Ash Wednesday
Call Joel 2
Leader: Come, young and old. Sanctify yourselves before the Lord.
Gathered: We gather to hear the word of the Lord.
Leader: Come and do not delay. Return to God.
Gathered: We gather to be in the presence of God.
Leader: Come, cry out to God. Trust I God’s mercy.
Gathered: We gather to find the renewal of our spirit, acknowledge our failings before the Lord.
Opening Prayer
We turn to you, God of life, on this first day of Lent as we recall our own mortality. With hearts torn open by our actions, we need your guidance and your healing forgiveness. Ready us to receive your mercy and grace, and cleanse us of human failing that we may embrace the words you speak- the words that lead to eternal life. Amen.
Prayer of Confession Psalm 51
Leader: In preparation, present yourselves before God. Come in your brokenness, acknowledging where you have fallen short of God’s expectations and your own. (Time for silent reflection.) Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
Gathered: My brokenness that hinders me I lay before you.
Leader: Come in your pain acknowledging your hurt and how you have hurt others. Do not cast us away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from us. (Time for silent reflection.)
Gathered: All the pain I have in my life, that which I have caused and that which I feel, I lay before you.
Leader: Come in your weakness, acknowledge your lack of strength and confidence to do what is right. (Time for silent reflection.) Have mercy on us, O God according to your steadfast love.
Gathered: The weakness that holds me captive I lay before you.
Leader: Come in your fear, acknowledge your failure to speak up for justice. (Time for silent reflection.) Do not cast us away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from us.
Gathered: My fear that binds me I lay before you.
Leader: Come in your sinfulness, acknowledge what you have done and left undone. (Time for silent reflection.) Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us.
Gathered: The sin, which eats at my heart and leaves me lifeless, I lay before you.
Leader: All that we are, all that we have done, all that we confess, we lay before you, O God.
Gathered: Relieve us from this burden. Amen.
Confession Stations As you feel ready, make your way to the stations of confession.
The Cross ~ We all hold things. Instead of turning them over to Christ, we hold firmly and tightly, not trusting, not letting go. Come to the cross and place your rock before the symbol that reminds us of all that Christ has done for us. Leave your rock there and pray that you might trust God more.
Sins Washed Away ~ Write out on a coffee filter something you for which feel you need forgiveness. Then place it in one of the bowls of water. Watch it fade away and accept that God has washed your sins away.
Sign of the Ashes ~ We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marks the penitence of this community. We thus begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Assurance of Pardon Joel 2
Leader: Joel reminds us that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. With great mercy God relents from punishing. In God’s grace, know that you are forgiven.
Gathered: In God’s grace, we know that we are forgiven.
Leader: In God’s mercy, know that you are made new.
Gathered: In God’s mercy, we know that we are made new.
Leader: In God’s love, know that you are made whole.
Gathered: In God’s love, we know that we are made whole. Thanks be to God! Amen!
Scripture Psalm 25:1-11, Romans 7:15-25, Ezekiel 36:25-28
Reading Repent and Live Henri Nouwen
The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, O Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha and to the final victory over death.
I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voice that speak about prestige, success, human respect, pleasure, power and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.
I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made very moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are no times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. Amen.
Communion
Invitation
Prayer of Thanksgiving
One: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Lord.
One: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
Sending Forth
Leader: With thoughtful worship among brothers and sisters in Christ, we have entered Lent.
Gathered: With contrite hearts, we await our Lord.
Leader: Go forth and prepare yourselves,
Gathered: to receive the power of God.
Leader: Go now in peace, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Parts of tonight’s service come from BCW, Bread and Wine and Wild Goose Publications.
A Longest Night Service
In a season when joy is the focus and so many sit with broken heart and lonely it is important for the church to not only celebrate and lift up the amazing gift of Christ coming but also acknowledge and create a space that honours where others travel during the Advent and Christmas season. This is an example of one of the Longest Night or Service of Light that I organized and lead.
Welcome NOT CELEBRATE Ann Weems
Call to worship
One: Tonight we gather here in this place of refuge,
All: For we are lost,
we are lonely,
we are afraid.
One: Tonight we gather, daring to wonder if God has indeed come in Jesus - discerning the rejection we have known, intimate with our failed relationships, holding our heartache in hands of tenderness. Tonight we gather with neighbors and strangers, a family made one by our brokenness;
All: Coming with our hearts full of hope and our heads filled with doubts.
One: Tonight we gather just as we are,
All: For God has promised to meet us here and to welcome us for who we are.
Prayer
Holy God of Advent, you became weak so we would find strength in moments of heartbreak. You left the safety of heaven to wander the wilderness of the world, holding our hands when we feel hopeless. You set aside your glory to hold our pain so we might be healed, even when there seems to be no hope. You became one of us, so we would never be alone in any moment, in any circumstance.
So come now, Child of Bethlehem, to strengthen us in these days. May we feel your presence in a way we have never known, not just as one born in a stable long ago and far away but as the One born in our hearts.
You have promised to go before us; in our brokenness, into hospital rooms, into empty houses, into graveyards, into our future held by God, and you are here, even now, waiting for each of us; to serve us, to hold us, to comfort us, to heal us, to live in us, now and for ever. Amen.
A Time of Reflection
Reflective Music “In Christ Alone” arr. Kim Carter
Prayers of Intercession
Voice 1: All around us are the sights and sounds of Christmas, Gentle God: the laughter of parties, the songs of carolers, the shouts of children sledding down hills, the music in every store. But deep within us we carry our pain; our grief walks with us every step we take; loneliness is a shawl we drape over our shoulders on empty nights. So, in this time when every night stretches into eternity, we come to you, bringing our gifts; not gold frankincense and myrrh, but bitterness and loss.
