Ash Wednesday | Lent 2021
As we continue the process of “wintering” at home amidst the Covid pandemic, we can still participate in the season of Lent and the liturgy of Ash Wednesday together.
If you would like to receive ashes for use at home, please contact Pr. David and he would be glad to provide you with oil, ashes, and an Ash Wednesday handbook.
Join us for a Virtual Ash Wednesday Gathering on February 17 at 7:03am or NOON. Below is the full version of our liturgy, however, we will hold a brief “Call to Ashes”/Imposition of Ashes and then encourage participants to consider creating 30-45 minutes of space to work through the remaining prompts in a contemplative fashion.
Words of Introduction
LENT begins - today - Wednesday, Feb. 17th, & is marked by the 40 days, not including Sundays, between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday - April 2nd. We observe Lent as a deliberate way to join with the church around the world in preparing ourselves for Resurrection. Instead of charging ahead to Easter, Lent calls us to examine our relationship with God/others/self and the ways we respond to God's love for us or fail to respond to love. Lent is a time of remembrance that steers us toward repentance. Lent is an opportunity to experience God’s mercy here & now, to be released from negative patterns of behavior, and to embrace a life of loving holiness. Lent is a season to experience the depths of the Easter message – a new creation in Christ.
Ash Wednesday has been honored by Christians for well over ten centuries. In the earliest ages, Christians who had been stuck in persistent sin had ashes sprinkled on their bodies as a sign of repentance, even as Job repented “in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Around the tenth century, many believers began to signify their need for repentance by having ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. ***Notice: even this sign of sinfulness hinted at the good news yet to come through its shape. Ash Wednesday is more than a dour holy day rather, it symbolically anticipates the pattern of Life/Death/Life-after-death.
Ashes are placed on the foreheads of worshipers as a reminder of our frailty, mortality and sinfulness. The person who imposes the ashes quotes something like what God once said to Adam after he had sinned: “Remember...You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). This is the soil-y news of our grittiness that prepares us to receive the good news of forgiveness/hope/Life in Christ Jesus our Savior, Healer, and Guide.
Slowly breathe in and out these prayers, Scriptures, and confessions. Let us practice together the art of: SITting. STAYing. WALKing in the Way of Jesus. May the Spirit richly indwell our hearts & minds...
A Prayer for the Trailhead of Lent
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our grittiness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
[Reception of Ashes]
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Why Ashes???
…Sin & Sinner
Con > fess > ion:
[To come clean with current reality]
What is my current reality?
Can I name the current pulses of my heart?
What am I currently feeling, sensing, fearing?
LITANY of PENITENCE
Most holy & merciful God: We confess to you & to one another,
And to the whole communion of saints in heaven & on earth,
That we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word & deed;
By what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart & mind & strength.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.
[Have mercy on us, Lord]
We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us.
We have not been true to the mind of Christ.
We have grieved your Holy Spirit
[Have mercy on us, Lord]
SINS against SELF
We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness:
the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives.
[We confess to you, Lord]
Our self-indulgent appetites and ways,
and our exploitation of other people,
Our anger at our own frustration
and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,
Our denial of intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts,
and our dishonesty in daily life and work,
Our negligence in prayer and worship
and our failure to commend the faith that is in us.
SINS against OUR NEIGHBOR
Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done:
for our blindness to human need and suffering
and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,
[Accept our repentance, Lord]
For all false judgments,
for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors
and for our prejudice
and contempt toward those who differ from us.
SINS against CREATION
For our waste and pollution of your creation
and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us,
[Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.]
Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,
[That we may show your glory to the world.]
By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,
[Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.]
Read & Reflect: PSALM 90 &/or PSALM 103
Lay it ALL down
…We encourage you to listen to the Will Reagan song “Lay It All Down” (found on the Coastal Lent 2021 playlist) as you consider these questions below…
What do I sense the Spirit & my spirit are asking me to
practice/surrender/lay down
during LENT 2021?
[After a time of heart examination,
feel free to tear away and place in the "coffin"
as an exercise of "death" that can lead to new life...]
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
What are you inviting me (us) to practice, surrender, or lay down over the next 40 days?
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
What do I (we) sense you want to offer me (us) over the next 40 days?
Benediction & Blessing:
May we rend our hearts and not our clothing.
[Let's return to the Lord, our God.]
God is gracious & merciful, God is slow to anger & quick to forgive.
[God is abounding in steadfast love & relents in punishment.]
May we walk with Jesus as we are led toward the cross and resurrection!
The peace of Christ be with you...
[And also with you...]