Ash
Wednesday Resource Kit, 2001
This year we offer you 2 resources for Ash Wednesday liturgies.
The
first
is written by Rev. Jeff Pulling of MCC of the Valley, in North
Hollywood, CA, USA, and is based on the theme, "Out of the
Ashes, New Life Emerges."
The
second
is based on the theme for the World Day of Prayer, which takes
places on March 2. That theme is "Informed Prayer, Prayerful
Action."
Ash
Wednesday is February 28, 2001.
To
mark the World Day of Prayer, and to further peoples' spiritual
journeys during Lent, consider these ministry ideas:
--Hold a day long retreat on prayer or a weekly series on prayer
during Lent
--Sponsor or participate in prayers with other faith communities
--Bring a labyrinth to your worship and encourage people to walk and
meditate
--Make a donation to a hospital prayer chapel of supplies to make
that space more inviting
and useful to people who need it
--Conduct trainings on prayer for members of the congregation who
will lead prayers, serve
communion or pray privately with people
--Plan a prayer garden, with a peace pole, for your facility
For
more information about the World Day of Prayer, visit the Women's
Inter-Church Council of Canada website at: http://www.wicc.org/wdp
ASH
WEDNESDAY Worship Service I
submitted
by the Rev. Jeffrey Pulling
Metropolitan Community Church in the Valley, North Hollywood,
California, USA
Theme: Out of the Ashes, New Life Emerges
Call
to Worship
One: Come, people of God, to know again who you are. Return to the
One
who gives you life.
All: We come as children of God, longing for a closer walk with our
Creator.
One: Gather together, all who feel spent and discouraged, all who
are
weighed down, and disheartened.
All: The Breath of God cleanses, and our hope is renewed. Life is
restored
to God's children. We welcome the Spirit of Christ who offers life
in all
its fullness.
Opening
Hymn
Welcome and Introduction
Welcome
to this Ash Wednesday service. Ashes have a long symbolic history in
Judaism and Christianity with many layers of meaning. One symbolic
meaning that has been overdone in Christianity is mourning and
repentance, the whole sackcloth and ashes routine. Other symbolic
meanings for ashes include mortality and cleansing. These other
meanings we will explore today.
Psalm
Prayer, Psalm 51: 10-17 (read in unison)
Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not push me away from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit
from me.
Give to me again the joy of your salvation,
and grant me a willing, generous spirit.
Then I will teach your ways to those who have lost their way,
and they will return to you.
Deliver me from destructiveness, O God, for you are my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your justice.
Open my lips, O Sovereign God, and my mouth will declare your
praise.
For sacrifices give you no pleasure; and burnt offerings you do not
desire.
My sacrifice, O God, is this humble, broken spirit.
A wounded and contrite heart, O God, you will not reject. Amen.
Scripture
Reading: Mark 5: 21-34
Reflections:
This
woman with a hemorrhage of blood for 12 years refused to surrender
to self-pity and helplessness. Physicians had not been able to help
her. With her continual seeping of blood, she had been considered
unclean and off-bounds for 12 years. She was supposed to stay away
from other people; to have any physical contact with another would
have made that person unclean also. It took real guts for this woman
to approach a holy man like Jesus and to reach out and touch him was
unthinkable. But she was desperate. She refused to accept her
ailment and isolation as a lifelong curse. She sensed powerful
spiritual energy in Jesus and she just wanted a little of it for
herself. Her faith in herself and her faith in the healing power of
God that she perceived in Jesus transformed her personal situation
of ashes into new life, renewed life and health.
Scripture
Reading:
Mark 5: 35-43
Reflections:
The God we see disclosed and active in Jesus refuses to let disease
and death have the last word. This sick little girl was given up for
dead, but Jesus lifts up her little body and restores her to life
and health. Family, friends and neighbors were already mourning what
they saw as a tragic
situation of "ashes", but Jesus transformed the situation
into one of joy. Luke's Gospel indicates that Jesus started his
ministry with an inaugural sermon in a synagogue in Nazareth (Luke
4:16-21) in which he said that a prophecy found in the Book of
Isaiah applied to him. That prophecy (Isaiah 61:1-3) goes like this:
The Spirit of the Sovereign God is upon me.
