Ash Wednesday Service
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51
Ashes signify mourning and repentance.
Ash Wednesday is the 1st day of Lent…a time of fasting and repentance before God. It emphasizes a dual encounter: we confront our own mortality and we confess our sin before God within the community of faith. Today we do the imposition of ashes.
That is when you come up before the alter. A cross made of ashes will be put on your forehead. It is a sign to remind us of our own mortality and how we came from ashes. This is also a time for us to come before God in repentance seeking to confess our sin individually and as a community.
King David gave us a perfect example in Psalm 51. After he and Bathsheba had sinned together, the priest Nathan confronted David. This is the Psalm to God David wrote when confronted with his sin.
Have Mercy on me, O God. Why?? Because God has unfailing love and compassion. The God of love never fails when we come before him. During this time of lent, you will probably fast from something. Many Catholics fast from meat on Fridays.
Some people may fast from sodas or Monster Energy drinks (God bless you, I will watch from a far). Others might fast from eating one day a week or do bread and water fast a day. But I think God is looking for more from us.
In Psalm 51:10, David says to “create in me a pure heart and renew my spirit.” In verse 16, David says “You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” Then in verse 17, we find what God is looking for in us. My sacrifice is a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
I think about that cross of ashes coming in just a few minutes. That is the cross I prefer. Put the cross on my forehead. Whatever you do Lord, don’t put it on my heart. I don’t want my heart to be ripped apart by the red hot branding iron of the cross that will expose all my weaknesses.
In the world I live in, self-reliant individualism is put on a pedestal. Any sign of weakness or emotional predisposition is automatically help suspect. It’s difficult to return to the Lord with fasting, weeping, and mourning. However, it is fashionable to appear in public the smear of a cross on my forehead.
I can go around like the Pharasees of the 1st century or the self described righteous piety of the 21st century with my cross around my neck and say “see, see. I am a Christian. Yes I am saved.” I have a cross necklace and a T-shirt with a cool saying on it.
I saw one for girls the other day that said “I am taken” and then reference the scripture that says “I am a possession of God”. I can put a bumper sticker on my car that says “in case of rapture this car will be unmanned.” I can put that fish symbol on the back…one on each side and then a little one so I have my whole family covered.
I have some great silver Christmas ornaments that say Faith, Hope, and Love. And every time Veggie Tales comes out with a new DVD, I’m first in line.
But no, God is not looking for these things. God is looking for a broken spirit and a contrite heart. What does that mean for us??
We have a broken spirit when we come to realize we are not immortal, we are not God, and we will die some time in the future. We have a contrite heart when we come before God repentant of our sins before God.
And so I will invite you to the observance of Lenten discipline.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
The early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the church that before the Easter Celebration there should be a forty day season of spiritual preparation.
During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the church.
In this way the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.
I invite you therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ, to observe a holy Lent:
By self examination and repentance;
By prayer, fasting, and self-denial;
And by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
To make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature,
Let us now individually bow our hearts in prayer before our Creator and Redeemer.
Joel 2
An Army of Locusts 1 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.
Rend Your Heart 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. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "
Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. 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 parts [a] ; you teach [b] 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.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
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