about how pathetic someone else is,
and suddenly you feel so much better?
We are all enjoying the humiliation of certain people for the mistakes they’ve made in planning our power supply.
Maybe when we hear other people’s confessions, we breathe a sigh of relief.
If Alec Irwin can mess up, maybe it’s OK that I forgot to buy electricity to recharge our house meter.
Maybe when we hear of the fall of those we put on pedestals, we feel a little less guilty when we look at a woman passing by.
Maybe we feel a little less guilty when we flirt with a guy at work.
It seems people have a hunger for gossip, because when we are confessing someone else’s sins, we are not focusing on mine.
I saw a bumper sticker, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY”.
Does that guy think God won’t notice that in his call for justice, he has broken the greatest commandment, the commandment to love?
If Jesus died to remove our eternal death penalty, should we want the other one upheld?
PAUSE
Sometimes we shift the blame to others, because we really don’t want to face our own weakness, our own sinfulness, our own lack of compassion and love.
Sometimes we don’t want to hear God’s call to love, because that would mean I no longer have a scape goat.
The other day I saw OJ Simpson wrote a book, and in it he puts all the blame on his victims. He says it is their fault he killed them.
Before we start whining to God about other people, I need to just say, God is not fair.
He doesn’t give us what we deserve.
If God was fair, we would be dead. We have all sinned, and the penalty for sin, no matter how big or small, is death.
But God had something else in mind. Like Susie in the story, Jesus took our shame, He washed away our sin. He became the pariah for us.
Our most embarrassing moment became His most embarrassing moment. Even His Father turned His face from Him.
So if we stop looking for scape goats, what is the alternative?
What if confessing our sin to God is not so that He can work out our punishment, but like the TRC, that we can walk away free from the skeletons in our closet?
What if confession is not for God’s sake, but for our healing?
The other day I sat with someone who has spent years trying to find peace for her spirit. She has been emotionally tormented.
In a time of prayer, I lead her to pray that she forgives those who have sinned against her, and I saw a flood of tears. I then lead her to pray a prayer of confession for her own sinfulness, and I saw her whole complexion change.
Sometimes people sin, and clearly that is not good. But we can react to their sin in such a way that means we are sinning ourselves.
Our reaction makes us as guilty as they are.
Jesus died that we could be whole.
People are wired with a need to confess. We are too frail to carry the weight of guilty secrets.
I’ve met people in my life who have walked 40 years with secrets from their childhood. But when they have faced up to the reality of their lives, they have shared their story honestly with God, who already knows, you can see they have been set free.
Suddenly they don’t have to hide from God.
The need to confess and repent is an ongoing process. James was writing to Christians when he said, “Confess your sins one to another and pray for each others healing”.
What if our healing is linked to our confession?
People cue at psychologists and hand over fortunes, for the privilege of confession.
Jesus has removed the shame.
Jesus paid for our sin that we can face Father God and confess our sins without fear.
How are you going respond to that?
Will we continue to shift the blame and clothe ourselves with self-righteousness?
Metaphorically speaking, do we join in with all the other kids, making fun of Susie?
If we hold the sins of others against them, when God has chosen to forgive those sins, are we not saying God was wrong?
Dare we judge God’s right to set the captives free?
If we think a sin is unforgivable, aren’t we saying that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient for the forgiveness of sin?
Dare we act like the Pharisees who stood in public prayer saying “God, thank you for not making me a woman or a gentile”.
The only legitimate comparison we can ever make, is between ourselves and Jesus Himself. Between wretchedness and purity, and we all know how that turns out.
Isaiah said even our best deeds are like filthy rags before God.
But there is another possible response to our wretchedness.
To use the story a little more, I don’t think God want us to stand in front of the whole class and say, “I wet my pants” any more than He wants us to join the others in shifting the blame.
But I am convinced that God wants us in quiet ways that are sincere and filled with integrity, God wants us to acknowledge His sacrifice and our wretchedness. He wants us to allow Him to search our hearts and renew our minds so that we grow up and stop relying so heavily on grace, but start showing fruits of sonship. He wants us to live appropriately for someone who has received an unmerited reprieve from eternal embarrassment. God wants us to look our sin in the face and speak it out in confession, that it loses its power over our lives.
So as we start the season of Lent, it is a time for repentance. Repentance is not just about forgiveness, it is about refusing to continue in self-defeating behaviour of a slave and start living in the freedom Jesus has given.