The Eternal One has anointed me and sent me:
to bring good news to the oppressed, to heal the broken-hearted,
to announce liberty to captives, and release to those imprisoned.
God has sent me to proclaim that this is the time
when the Eternal One will favor us with deliverance;
this is the time when God will overcome our enemies.
God has sent me to comfort all who mourn, to give to all those who
grieve in Zion,
a garland of flowers instead of ashes, an oil of gladness instead of
tears,
a garment of praise instead of a despairing spirit.
Our Ash Wednesday service today has the theme of Out of the Ashes,
New Life Emerges. One of the emphases of the Metropolitan Community
Churches is cooperating with the Spirit of God in the ongoing
transformation of Christianity. We are transforming the unhealthy,
damaging aspects of the faith we have inherited into something
positive, healthy, and helpful. The
symbol of ashes in Christianity has been handled in some rather
spiritually unhealthy ways to say the least, with people dumping
ashes on themselves figuratively and literally and saying, Woe is
me! Poor me! I am sinful and sick. I repent of my sick, evil ways.
The approach we will take will be the more spiritually healthy
approach that "ashes and dust" are an apt description of
our mortality and of the tragedies that strike us in life. Out of
the ashes of our lives, new life emerges. One of the spiritual
insights of the apostle Paul was that in everything God works for
good with those who love God... (Romans 8:28). This does not mean
that God causes horrible, tragic things to happen in order to bring
about some ultimate good. Rather, what it means is that whatever
horrible, tragic thing happens to us, God will work with us to bring
something good out of it.
As you participate in this Ash Wednesday service today with the
theme Out of the Ashes, New Life Emerges, I would urge you to
reflect on your own life. In your bulletin is an insert with the
words An "ashes" situation in my life that I pray will be
transformed into new life. When an "ashes" situation in
your own life that you are wrestling with comes to your mind during
this service, please write it down. We will offer these
"ashes" to God at the close of the service tonight.
Hymn
Holy Communion and Imposition of the Ashes
Open Invitation
In
the Metropolitan Community Churches we always celebrate an open
Communion. This is Christ's table, not our table; and Christ Jesus
invites to this meal all who will come. We recall the words of Jesus
when he said, I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not
hunger, and they who place their faith in me shall not thirst. All
that God gives me will come to me; and those who come to me, I will
not turn away.
Words
of Institution
The
night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, he was at supper with his
friends. He took bread, and when he had given thanks to God, he
broke the bread and gave it to those who were with him, saying,
Take, eat. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me. And after the supper, Jesus took the cup and when
he had given thanks to God, he gave it to his disciples, saying,
Drink from this, all of you. This is the cup of the new covenant. Do
this, as often as you shall drink it, in remembrance of me.
Prayer
of Consecration
Praise
be to you, O God. You are Sovereign of all creation. We offer to you
this bread, which represents all that we eat to nourish our bodies.
May it become for us the bread of life, which feeds our spiritual
hunger.
Praise be to you, O God. You are the Sustainer of the universe. We
offer to you this fruit of the vine, which represents all that we
drink to satisfy our physical thirst. May it become for us the cup
of salvation, which refreshes our spirits.
Spirit of God, Spirit of life and power, come upon us who are
gathered here today. Pour yourself out upon us. Come upon this bread
and this fruit of the vine that we who share in this meal may be
bonded with Christ and with each other. Come, O Spirit of Christ,
live in us that we may live in you. AMEN.
Imposition
of Ashes
Ashes have symbolic meaning besides the overdone mourning and
repentance theme. Another meaning is mortality. Dust we are, and to
dust we shall return. Our bodies are made up of the same stuff as
the dust of the earth, and to the dust of the earth we shall return.
