Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Whether this is your first time with us or your one thousand and first, we are glad that the Spirit has drawn you here today! Visitors are invited to sign the Guest Book near the front doors of the church and take home a welcome brochure to learn more about us.

The service begins in silence

CALL TO WORSHIP

We gather together at the edge of a new season.

We stand together on the cusp of something new.

Will we wade into self-reflection?

Will we invite honesty to dance?

Will we listen for God’s invitation?

Will we seek deeper faith?

What kind of fast do we choose? What kind of faith will we build?

We gather together at the edge of a new season.

Listen, God is speaking.

KYRIE

Now the Feast

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Let us pray. Gracious God, out of your love and mercy you breathed into dust the breath of life, creating us to serve you and our neighbors. Call forth our prayers and acts of kindness, and strengthen us to face our mortality with confidence in the mercy of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

WORD

FIRST READING ISAIAH 58:1-12

A reading from Isaiah.

¹Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
they delight to draw near to God.

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.

⁴Look, 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.

⁵Is 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?

⁶Is 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?

⁷Is 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?

⁸Then your light shall break fort like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

⁹Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

¹⁰if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.

¹¹The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

¹²Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.

Word of God. Word of Life. Thanks be to God.

PSALM 51

The first time the Cantor/Choir will sing once, then the congregation will repeat

Verses sung alternately by the cantor/choir and congregation

¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your | steadfast love; in your great compassion blot out | my offenses.

²Wash me through and through | from my wickedness, and cleanse me | from my sin.

³For I know | my offenses, and my sin is ev- | er before me.

⁴Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil | in your sight; so you are justified when you speak and right | in your judgment. R

⁵Indeed, I was born | steeped in wickedness, a sinner from my | mother’s womb.

⁶Indeed, you delight in truth | deep within me, and would have me know wisdom | deep within.

⁷Remove my sins with hyssop, and I | shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be pur- | er than snow.

⁸Let me hear | joy and gladness; that the body you have broken | may rejoice. R

⁹Hide your face | from my sins, and blot out | all my wickedness.

¹⁰Create in me a clean | heart, O God, and renew a right spir- | it within me.

¹¹Cast me not away | from your presence, and take not your Holy Spir- | it from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of | your salvation and sustain me with your boun- | tiful Spirit. R

¹³Let me teach your ways | to offenders, and sinners shall be re- | stored to you.

¹⁴Rescue me from bloodshed, O God of | my salvation, and my tongue shall sing | of your righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, o- | pen my lips, and my mouth shall pro- | claim your praise.

¹⁶For you take no delight in sacrifice, or | I would give it.

You are not pleased | with burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifice of God is a | troubled spirit; a troubled and broken heart, O God, you will | not despise. R

GOSPEL VERSE

GOSPEL MATTHEW 6:1-6, 16-21

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said to the disciples: ¹“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

HOMILY – Pastor Cassie

HYMN OF THE DAY Beautiful Things ACS 925

INVITATION TO LENT

The season of Lent arrives again, and we long for God to speak to us. Our weary spirits cry out for renewal and resurrection. We call on God to meet us wherever we are at, and to walk with us on a journey that leads to Easter.

We wonder how we can keep this season; how we can pray, what we might give up, how we might serve others. We are seekers, full of questions. And this year, as we’ll see in our Scripture readings throughout Lent, God might not give simple answers. In fact, God will ask holy questions back to us. Perhaps God knows that asking questions can lead to deeper faith.

As we begin this season then, let us start with a blank slate, confessing our sin and receiving God’s forgiveness. God knows the truth of our brokenness, yet we voice it aloud so that we name it and move beyond it, eager to hear God’s promise of love guiding our path.

Silence for reflection and self-examination.

Most holy and merciful God, we confess to you and to one another, and before the whole company of heaven, that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven.