Ash Wednesday Complete Service #2

From Martha Chenault  (Year B) (Martha based her services on 
materials from the Whole People of God – a resource well worth 
your money. Be sure to get the Pastor’s Packet if you order it.).

Ash Wednesday Worship

PRELUDE

	Welcome, friends.  Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day 
of the Season of Lent.  The symbol of ashes has long been used as 
an expression of grief and sorrow for sin — all those things in 
ourselves and our society that cause hurt and sadness in our world.  
Sin is what happens when we separate ourselves from God ad each 
other.  Ashes remind u of our humanity: that we are born, we live 
our lives, and then we die. N Ashes remind us that we are made of 
the same stuff as all the creatures of this earth.  Finally, ashes are 
also a sign of new life merging from the past — of forgiveness, 
blessing and transformation.  It is a well-known fact among 
gardeners that ashes have a wonderful fertilizing effect upon the 
ground. 

	Today is the beginning of Lent; a time when we look 
deeply inside ourselves to see the ways we hurt one another and 
our world by not living as God intends; a time when we commit 
ourselves to changes and to new beginnings. 

	Let us begin then by reading together the words of the 
prophet Joel as our Call of Worship.

CALL TO WORSHIP
	Leader: Blow the trumpet on Mount Zion; give orders for a 
fast and call an assembly!
PEOPLE: Call the people together; prepare them for a 
sacred meeting. 
Leader: Bring te hold people; gather the children and the 
babies too. Even newly married couples must leave their 
homes and come.
	ALL: Call the people together; prepare them for a sacred 
meeting.

HYMN		Just As I Am		      No. 26

PRAYER OF APPROACH ( in unison)

Gracious and loving God,
we come before you with open hearts,
willing to look at the truth about ourselves,
hoping to find healing and new life.
We are preparing to make our Lenten journey
to travel with Jesus
along the path which led him to the cross.
Give us courage and strength
and confidence in your constant love.  Amen.

King David has done a terrible thing: he purposely arranged for his 
top general to be killed in battle so that he could marry the man’s 
wife.  The woman’s name was Bath Sheba.  The man’s name was 
Uriah.  Kings in those days could pretty much do whatever they 
liked.  No one dared challenge David’s action.  But Nathan, the 
prophet, knew what David had done, and boldly forced him to 
recognize that what he had done was very wrong.  Nathan told 
David a story about a rich man stealing a precious lamb that 
belonged to a poor man.  At first David was angry with the rich 
man.  Then Nathan told him that the story was about what David’s 
himself had one.  David was filled with sorrow and confessed the 
truth.  His feelings have been recorded in Psalm 51.  Let’s listen 
now as King David expresses his deep sorrow and desire for 
forgiveness.

A READING FROM THE PSALMS     Psalm 51: 1-12

HYMN		Take Time to be Holy          No. 402

CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE OF PARDON

	David’s honesty and his desire to return to a right 
relationship with God are a challenge to each one of us.  Are we 
willing to look within ourselves at the ways we wander away from 
God’s intention for us?  Are we eager to have the joy that comes 
from God’s healing forgiveness? 
	It is important to remember that admitting mistakes does 
not mean that we are bad people.  We are, all of us, sparkles in the 
eye of God, precious children, with tremendous capacity for 
creativity, compassion, and courage. The Hebrew word for sin 
actually means “missing the mark” or “falling short of our 
potential.”  Just as God believed in David and trusted in him and 
forgave him when he missed the mark, so too, God believes in us, 
trust in us and forgives us when we miss the mark.
	Personal public confessions aren’t common these days in 
church — at least not in our churches.  Our prayers of confession 
are usually rather general; we fill in the specifics silently in our 
own hearts as we read together the more generic words.  But 
tonight I want to ask you to be more specific. 
	There is a piece of paper in your bulletin.  Actually there 
are two. Please take one of them now, please, and jot down 
something for which you are penitent.  Remember that confessions 
are not just about things that you have done. It is about anything 
that we feel separates us form God — every insult, every way we 
limit ourselves, everything that keeps us from being who God 
created us to be.
	When you have finished I will collect these confessions and 
we are going to read them out loud.  Each one will conclude with 
“O God hear our prayer.”  I ask that you respond then with: “And 
let our cry come unto you.”   ( hand out paper, etc.)

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

	May the grace of God be with each one of us on our 
journey toward healing and new life.  Let us be assured of God’s 
forgiveness and loving presence. Let us also be aware of God’s 
patient urgings to walk with Jesus toward our own Jerusalems and 
toward whatever challenges and joys lie ahead.

ASHES AND ANOINTING

	In David’s time, when a public confession was made, 
people would put on sackcloth, and smear ashes on their heads.  
This was a sign that they were truly sorry and that they were 
committed to following god’s way.  Today we will do this by 
receiving the symbol of ashes in the shape of a cross on our 
foreheads or our hands.  The ashes, taken fro the ashes of last 
year’s Palm Sunday palms, are a symbol of how sorry we are.  
They have been mixed with oil which is a symbol of God’s 
healing.

UNISON PRAYER
	Loving and merciful God, we have burned our confessions 
as a symbol of our desire to let go of our past mistakes and begin 
again.  We have been anointed with ashes as a reminder of our 
mortality and our dependence on you.  Just as ashes fertilize the 
ground and help new plants grow, so may these ashes remind us of 
your Spirit, which gives us new life and helps us grow.  We have 
been anointed with oil as a sign of your healing power in our lives.  
O God, thank you for the gifts of forgiveness and new life.  Amen.

Listen now to the words of St. Paul as he describes the new life we 
have in Christ.

A READING FROM THE EPISTLE	2 Cor. 5:17- 6:2

HYMN     		    Take My Life		       No. 386

BENEDICTION
	May this blank piece of paper help us think of our future, 
which is as yet unwritten.  May it e a reminder that God continues 
to create new life within and among us. Let us go forth now into 
this Lenten season on our journey of healing and new beginnings.  
IN CHRIST’S NAME!

The Meaning of Ashes

	To most of us, ashes are the remains we find in the 
fireplace, at a camp out, or in the BBQ after a picnic.  To ancient 
peoples and to people of God in the Old Testament times, ashes 
took on some very special and important meanings.
	Abraham spoke to the Lord in this way: See how I am 
presuming to talk to my Lord, even though I am but dust and 
ashes.”  (Genesis 18:27) Job sat down on ashes to mourn and to do 
penance. 
	Those who wished to do penance wore sackcloth and 
sprinkled ashes on their foreheads.  Many times it was the duty of 
the priests to gather up the ashes.  To these people, ashes 
represented their own lowly state in contrast to the greatness of 
God.  God could make ashes of their enemies, they believed, so 
God had the same power over them.  Ashes meant helplessness, a 
dependency on God who could do all things.
	It is out of this history that many churches choose to use 
ashes on Ash Wednesday to begin the season of Advent.  Ashes 
are blessed — they are made from the Palms of the previous Palm 
Sunday — and then they are smeared on the foreheads of those 
who wish to receive them in the sign of the cross with the words:  
“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the and,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that it’s sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

                                     --  Percy Bysse Shelley