But we are more than our bodies; we are also spiritual beings
animated by the Breath of God. As spirit we belong to God eternally.
Another symbolic meaning of ashes is cleansing. Before the
development of soap, ashes were used for cleaning. As an abrasive,
ashes were scrubbed on and then washed off with water. Ashes as a
cleansing agent might be a helpful way to view the "ashes"
situations in our lives; they cleanse us and prepare us for what
comes next.
I would invite you now to come forward for the imposition of ashes
on your forehead. You are then invited to receive Holy Communion.
Words
given over ashes:
Dust of the earth you are, and to the dust of the earth you shall
return. Spirit you are, and as spirit you belong to God eternally.
Psalm
Prayer
Psalm
51: 10-17
read
Psalm in unison again
Offering
of Prayer Requests
Participants
bring forward their bulletin inserts of "ashes" situations
that they pray be transformed and place them in basket on or on
front of altar, while Closing Song is being sung
Closing
Song
Benediction
ASH
WEDNESDAY Worship Service II
Theme:
Informed Prayer, Prayerful Action
Prelude
Opening Sentences:
Joel 2:12-13
Hear the word of God:
"Yet even now return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments."
Return to the Sovereign, your God,
For God is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
And repents of evil.
Music
The
Taize song, "Return to God," would be appropriate here.
Locate music from Taize at their website, www.taize.fr
Call
to Worship
One: God of our longing heart,
Many: Inspire us to pray,
One: That we may grow as faithful people,
Many: That we may care for all your world.
One: God of our yearning spirits,
Many: Inspire us to act,
One: That we may grow as faithful people,
Many: That we may care for all your world.
One: Let us worship our God.
Music
Readings from Scripture: Psalm
51:1-3, 10-12 OR
2 Corinthians 5:230b - 6:10
Contemporary
Reading:
Oscar Romero
Oscar
Romero was the archbishop of El Salvador who was murdered because of
his advocacy of justice for the poor and oppressed.
We have never preached violence
except the violence of love
which left Christ nailed to a cross,
the violence that we must each do to ourselves
to overcome our selfishness
and such cruel inequalities among us.
The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword,
the violence of hatred.
It is the violence of love,
of brotherhood [and sisterhood],
the violence that wills to beat weapons
into sickles for work.
Gospel
Reading:
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Sermon
Music
Call to Confession
Let us turn to God and confess our sins that we might be made new.
Confession
One: Where is your treasure?
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Many: For the times I have treasured belongings more than people,
Forgive me, God.
For the times I have let convenience matter more than the earth,
Forgive me, God.
For the times I have longed more for drugs than for health,
Forgive me, God.
For the times I have paid more attention to the TV than to my
family,
Forgive me, God.
For the times I valued money more than the needs of people,
Forgive me, God.
For my sins . . .
Silence
Forgive me, God.
One: Remind us, O God, what you treasure:
Many: The goodness of the human heart,
One: The beauty of the earth,
Many: Our care for one another,
One: The freedom of all beings,
Many: The wonder of your saving grace.
One: God, remove from us our sins and create a new spirit within us.
You have promised that when we call upon you, you are there.
Heal us, guide us, and create us anew,
And let us rest assured in the promise of your forgiveness.
Time
of silence
Invite
people to come forward during this time and receive ashes.
Music
Offering
Communion
Anointing with Oil
Anoint
peoples' hand with oil to empower them for service and action.
You can send people home with the vials of oil for continued use.
Closing
Hymn
Blessing
Thank
you to Jeff Pulling for his contribution.
For
more information:
Rev.
Justin Tanis, UFMCC
8704 Santa Monica Blvd, 2nd Floor West Hollywood, CA 90069 USA
Phone: 1-310-360-8640 Fax: 1-310-360-8680
