Ash Wednesday: Only God Can Restore

(The hymn is sung during the imposition of ashes, repeating as necessary, until all have returned to their seats.)

Dialog (from Isaiah 58:1-12 & Psalm 51:1-27)

P: Shout 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.

C: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

P: Yet 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.

C: Wash me thoroughly form my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

P: “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.

C: Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

P: Look, 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.

C: Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

P: Is 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?

C: You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

P: Is 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?

C: Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

P: Is 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?

C: 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.

P: Then your light shall break forth 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. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

C: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

P: If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if 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.

C: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

P: The 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.

C: For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

P: Your 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.

Hymn: “Lord Jesus, Think on Me”

Tune: Southwell

Text Source: Text: Synesius of Cyrene, c. 375-430; tr. Allen W. Chatfield, 1808-1896, alt.

Music Source: Music: Daman, Psalmes, 1579

Hymn: “O Lord, hear my prayer”

Stand

Reading: Matthew 6:1-6

Hymn: “Where True Charity and Love Abide”

Tune: Taizé Ubi Caritas

Text Source: Text: Latin, 8th cent., tr. With One Voice

Music Source: Music: Jacques Berthier, 1923-1994

Reading: Matthew 6:16-18

Hymn: “Where True Charity and Love Abide”

Reading: Matthew 6:19-21

Hymn: “Where True Charity and Love Abide”

Sit

Homily

Stand

Hymn: “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life”

Tune: The Call

Text Source: Text: George Herbert, 1593-1632

Music Source: Music: R. Vaughan Williams, 1872-1958

Where true charity and love abide, . . .t.