Ash Wednesday Worship 2023
Prelude - Sarah Park
Welcome & Purpose Rev. Delaney
Welcome everyone to our Ash Wednesday service. Welcome to those who are at home on YouTube Live. We’re glad you are here. We join together with our siblings from Hilltop and Hiram Christian Churches. Joining me tonight is Rev. Chris McCreight (from Hiram Christian). I’m grateful for our shared ministry in this area.
Tonight I would invite you to follow along in your bulletin and to recognize that there will be times of response, silence, and music.
Friends in Christ, we begin today a 40-day journey walking with Christ to
Holy Week. We enter the Lenten season to prepare ourselves to welcome Christ into our lives anew. On Ash Wednesday we are invited to assume a posture of self-examination, confession, and penitence. To not dwell on our faults, but to acknowledge them and grow from them. To be mindful and find in God’s forgiveness strength to keep striving, seeking, and sharing God’s love in the world. To be individuals, a church, a community that more deeply reflects the love of Christ.
Today, we will hear questions to ponder. What questions do you have for God today? What questions does God have for you? In this season of Seeking may we be unafraid to ask honest questions for a deeper faith.
“At the Start” by Sarah Are Speed
Is this the fast I choose?
Will I wake with the sun each morning?
Will I start with thank you?
Will I peel back the cage around my frame to let you in
or will I get too busy? Will my Bible collect dust on the shelf,
along with my journal, along with my sense of self,
or will I roll back the stone and wade in?
Every new season beckons something of us—
attention, beauty, the chance to create.
This season is no different.
So, like moths to the light, will we find our way toward God,
or will we hover, circling fake suns?
I am seeking something deeper.
I am kicking off my shoes.
I am starting this season on holy ground.
Call to Worship - Rev. McCreight
ONE: We gather together at the edge of a new season.
ALL: We stand together on the cusp of something new.
ONE: Will we wade into self-reflection?
ALL: Will we invite honesty to dance?
ONE: Will we listen for God’s invitation?
ALL: Will we ask questions and seek deeper faith?
ONE: What kind of fast do we choose? What kind of faith will we build?
ALL: We gather together at the edge of a new season.
ONE: Listen, Listen, Listen, God is still speaking.
Hymn - Take Time to Be Holy #572, v.1&3
1 Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
abide in him always, and feed on his word.
Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing God's blessing to seek.
3 Take time to be holy, let him be thy guide,
and run not before him, whatever betide;
in joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus, still trust in his word.
Prayer of Illumination Rev. McCreight
God, We want to hear your voice. Shout loudly; don’t hold back.
Move in our spirits the way you moved over the waters of creation.
We are beginning a new season today, God,
and we don’t want to begin anything without you.
So speak to us today—
through silence,
through scripture,
through song.
Speak to us as you spoke to the Israelites so many moons ago.
Speak to us like a gentle breeze or a loud trumpet.
We don’t care how, we just long to hear your voice.
So don’t hold back. We are here. We are listening.
Amen.
