ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE

March 2, 2022 – 6:00 PM

(Tap/click on the triangle below to listen to the full service while you follow the text)

PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY

Gathering Hymn: In the Quiet Curve of Evening – Voices United #278 Lorrie, Kim & Susan

1 In the quiet curve of evening, in the sinking of the days,
in the silky void of darkness, you are there.
In the lapses of my breathing, in the space between my ways,
in the crater carved by sadness, you are there.
You are there, You are there, You are there.

2 In the rests between the phrases, in the cracks between the stars,
in the gaps between the meaning, you are there.
In the melting down of endings, in the cooling of the sun,
in the solstice of the winter, you are there.
You are there, You are there, You are there.

3 In the mystery of my hungers, in the silence of my rooms,
in the cloud of my unknowing, you are there.
In the empty cave of grieving, in the desert of my dreams,
in the tunnel of my sorrow, you are there.
You are there, You are there, You are there.

Opening Invitation & Welcome Rev. Kim Vidal

As we enter into this sacred space,
put away the pressures of the world that ask us
to perform,
to take up masks,
to put on brave fronts.
Silence the voices that ask you to be perfect.
This is a community of compassion and welcoming.
We bring all that we are and all that we yet can be,
to this safe and ordinary place.

Welcome to our Ash Wednesday service - a time to begin the season of Lent, a time to remember that from the dust of the earth, the ashes of stars long burnt out, we were created, and to the earth we return. Ash Wednesday invites us to come back to earth, to wonder at the gift of life, my life, our life with the earth, the shared body of our existence. Ashes were once trees and shrubs, and places where life was lived to its fullest. Once they were full of life. Now they are black and grey. Dry. Lifeless. But mixed with the waters of our baptism make good fertiliser: it will help the seeds of the gospel take deeper root in us and bring forth the fruits, the harvest of justice, peace, and generosity. These are ashes worth wearing. May we accept this gift. And be blessed. And be assured we will be different at the end of this season. Our faith journey rises and falls with each season, as we experience our own times of joy and pain, wellsprings full and wilderness deserts. On Ash Wednesday, we recognize our own season of wandering from God, where we feel distant, aloof. God desires to draw us back into God’s embrace. In this time of Lent, we reflect on our faith journey, we confess and repent of our own shortcomings, what we have done to separate us from others and from God, and we seek forgiveness and reconciliation with God and others. We seek healing and hope. We seek renewal of our faith life. Just as spring is waiting deep in the ground beneath us, so we know that what seems lost will be found, and will be restored. Come, let us gather in worship.

The Invocation Rev. Lorrie Lowes

We come, God.
We come as we are. We can come in no other way.
Our heart holds our joys, our burdens, our hopes,
our dreams, our successes, our failures.
We come to meet you and have our hope renewed.
We come to you seeking life in all of its fullness.
Grant that the symbol of ashes, the dust of once-joyous palms,
may remind us of our mortality,
but more than that, may they remind us of the life toward which you call us.
Bless us and help us prepare ourselves for the journey.
As we sing the next hymn, I invite you, if you wish, to light a candle as a symbol of Christ journeying with us in the season of Lent.

Hymn: “Dust and Ashes Touch Our Face” Voices United #105 Kim, Lorrie & Susan

1 Dust and ashes touch our face,
mark our failure and our falling.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow,
take us as disciples,
washed and wakened by your calling.

Refrain:
       Take us by the hand and lead us,
       lead us through the desert sands,
       bring us living water,
       Holy Spirit, come.

2 Dust and ashes soil our hands --
greed of market, pride of nation.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow
as we pray and struggle
through the meshes of oppression. R

3 Dust and ashes choke our tongue
in the wasteland of depression.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow,
through all the gloom and grieving
to the paths of resurrection. R

Invitation to Confession Rev. Lorrie Lowes

Lent is a journey of deepening reflection and renewal, an opportunity to make new commitments in faith. We now prepare for the journey by setting aside burdens that would weigh us down. Let us turn to God in confession.

Prayer of Confession

O God, in this quiet place of prayer and humility before you, the tears of our regrets fall on the ashes of truth. We listen to the grief in the sighing of your longing people reaching hopefully towards compassion and justice. And we hear, in our minds’ memories, reminders of many missed moments for the announcing of prophetic truth, when our courage and commitment failed us. (Silence)

As life reaches out to hold us into good, we often let it pass and turn our faces from the costly road on which Christ walked. (Silence)

And now, O God as your children, our hearts weep, when we remember the divine dreams and visions shining before us in Jesus the Christ. We remember our claiming of your name as God’s people and the many betrayals of the great hope in which we are called as your children this day. (Silence).

We look at the cross and the light of your life in all the world. We acknowledge that this longing is often reduced to ashes, and becomes a burnt sign of our lost aspirations. In sadness we know who we wanted to be and who we really are. (Silence)

Words of Assurance

God who loved you in the beginning loves you still.
Be assured that God stays with you,
in all the twists and turns of life. Amen.

CALL TO THE JOURNEY

Sung Response: Don’t Be Afraid - More Voices #90 Susan TeGrotenhuis 2021

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

Reading 1: Selected Verses from Isaiah 58 (NRSV) Reader: Ross Mutton

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn...

The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

Sung Response

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

Reading 2: Blessing the Dust (Jan Richardson) Reader: Barbara Bole

All those days you felt like dust,
like dirt, as if all you had to do
was turn your face toward the wind
and be scattered to the four corners
or swept away by the smallest breath
as insubstantial— did you not know
what the Holy One can do with dust?

This is the day we freely say we are scorched.
This is the hour we are marked by what has made it through the burning.
This is the moment we ask for the blessing that lives within
the ancient ashes, that makes its home
inside the soil of this sacred earth.

So let us be marked not for sorrow.
And let us be marked not for shame.
Let us be marked not for false humility
or for thinking we are less
than we are but for claiming
what God can do within the dust,
within the dirt, within the stuff
of which the world is made
and the stars that blaze in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge we bear.

Sung Response

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

Reading 3: Marked by Ashes (Walter Bruegguemann) Reader: Jan Pound

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
     halfway back to committees and memos,
     halfway back to calls and appointments,
     halfway on to next Sunday,
     halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
     half turned toward you, half rather not.

This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
   but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
     we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
       of failed hope and broken promises,
       of forgotten children and frightened women,
     we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
     we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.

We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
   you Easter parade of newness.
   Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
     Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
     Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
   Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
     mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

Sung Response

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

Moment of Intentional Silence Rev. Kim Vidal

"Silence is God's first language," wrote the 16th-century mystic John of the Cross. And silence is the normal context in which contemplative prayer takes place. But there is silence and then there is silence. There is an outer silence, an outer stopping of the words and busy-ness, but there is also a much more challenging interior silence, where the inner talking stops as well. I invite you at this moment to open yourself to God through an open intentional silence, as we let go, as we lay down what is past and look to the future. In silence, we take into our daily life signs of hope and healing. In silence, we reach beyond ourselves to share the lives of others and touch a wider world. Let us take a few moments of intentional silence.

Affirmation of Faith: As we share this day of commencing our Lenten journey, let us affirm our faith together. We believe in Jesus Christ who, even on the lonely way towards Jerusalem, holds us fast, as we dare to enter and stay with our realities. Here, within the ashes of our lost hopes, the Holy Spirit will be found, inviting us again to a true encounter with our past and present and joining us as we face what has been and moving us toward a new day. Amen.

Hymn: “Stay With Us” Voices United #182 Erin, Kim, Lorrie & Susan

1. Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the pain.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning breaks again.

2. Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the grief.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning brings relief.

3. Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the dread.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning breaks new bread.

PLANNING FOR THE JOURNEY

Blessing of the Ashes & Prayer for the Journey Rev. Lorrie Lowes

May these ashes be blessed. May they be for us a symbol of our return to the earth.
May we be blessed. May we be earthed in your everlasting love, as forgiven and forgiving people.
Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.
Know that God’s love will bless you in your journey.

Let us pray.

God our Creator, you have formed us out of the dust of the earth. May these ashes be to us, a sign of our humanity so we may remember that only by your gracious gift are we given abundant life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who taught us this prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kin-dom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kin-dom, the power and the glory, Forever and ever, Amen.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Hymn: “Bless Now O God the Journey” Voices United #633 Abe, Susan & Lorrie

1 Bless now, O God, the Journey
that all your people make,
the path through noise and silence,
the way of give and take.
The trail is found in desert
and winds the mountain round,
then leads beside still waters,
the road where faith is found.

2 Bless sojourners and pilgrims
who share this winding way,
whose hope burns through the terrors,
whose love sustains the day.
We yearn for holy freedom
while often we are bound.
Together we are seeking
the road where faith is found.

3 Divine Eternal Lover,
you meet us on the road.
We wait for lands of promise
where milk and honey flow.
But waiting not for places,
you meet us all around.
Our covenant is written
on roads, as faith is found

Sending Forth Rev. Kim Vidal

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Let the memory of your incomplete humanity
awaken you to the wonders, joys, sorrows, and pain of life.
Let the ashes we wear be the ashes of transformation;
of awakening to the beauty and love of seizing the moment
and living it to the fullest.
Let it be said of you that here in this little part of eternity
that you lived fully, loved extravagantly and helped humanity evolve into all that God dreamed we can be!
We affirm that we are fearfully and wonderfully made
In the image of God: Creator, Christ and Spirit One. Amen.

Ash Wednesday Service - March 2, 2022