Voice 2: We have come from different backgrounds, from different families, from different faith traditions. But we have all lived in the land of shame and wandered the far country of despair. We have stood on the side of every room we have gone into, hoping against hope that someone would ask us to dance but finding the wall is our only friend.
Voice 3: In a season when so many people don’t have enough hours in a day to get their lists checked off, their cards mailed, their presents wrapped, we have all the time in the world: to remember the loss that has stolen the joy of the season; to grieve over a job, a dream, a loved one; to sit in the shadows of our homes, too weary to turn on the lights; to wander the streets lit by lights on all the houses, but not by the Light of the World.
Voice 4: Our fear of the future, our remembrance of the past, our present that is difficult to bear and harder to release, our emptiness which cannot be filled with platitudes, our hands which cannot hold the ones we wish to embrace: all make this a season of long nights.
All: Be with us in our loneliness, in our longing, in our loss, in our lives.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
A Time of Reflection
Reflective Music “As for Me/I Surrender All” arr. Kim Carter
Hearing the Word of God
During the scripture readings or last reflective music piece you are invited to come forward and light a candle, claiming the light of Christ that always shines and accompanies us in and through the darkness.
Also, you are invited to touch the salt water symbolizing God’s tears or you may add salt by adding your tears.
Matthew 5:1-12 Psalm 130:1-6
John 11:33-36 Matthew 11:28-30
Reflective Music “Solid Rock” arr. Kim Carter
TOWARD THE LIGHT Ann Weems
Blessing
In your silence, may the Word dwell in your heart.
In your brokenness, may the Spirit meet you.
In your pain, may the One who can heal you touch your soul.
Go now in peace with the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Parts of tonight’s service come from Ann Weems, Candles & Conifers, Wild Goose Publications.
Welcome NOT CELEBRATE Ann Weems
Call to worship
One: Tonight we gather here in this place of refuge,
All: For we are lost,
we are lonely,
we are afraid.
One: Tonight we gather, daring to wonder if God has indeed come in Jesus - discerning the rejection we have known, intimate with our failed relationships, holding our heartache in hands of tenderness. Tonight we gather with neighbors and strangers, a family made one by our brokenness;
All: Coming with our hearts full of hope and our heads filled with doubts.
One: Tonight we gather just as we are,
All: For God has promised to meet us here and to welcome us for who we are.
Prayer
Holy God of Advent, you became weak so we would find strength in moments of heartbreak. You left the safety of heaven to wander the wilderness of the world, holding our hands when we feel hopeless. You set aside your glory to hold our pain so we might be healed, even when there seems to be no hope. You became one of us, so we would never be alone in any moment, in any circumstance.
So come now, Child of Bethlehem, to strengthen us in these days. May we feel your presence in a way we have never known, not just as one born in a stable long ago and far away but as the One born in our hearts.
You have promised to go before us; in our brokenness, into hospital rooms, into empty houses, into graveyards, into our future held by God, and you are here, even now, waiting for each of us; to serve us, to hold us, to comfort us, to heal us, to live in us, now and for ever. Amen.
A Time of Reflection
Reflective Music “In Christ Alone” arr. Kim Carter
Prayers of Intercession
Voice 1: All around us are the sights and sounds of Christmas, Gentle God: the laughter of parties, the songs of carolers, the shouts of children sledding down hills, the music in every store. But deep within us we carry our pain; our grief walks with us every step we take; loneliness is a shawl we drape over our shoulders on empty nights. So, in this time when every night stretches into eternity, we come to you, bringing our gifts; not gold frankincense and myrrh, but bitterness and loss.
Voice 2: We have come from different backgrounds, from different families, from different faith traditions. But we have all lived in the land of shame and wandered the far country of despair. We have stood on the side of every room we have gone into, hoping against hope that someone would ask us to dance but finding the wall is our only friend.
Voice 3: In a season when so many people don’t have enough hours in a day to get their lists checked off, their cards mailed, their presents wrapped, we have all the time in the world: to remember the loss that has stolen the joy of the season; to grieve over a job, a dream, a loved one; to sit in the shadows of our homes, too weary to turn on the lights; to wander the streets lit by lights on all the houses, but not by the Light of the World.
Voice 4: Our fear of the future, our remembrance of the past, our present that is difficult to bear and harder to release, our emptiness which cannot be filled with platitudes, our hands which cannot hold the ones we wish to embrace: all make this a season of long nights.
All: Be with us in our loneliness, in our longing, in our loss, in our lives.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
A Time of Reflection
Reflective Music “As for Me/I Surrender All” arr. Kim Carter
Hearing the Word of God
During the scripture readings or last reflective music piece you are invited to come forward and light a candle, claiming the light of Christ that always shines and accompanies us in and through the darkness.
Also, you are invited to touch the salt water symbolizing God’s tears or you may add salt by adding your tears.
Matthew 5:1-12 Psalm 130:1-6
John 11:33-36 Matthew 11:28-30
Reflective Music “Solid Rock” arr. Kim Carter
TOWARD THE LIGHT Ann Weems
Blessing
In your silence, may the Word dwell in your heart.
In your brokenness, may the Spirit meet you.
In your pain, may the One who can heal you touch your soul.
Go now in peace with the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Parts of tonight’s service come from Ann Weems, Candles & Conifers, Wild Goose Publications.
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