· Rather than standing in public places shouting our innocence, it is a time to whisper our guilt.
· Rather than feasting like people who have no more battles to fight, no more character flaws to overcome, we should be fasting to weaken the old sinful nature and strengthen God’s dominion in us.
· Rather than standing to collect accolades, we should secretly be giving alms, gifts to the desperate that restore their dignity.
As we enter Lent, we start with Ash Wednesday, to remind us that we are made of the dust of the earth, that we cannot save ourselves. But by the unmerited mercy of God, the angel of death passed over us and the Son of God died in our place.
This evening is a time to be honest with ourselves in evaluating where we still fall short of the glory of God, and repenting for that and surrendering that area to God that He can change us.
This evening marks the start of our Lent fast. We take a moment to say, “I will leave … out for the next forties days to bring my old nature into submission to God.
A moment of meditation
Communion Hymn At the foot of the cross
Shorter Communion
Invitation
All those who love the Lord Jesus and know him as Lord and Saviour are invited to come to this table and join in this sacrament which makes
them one in him.
The Lord Jesus loves you all tenderly and graciously.
Listen now to St Paul’s words, telling how this holy supper of our Lord began:
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:
The Lord Jesus,
on the night he was betrayed,
took bread, and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you;
do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying:
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
(1 Corinthians 1. 23-26)
Now let us do as Jesus did,
recognizing that we belong to his body,
and humbly recalling the sacrifice he made for us.
So I take this bread and wine, and set it apart to be used for this holy mystery alone.
As the Lord Jesus thanked his Father, so let us give thanks.
Let us Pray
Here follows a prayer thanking God for the life, death, resurrection
and heavenly intercession of his Son. A time of open prayer may
follow, or further specific prayers of thanks. It may culminate in the
praise of the heavenly creatures
Let us join with the saints around the world today, with those who have gone before and the entire heavenly host as we declare
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might;
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
The minister then offers the following prayer:
Lord, you are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness.
Let your Spirit come upon us and these your gifts,
and make us share in the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Father, we belong to you.
Father, we offer ourselves to you.
Make us one in your love,
and ask of us whatever you will. '
Amen
Breaking of the Bread
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took some bread...
Here the minister takes the bread, and breaks it.
... and said, "This is my body which is for you."
Here the minister shows the broken bread and sets it down.
In the same way he took the cup...
Here the minister takes the cup. (He may pour the wine into it). "--
... and said, "This is the new covenant in my blood (which was poured
out for you)."
Here the minister shows the cup and sets it down.
Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming
the death of the Lord until he comes.
The minister then eats some of the bread and drinks from the cup. He
then shares with those present, saying:
The minister serves the elders
Then to the congregation
The body of Christ, broken for you...
The blood of Christ, shed for you...
Invitation to the observance of Lenten discipline
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Christians have always observed with great devotion the days of Our Lord’s passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the Church to prepare for Easter by teaching penitence, fasting and prayer. This season of forty days provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for baptism into the body of Christ. It is also the time when persons who had committed serious sins and been separated from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. The whole congregation is thus reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our baptismal faith.
I invite you, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to observe this holy Lent, by self examination, penitence, prayer, fasting and almsgiving; and by reading and meditating on the Word of God. To make a right beginning and as a mark of our mortality, let us now bow before our creator and redeemer.
A brief silence is observed
Thanksgiving over the ashes
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray
Almighty God, You have created us out of the dust of the earth
Grant that these ashes might be to us
A sign of our mortality and penance
So that we may remember that only by Your gracious gift
Are we given everlasting life
Through Jesus Christ our Saviour
Amen
Imposition of Ashes
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return
Read together Psalm 51 v 1 – 12
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner part;
you teach me wisdom
in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Absolution, Reconciliation and Commendation
The almighty and merciful God, source of our salvation in Christ, who desires not the death of a sinner but rather that we turn from wickedness and live, accepts your repentance, forgives your sins, and restores you by the Holy Spirit to newness of life.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Prayer of thanksgiving ending with the Lord ’s Prayer.
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory
For ever and ever,
Amen
Blessing
Go forth into the world in the strength of God’s mercy
To live and to serve in newness of life
May Jesus Christ, the Bread of Heaven, bless and keep you.
May the Lamb of God who laid down His life for all, graciously smile on you
May the Lord order all your days and deeds in peace