Lisa Frenz 2013
P = Presiding Minister
A = Assisting Minister
L = Lector or Minister
C = Congregation
Order of Worship
Prelude
Call to Worship:
P: Stop. Look around.
Where are you?
A: Where are you at in your life?
Where are you at with your God?
P: Where are you? Here. Now.
A: Now. Take stock.
Are you facing forward? Or back?
P: Are you looking inward?
Or out toward the world?
A: Where are you looking? Today. This moment.
P: Time is inexorable. The days pass.
A: Now is gone before it can be grasped.
P: Where are you?
Gathering Song: Be Thou My Vision vs. 1,2
Tune Name: SLANE
Text Source: Text: Irish 8th-10th cent.; tr. Mary E. Byrne, 1880-1931; vers. Eleanor H. Hull, 1860-1935, alt.
Music Source: Music: Irish tune
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art:
thou my best thought by day and by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower,
raise thou me heav'nward, O Pow'r of my pow'r.
C: Who am I, Lord, that you call me yours, that you love me as I am? For I wallow in self-hatred, drive away those who love me, live in fear of transformation, always running from the future even as I aspire to a past immutable and unforgiving.
Yet for all my introspection, for all my grief and fear, you are my quiet center, the place I love so dear. You give me consolation and refuge from life’s trials, replacing apathy with energy and with the joy you toss in for surprise, filling me with breath and strength and love, you push me out the door.
Imposition of Ashes:
Those who wish, may come forward to receive ashes on their foreheads.
P: Receive this outward sign of an inward repentance. Remember that through Christ’s death on a cross and his resurrection you are given new life.
The pastor makes the sign of a cross in ashes mixed with olive oil on the forehead of each person. When all have received ashes the worship continues.
A: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Romans 8:5-9a
C: Amen.
Praise Song: How Small Our Span of Life
Tune: KINGSFOLD
Text: Herman G. Stuempfle Jr., b. 1923
Music: English Traditional
How small our span of life, . . . light before we sleep to see the sun no more.
And yet our speck of life is spanned . . . while aeons roll and ages pass, you hold us in your grace.
O Christ, you left eternity . . . touch us with your risen life that ours may time transcend.
We thank you, God, for kindling faith . . . both human and divine, that lifts our hearts to praise.
Psalm 139
L: O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
All: Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
L: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
All: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
L: How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
All: O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:1-8
L: On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; he sets up victory like walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace— in peace because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.
For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low. He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire.
L: The word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
Gospel: John 15:1-17
L: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
L: The word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
If you wish to use the traditional texts for Ash Wednesday they are:
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 51:1-17 (1) or Psalm 103:8-14
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Homily
Theme Song: Restore in Us, O God
Tune Name: POTSDAM
Text Source: Text: Carl P. Daw Jr., b. 1944
Music Source: Music: Mercer, Church Psalter, 1854
Restore in us, O God, . . . and all our sins remove.
O Spirit, wake in us . . . like springtime bud and flower.
Bring us, O Christ, to share . . . that death cannot destroy.
Three personed God, fulfill . . . may see you face to face.
Statement of Faith:
When the world closes in, and life and death and defeat abound, I believe that God, my Creator, my Father, my Mother, still cherishes me and all people, cradling me in life-giving vigor.
When achievements, excitements, and diversions engulf me, I believe that Jesus, my Savior, steps forward again and again, to bring me back into focus, to restore me in love and save me from myself.
When I turn my face away and spend too much time on me, I believe that the Spirit of Love, my Mentor, reaches out to me, opening me to new ways and new truths, presenting me with never-ending possibilities in an incredibly diverse world which my Creator, my Savior and my Mentor never stop loving.
Offering of Gifts
C: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36
Prayer(s)
A: The plans of the mind belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All one’s ways may be pure in one’s own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Proverbs 16:1-4
Blessing:
P: May the God of time and eternity hold you close.
May the God who knows all that you are reveal all that you can be.
May the God of this boundless universe be with you always.
C: Amen.
Sending Song: Beauty for Brokenness
Tune Name: GOD OF THE POOR
Text Source: Text: Graham Kendrick
Music Source: Music: Graham Kendrick
Beauty for brokenness, hope for despair: . . sunrise to sunset your kingdom increase.
Refrain:
God of the poor, friend of the weak, . . .Come, change our love from a spark to a flame.
Shelter for fragile lives, cures for their ills, . . . voices to plead the cause of those who can't speak. Refrain
Refuge from cruel wars, havens from fear, . . .Christ for the bitterness, his cross for the pain. Refrain
Rest for the ravaged earth, oceans and streams, . . . make us content with the things that we need. Refrain
Lighten our darkness, breathe on this flame, . . .seek your salvation and bring you their praise. Refrain
Postlude