Ash Wednesday Meditation

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Lights are on dim. Shades closed.

Candles:

Lighted Votives on tables at front (one on each side)

Lighted Wall sconce

Lighted Votives on cart to pass out

Prelude

Suggested Choir Anthem: Just As I Am, Lord (Price/Besig)

Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

Meditation Refrain Forgive Me, Oh God

& Imposition of Ashes

The psalm below is spoken as the refrain is sung.

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. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 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.

Pause

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

Pause

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.

Pause

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. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 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. Psalm 51:1-17

When the psalm is ended those wishing to do so may come forward for the Imposition of Ashes. The refrain continues until all have returned to their seats.

Silence

Stand

Greeting:

P: The grace of God and the love of Christ Jesus be with you all.

C: And also with you.

Greeting of Peace:

Meditation Refrain: We Are Turning, Lord, to Hear You

Music: Latvian folk tune KAS DZIEDAJA

We Are Turning, . . . with love to us inclined.

P: Being a people reconciled to God, who is indeed merciful and loving, having saved us through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we should also be reconciled to each other. Peace be with you.

C: And also with you.

All share the Peace of Christ.

Sit

P: As God calls us to reconciliation through Jesus the Christ, so to does God send us the Spirit for the healing of our body, minds and souls. Through the Word, God renews us.

Suggested Choir Anthem: A Lyric Adoramus Te (Gilpin)

Prayer of the Day:

A: Let us pray,

C: God of love, you are relentless in your efforts to bring us back into relationship with you, to the point of becoming human yourself, and showing us the way through Christ Jesus. You call us to return, to change, to new life through our acknowledgment that we fall short of the perfection which you created for us. Bring us to this repentance that we may be with you, your Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen..

Scripture Song: By the Babylonian Rivers

Music: Latvian folk tune KAS DZIEDAJA

By the Babylonian Rivers ...

There our captors...

How shall we sing ....

Let the cross be benediction....

The reader lights a candle

First Lesson: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'

R: The word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

Silence

The reader lights a candle

Psalm 51:1-17

Spoken over music with congregational refrain.

A: 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.

Refrain: Create In Me A Clean Heart

P: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 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. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

Refrain: Create In Me A Clean Heart (Aguilar)

A: 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. 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.

Refrain: Create In Me A Clean Heart (Aguilar)

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

Refrain: Create In Me A Clean Heart (Aguilar)

P: The word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

Silence

The reader lights a candle

Second Lesson: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

R: The word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

Silence

Stand

Gospel Song: Lord, Teach Us How to Pray Aright

Text: James Montgomery, 1771-1854, alt.

Music: SONG 67, Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625

Lord, teach us how to pray aright,

with rev'rence and with fear.

Though dust and ashes in your sight,

we may, we must draw near.

Give deep humility; the sense

of godly sorrow give;

a strong desire, with confidence,

to hear your voice and live;

Faith in the only sacrifice

that can for sin atone;

to cast our hopes, to fix our eyes

on Christ, on Christ alone.

The pastor lights a candle

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

"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.

"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. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"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. But 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.

"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. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so 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.

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

P: The word of the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God.

Sit

Silence

During the silence the votives are passed out to the congregation. They hold these and use them as a meditation focus during the message.

Music for Meditation

Message

Silence

At the end of the silence the votives may be blown out and placed on the floor.

Stand

Theme Song: Beauty for Brokenness

GOD OF THE POOR

Beauty for brokenness...

Shelter for fragile lives, ....

Refuge from cruel wars, ...

Rest for the ravaged earth ....

Lighten our darkness, ...

Silence

Prayer Refrain O God, Hear Us

Prayers of the Church

Prayer Refrain O God, Hear Us

Silence

Sit

Offering

Offering Prayer:

A: Let us pray,

C: God of our salvation, we give you thanks. You have walked with us all our lives. You have given us uncounted assistance. You have stayed by us when we abandoned you. Increase our awareness of you so that we may always give back to you what you first gave us: our lives, our talents, our possessions, that you may use them as you will in this world. Amen.

Silence

Stand

Exhortation:

P: Go now, share Christ, your friend, your brother, your constant companion who is in you, knowing that you are filled with the Spirit and empowered to act as the hands of God here and now, for you are marked and sealed with the cross of Christ.

C: Amen.

Sending Song: As Sunshine to a Garden

As sunshine to a garden...

As water to a gar den...

As food is to a gar den...

Lord, I will be your gar den....

Postlude

Google Sites

Report abuse