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Ash Wednesday

Kurt Christenson

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

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ASH WEDNESDAY

March 5, 2025

Psalm 51:1-17

refrain

verse tone

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your | steadfast love;

in your great compassion blot out | my offenses.

Wash me through and through | from my wickedness,

and cleanse me | from my sin.

For I know | my offenses,

and my sin is ev- | er before me.

Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil | in your sight;

so you are justified when you speak and right | in your judgment. *refrain

Indeed, I was born | steeped in wickedness,

a sinner from my | mother’s womb.

Indeed, you delight in truth | deep within me,

and would have me know wisdom | deep within.

Remove my sins with hyssop, and I | shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be pur- | er than snow.

Let me hear | joy and gladness;

that the body you have broken | may rejoice. *refrain

Hide your face | from my sins,

and blot out | all my wickedness.

Create in me a clean | heart, O God,

and renew a right spir- | it within me.

Cast me not away | from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spir- | it from me.

Restore to me the joy of | your salvation

and sustain me with your boun- | tiful Spirit. *refrain

Let me teach your ways | to offenders,

and sinners shall be re- | stored to you.

Rescue me from bloodshed, O God of | my salvation,

and my tongue shall sing | of your righteousness.

O Lord, o- | pen my lips,

and my mouth shall pro- | claim your praise.

For you take no delight in sacrifice, or | I would give it.

You are not pleased | with burnt offering.

The sacrifice of God is a | troubled spirit;

a troubled and broken heart, O God, you will | not despise. *refrain

PRAYER OF THE DAY

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty and ever-living God, you hate nothing you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and honest hearts, so that, truly repenting of our sins, we may receive from you, the God of all mercy, full pardon and forgiveness through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

🜊 SOLA SCRIPTURA 🜊

THE OLD TESTAMENT 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?’ ”

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.

HYMN Chief of Sinners Though I Be

GOSPEL: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Jesus said to the disciples: “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.”

*all sing:

4 Chief of sinners though I be, Christ is all in all to me;

all my wants to him are known, all my sorrows are his own.

He sustains the hidden life safe with him from earthly strife.

5 O my Savior, help afford by your Spirit and your word!

When my wayward heart would stray, keep me in the narrow way;

grace in time of need supply while I live and when I die.

Text: William McComb, 1793-1870

HOMILY

🜊SOLA FIDE🜊

INVITATION TO LENT

Friends in Christ, today with the whole church we enter the time of remembering Jesus’ passover from death to life, and our life in Christ is renewed.

We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance and for God’s mercy. We are created to experience joy in communion with God, to love one another, and to live in harmony with creation. But our sinful rebellion separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, so that we do not enjoy the life our creator intended.

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to a discipline that contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from love of God and neighbor. I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent—self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love—strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament. Let us continue our journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent…

CONFESSION OF SIN

Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.

silence is kept after for reflection

Most holy and merciful God,

we confess to you and to one another, and before the whole company of heaven, that we have sinned by our fault, by our own fault, by our own most grievous fault, in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven.