Bulletin – Wednesday, March 2, 2022 – Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Ash Wednesday

Scripture Reading:           Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

¹ 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— ² 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. ¹² Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ 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? ¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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?’”

“Even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12)

This year more than ever we need this season of Lent. We are living in at time immense upheaval, immense challenge, immense change, and it can feel as if we have been ripped loose of our moorings. It is time for us to roll up our sleeves, let down our guard, come in from the storm, make ourselves at home, pull up to the table, release the tension in your jaw. Take a deep breath. Return to God with all your heart. For God calls us, telling us that the time to return is now.

Invitation to Confession

Lent can sometimes get a negative reputation, it is seen as a time that we must sacrifice. It’s viewed as a season of our faith when we give things up, we prepare for the worst. However, I cannot help but imagine that God wants more for us than just six weeks of discipline, or six weeks without chocolate or coffee. I cannot help but imagine that God, especially after the two years that we have endured, wants a life for us so expansive that faith, joy, and hope flow over the edges. So let us confess, not because we have to give something up, because we have to spend time sacrificing and suffer without something, suffer our way through Lent, but because offering the truth, always the truth moves us one step closer to that expansive faith. Let us pray.

Prayer of Confession

Holy God, we confess: that we don’t return to you fully. We share with you the pieces of our lives that are convenient. We put on different hats in different rooms.

We forget that we are called, invited, and loved with all that we are—including our mess, our beauty, our faith, and our doubts.

Forgive us and give us hearts that long to return.

Words of Assurance

I NO LONGER PRAY FOR PEACE

By Ann Weems

On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.
I pray that stone hearts will turn
to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn
to mercifulness,
and all the soldiers already deployed
will be snatched out of harm’s way,
and the whole world will be
astounded onto its knees.
I pray that all the “God talk”
will take bones,
and stand up and shed
its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth.
I pray that the whole world might
sit down together and share
its bread and its wine.
Some say there is no hope,
but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on
the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God…
that we can truly love one another.
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.

Meditation

WITH ALL THAT YOU ARE

Prayer

One:   Loving Lord, at the beginning of this Lenten season, we are met with the challenge of handing over every bit of our lives that do not come from You. To rid ourselves of what clutters our lives, and all that distracts us from the simple truth of Your love for us. We are met with the challenge of looking at ourselves so that we might truly bring all that we are to you, knowing that we are accepted and loved, in our beauty and doubt.

One:   Your prophets have called us to change the way we worship—to make internal sacrifices instead of external ones. To seek justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with You each and every one of our days.

One:   If we don’t give anything up for Lent, then let us at least give up this: that we might cease living in ways that disconnect us from you, for every one of our steps is like a circle around Your temple. Perhaps this Lent, we can give up our way and give ourselves to Your way for us.

One:   So, lead and guide us on this Lenten way. May we walk with Jesus toward the hill just outside of Jerusalem. May we like Him take up our cross and follow, spending each moment of our lives living responsively to You, just as Christ Himself did. For that is the faithful way.
All:      Amen.

One:   We have come together this evening lifting up our words, our lament, our repentance to God, even when we don’t know the words that we are to pray. We have begun this journey towards Jerusalem but on this day we hold out to you God all who are afraid, all who are suffering, all who are grieving, all who are being marginalized and we offer this last prayer for you for our own courage as we enter this Lentin time;

HOW TO PRAY IN A TIME OF WAR

By Sara Jewell

I tried to write a prayer for the world
but words kept getting in the way
crisis
attack
invasion
war
I tried to write a prayer for the world
but words kept getting in the way
“I am scared for my son,”
choked out the young man sheltering in the subway
his toddler squirming in the stroller
“Where am I supposed to go?”
cried the older woman walking along the sidewalk
with her dog on a leash
“I’m doing this for my grandchildren,”
explained the man in his eighties
who tried to join the army of his country
I tried to write a prayer for the world
but words kept getting in the way
bombardment
special military operation
troops targeting the capitol
air raid sirens wailing
I tried to write a prayer for the world
but words kept getting in the way
of actions
we could be
should be
taking
whenever
wherever
we see the words
crisis
attack
invasion
war
refugees
migrants
victims
people
parents and grandparents
children and siblings
teachers and nurses
construction workers and truck drivers
cashiers and baristas
painters and musicians
bureaucrats and managers
farmers and fishers
heartbeat
breath
blood
bone
I tried to write a prayer for the world
but the words of the border guards
who refused to surrender
to the officer standing on the warship
got in the way
“Go f yourself”
said the thirteen men defending an island
And I think that
is the bravest prayer
I’ve ever heard.