Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri
The Worship of God · February 17, 2010
Ash Wednesday
The observance of Ash Wednesday goes back at least to the tenth century and takes its name from the ceremonial imposition of ashes. The themes of this solemn ritual include the brokenness of life and our human mortality. We are asked to seek God’s forgiveness and healing with humble hearts.
Call to Worship
“Yet even now,” says the Holy One, “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, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, who always relents from punishing.”
Statement of Purpose
Friends in Christ, we begin, tonight, a 40-day journey toward Easter. We enter into the Lenten season to prepare ourselves to welcome the risen Christ, to welcome him with lives renewed by the breath of his Spirit. On this course, we assume the disciplines of self-examination, of confession, of penitence. We dedicate ourselves to meditate upon the Scriptures, to converse with our God in prayer, to seek to be more faithful disciples of Jesus, whose lives are shaped by the One whom we confess to be Lord and Savior of the world. To this end, let us worship our God, and let us enter into our psalm of penitence.
Psalm of Penitence
From Psalm 51
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Prophetic Lesson
Isaiah 40:6-11
A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows up it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Epistle Lesson
II Corinthians 5:16-21
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; 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.
Gospel Lesson
Matthew 6:1-8
“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.
“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by 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, the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
Procession to the Prayer Wall
Now, we, as the people of God, will recess to our Prayer Wall, there to receive the sign of Christ’s abiding presence even in ashes, even in brokenness, even in the valley of the shadow of death. We will go singing, “Jesus, Remember Me.”
“Jesus, Remember Me”
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Benediction
And now, may the blessing of God stay with you and keep you as you walk the road of faith. Now and always, Amen.