Scripture Reading - Matthew 16:24-28 Rev. McCreight
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’
SILENCE
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:3-9 Rev. Delaney
3 ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers. 4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
SILENCE
On Isaiah 58:1-12 | A Reflection by Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow
With the beginning of Lent, it will be almost three years to the day when the world was thrust into a global pandemic. Words don’t have the capacity to describe what we have all been through: death, loss, anger, isolation, sorrow, and confusion—but also discovery, introspection, adaptation, and hope. While it is tempting to try and find “silver linings” that have emerged from the pandemic, I caution us not to do so. There has been far too much pain, suffering, and death to try and negate the suffering with comparatively minimal benefits to the world. Instead, I choose to describe this time as revelatory. The pandemic has revealed much about ourselves, our communities, and the world. We have discovered that adaptation to technology is possible, creativity in curating worship is abundant, and many things that we thought were too important to change about the Church, were, in fact, not. Again, no silver linings, but certainly welcomed revelations about who we can be and become. The pandemic has also revealed deep divides in the world. Amidst the politicization of our global and national response, we confronted a racial reckoning, a growing economic divide, regressions in bodily autonomy, and what seems like a daily occurrence of hate: politicians inciting division, mass shootings, the scapegoating of migrants, more dehumanization of LGBTQIA+3 siblings, and an overall sense that the body politic is headed for a cliff. This passage from Isaiah does not go easy on us. It poses difficult questions that force each of us to dig deep and ask questions about ourselves and the communities of which we are a part. While it is easy to blame “them” for the problems of the world, we are being asked to explore how we may have played ambivalent witnesses or unintentional accomplices in creating the deep pain that has been brought to the surface of our world. The revelatory nature of the past few years forces us to face questions, not only about whether hate or love will have the last word, but about how we will be part of a different story for the future. This is where we are inviting one another to sit this Lenten season, in and with the questions, no matter where the answers may lead.
What questions are important to ask ourselves during this Lenten Season of Seeking?
SILENCE
Blessing of the Ashes
Introduction Rev. Delaney
From ancient times, Christians have utilized the season of Lent to intentionally search their hearts, repent, and seek forgiveness for their sin. Together we seek reconciliation with God and with one another for the ways we have hurt one another and the creation.
For many centuries, Christians have received ashes marked on their foreheads as a sign of sin's disfigurement and recognition of their own mortality. While we long for ritual such as this and while we long to be in proximity to one another - where we may gather in reach of one another; we have given of ourselves again, and re-made the ritual and symbol of Ash Wednesday this year.
Prayer - Rev. McCreight
Almighty God,
May these ashes remind us that you have created us out of the dust of the earth, May these ashes be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence. As we mourn the hurts we have caused as individuals and as community remind us that there is always new life in you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Hymn - Just a Closer Walk #557, v.1-2
1 I am weak, but thou art strong; Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to thee.
[Refrain:]
Just a closer walk with thee, grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
daily walking close to thee: let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
2 Through this world of toil and snares, if I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares? None but thee, dear Lord, none but thee. [Refrain]
Imposition of Ashes
Come forward to receive ashes on your forehead or hand as you feel comfortable
Prayer of Confession and Words of Forgiveness - Rev. McCreight
ONE: Merciful God, How many times in a day could we choose love? How many times could we choose justice? How many times could we speak kindly to ourselves?
ALL: How many times could we offer grace? How many times, God? And how often do we miss it?
ONE: Forgive us for choosing the path you did not travel. Forgive us for hitching our horse to the world’s measure of goodness, instead of yours.
ALL: Return our hearts to you, and guide us continually, even in the parched places.
ONE: Although we often lose our way and make poor choices, God celebrates every step we take in God’s direction. So hear and believe the good news of the gospel: no matter how many times we fall, no matter how many times we choose the wrong path, God is waiting for us at the end with open arms.
ALL: We are forgiven. We are invited. We belong. Thanks be to God for a love like that. Amen.
Hymn - Seek Ye First #354
1. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you. Allelu, Alleluia
2. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and ye shall find
Knock and it shall be opened unto you Allelu Alleluia
3. We shall not live by bread alone, But by every word
That proceeds from the mouth of God. Allelu, Alleluia
Benediction Rev. Delaney
We believe in a God who chooses freedom,
who unties every rope and carries our burdens.
We believe in a God who ushers in the poor and the hungry,
who has a seat saved for all of us.
We believe in a God whose love is like the sun,
who says, “I’m here, I’m here!” every time we cry.
We believe in a God who walks before us in the parched places,
who rescues our bones,
who tends to us like a gardener.
And because we believe,
we strive to choose love.
Because we believe,
we strive to pursue justice.
Because we believe
we ask questions and seek God without fear.
Amen.
Postlude - Sarah Park