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    Mar 05, 2025

    Ash Wednesday - Mar 5, 2025

    Ash Wednesday - Mar 5, 2025

    Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

    Series: General Topic

    Two thoughts we must keep together, and which Lenten observance invites us to attend to in focus: You will die – so seek wisdom that allows you to live as this gift of life is and offers. You will live – so seek the hope of the new beginning that comes with the end.

    Two thoughts we must keep together, and which Lenten observance invites us to attend to in focus:

    • You will die–so seek wisdom that allows you to live as this gift of life is and offers
    • You will live–so seek the hope of the new beginning that comes with the end
      • How to keep them together such that neither overshadows or displaces the other?
      • How does Lent as a season of repentance factor in? How might dwelling on our mortality encourage our humility and spiritual renewal? 
      • Might we even specify what the renewal of the heart is as a new appreciation for both truths, and their corresponding invitations, held together? In which case repentance looks like turning away from our ingratitude for the gift of this life, and turning away from our joylessness at even the thought of life without end?
      • We encourage you to not hurry, but to move slowly and reflectively this evening. To that end we will give you moments of stillness and prayerful reflection throughout the evening.

     

     

    CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 103:8-14

    Leader: The Lord is merciful and gracious, 
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 
    He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.

    All: He does not deal with us according to our sins, 
    nor repay us according to our iniquities. 
    For as high as the heavens are above the earth, 
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 
    as far as the east is from the west, 
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 
    As a father shows compassion to his children, 
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 
    For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

     

    PERSONAL PRAYER & REFLECTION

    You’re encouraged to be still before your Father who knows your limitations and who loves you limitlessly. 

     

    PRAYER: Hear this invitation to return to the Lord from Hosea 6:1-3.

    Leader: Come, let us return to the Lord;
    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

    All: After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.

    Leader: Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;

    All: He will come to us as the showers,
    as the spring rains that water the earth.

     

    PERSONAL PRAYER & REFLECTION

    You’re encouraged to be still before the Lord again, listening for his voice inviting your return. Where might your spirit need to yield to his love, to surrender certain habits or attitudes in order to offer a more whole-hearted yes to Jesus?

    Take a moment to return to the Lord, to yield to his love.

     

    SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 18:9-14

    [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

     

    CONFESSION OF SIN

    ALL: Father in Heaven, here I am. Help me to be honest with you. I’m done hiding. Here's the real me, the only person you can transform. I’m tired of pretending—I want to truly care. I’m weary of formulas—I long for the real thing. I don’t just want to read about grace—I want to experience it.

    So here’s my honest confession: Break into my life tonight so I can be found in yours. Grab my heart before it drifts away. I confess that I love other things more than you, and I want that tochange. Renew my heart, forgive my sin through the work of Jesus. 

    By your precious Holy Spirit, make Jesus real to me, here and now, and forever. Amen.

     

    ABSOLUTION OF PARDON: 1 John 1:8-9

    If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

     

    MEDITATION: Hebrews 5:7-9 - Patrick

    In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.  Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

     

    PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

    ALL: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
    Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us this day our daily bread,
    and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
    And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
    For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
    forever and ever. Amen.

     

    CALL TO A HOLY LENT AND BENEDICTION

    LEADER: May God the Father, who does not despise the broken spirit, give to you a contrite heart.

    ALL: Amen.

    LEADER: May Christ, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, heal you by his wounds.

    ALL: Amen.

    LEADER: May the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, convict you of sin and comfort you with words of pardon and peace.

    ALL: Amen.

    LEADER: And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.

    ALL: Amen.



    QUOTES:

     

    • Ash on an old man's sleeve 
      Is all the ash the burnt roses leave. 
      Dust in the air suspended 
      Marks the place where a story ended.
      - T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

    • God’s creation exists moment by moment or not at all, and our only chance at immortality might lie in experiencing each of those moments as the stunning extravagance they actually are. But how is that even possible? . . .My appreciation for the current moment rose to such levels that it could almost be paralyzing. . .how unlikely the whole thing was. Why wasn’t everyone crying all the time over this?
      - Sebastian Junger, In my Time of Dying

     

     

    • “Death is sin made visible.”
      - Christopher Ash

    • “Sin is the violation of Shalom.”
      - Cornelius Plantinga Jr. 

    • Death opens a door out of a little, dark room (that's all the life we have known before it) into a great, real place where the true sun shines and we shall meet.
      - C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces