Ash Wednesday marks the first day in the season of Lent. Contrary to popular cultural understandings, Lent is not a season fundamentally of self-abnegation and mortification of the flesh, denying yourself chocolate or coffee, a reset for all those self-help New Year’s resolutions you broke before the third week of January. No, Lent is a season of preparation—preparation for the events of holy week and Easter.
It’s also a season of formation, for becoming, for being shaped and reshaped by God’s grace. We follow Jesus into the wilderness not to prove that we can tough it out, white knuckle our way through forty days of deprivation in the hopes that this will make us worthy companions of our Savior. We go at Jesus‘s invitation to walk in his footsteps, to face the temptation to trust anything other than God. And when confronted with our own failure and inevitable death, to finally enjoy his victory and the rest he won for us.
In the language of this worship series, Lent is a season of being grounded and growing. Grounded in God’s covenant love, in the promises spoken over us in baptism, and in the mercy that meets us even in our sin. And we are growing – growing in repentance, trust, obedience, and hope.
So we pray,
Ground us in your grace.
Grow us in your love.
Lead us in your way.
A traditional practice on Ash Wednesday is to receive the imposition of ashes on one’s forehead. These ashes are signs of mortality and repentance. Therefore, the mark made with the ash is in the shape of a cross—the same watery sign we received in our baptism. This confluence between ashes and water reminds us that sin doesn’t have the last word: we are forgiven. And death doesn’t have the last word: we are united to Christ in both death and resurrection. To help solidify that association it is ideal for the ashes—and those who impose them—to be situated next to the font.
A word about ashes: some people follow the tradition of burning the palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service to produce the ash used in the service. This can work, but it’s messy, and often the ash needs to be both ground as fine as possible, and mixed with just a bit of olive or other neutral oil. Practice with your recipe before trying it out on your congregation. Or just order the ash from a religious supply company.
Service Outline
These service plans invite your congregation to attend to four symbols of our faith and four gestures that signal our attention to Christ’s presence in our midst. The first gesture is to light a single Christ candle. The second gesture is to lift a Bible high and place it on the pulpit or the communion table. The third gesture is to reverently drape a length of cloth (preferably purple) over the arms of a cross, centrally located in the sanctuary. The fourth gesture is to pour water into the baptismal font.
*Call to Worship
Lord be with you.
And also with you.
*Opening Song
[A video recording of this song with American Sign Language is available on our YouTube channel.]
Welcome
[Because Ash Wednesday is a mid-week service, and centrally involves a rite that some may be unfamiliar with (the imposition of ashes), it might be good to offer the congregation a brief word of explanation, like the introduction to Ash Wednesday found above.]
*Song of Praise
“O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High”
(Music to come)
Call to Confession
Genuine repentance involves two things: the dying-away of the old self, and the coming-to-life of the new. The dying-away of the old self is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it. It is a pruning of the dead branches of our lives.
But when we remain grounded in Christ we flourish, we grow and produce fruit. The coming-to-life of the new self is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.
Together, as Christ’s body, let us now confess our sin, expressing our longing to live in joyful obedience to God.
Prayer of Confession: Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit. Amen.
—Psalm 51:1–2, 6, 10–12 NRSVUE
Time of Silence
Assurance of Pardon
Friends, Rise and hear these words from the prophet Micah:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgressions?
You do not retain your anger forever,
But delight in showing clemency.
You have had compassion on us,
Treading our iniquities underfoot
Casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.
—Micah 7:18–19, NRSV, adapt.
Believe the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
*Response
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Joel 2
Psalm: Psalm 78 or 106
Gospel: Matthew 4:1–11
Epistle: Hebrews 3
Homily on Matthew 4:1–11: Jesus in the Wilderness
[See the introduction to the service.]
Reflection Question
[These questions can be part of a short informal small group/pairs discussion after the homily, used for silent reflection, or sent home to encourage further reflection in the weeks ahead.]
As you’re called into the wilderness during Lent…
- What will you give up?
- What will you take up?
- What joys await you?
- What struggles await you?
- What will the tempter say to you?
- How will you respond?
Imposition of Ashes
We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes.
This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life,
calls us to heartfelt repentance,
and urges us to place our hope in God alone.
Prayer
Almighty God,
you have created us out of the dust of the earth.
May these ashes remind us of our mortality and penitence
and teach us again that only by your gracious gift
are we given everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Invitation
I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ,
to observe a holy Lent
by self-examination and penitence,
by prayer and fasting,
by works of love,
and by reading and meditating
on the Word of God.
Response
Holy God, ground us in your grace.
Grow us in your love.
Lead us in your way.
Amen.
Imposition
You are welcome to come forward to receive the ashes or oil on your bare forehead.
During the imposition, the musicians play (no singing) “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” African American Spiritual
Song of response
“O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High” (st. 5–7)
Please stand in body and/or spirit for the singing of the final stanza.
(See music earlier in the service.)
*Closing Prayer
[Attend to the four gestures named in the introduction to this service]
God of love and mercy,
Bless us on our Lenten journey.
By your light, call us to faithful following
By your word, call us to attentive listening
By your cross, call us to sacrificial obedience
By your Holy Spirit, call us to repentance, joy, and service.
* Benediction
May God the Father, who promised you redemption from the ashes
give you a contrite heart.
May Christ, who bore our sins in his body on the tree,
heal you by his wounds.
May the Holy Spirit, who leads us into the wilderness,
nourish you with words of pardon and peace.
AMEN.
Bless the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.
Go in peace…
A sign of peace may be exchanged by all…
*Those gathered are invited to stand in body and/or in spirit.
