Ash Wednesday, 7:30pm—March 2, 2022—First Congregational Church

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] me [Music] so [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] hmm [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] please stand as we step into this season of lent together have mercy on me o god according to your loving kindness in your great compassion blot out my offenses through and through from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin create in me a clean heart o god and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful spirit i shall teach your ways to the wicked and sinners shall return to you deliver me from death o god and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness o god of my salvation open my lips o lord and my mouth shall proclaim your praise [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] yes yes [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] god be with you and also with you let us pray almighty and merciful god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent create in us new and contrite hearts so that when we turn to you and confess our sins we may receive your full and perfect forgiveness through jesus christ our redeemer amen [Music] foreign [Music] a reading from the book of joel chapter 2. 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 out 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 the word of god for the people of god thanks be to god [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] me [Music] oh [Music] a reading from the second letter of paul to the corinthians chapter 5. 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 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 isn't 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 command 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 imposters 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 the word of god for the people of god thanks be to god [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the gospel lesson this night comes from matthew beginning in the sixth chapter the first verse listen for the word of god jesus said 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 the word of god for the people of god thanks be to god as we step into this night and into this season i want to pause again as we did on sunday to lift up the people of ukraine our sisters and brothers in the in ukraine are mostly christian over 70 percent are eastern orthodox in their faith practice and for those who may know the eastern orthodox do not recognize ash wednesday they have clean monday which is coming up this monday i kind of like that um you clean your house you clean your life you clean your slate and begin the great lent so we are thinking of them tonight my stole has the orthodox cross on it and my cross is from the coptic orthodox church so we are holding them in our hearts as we come together tonight and i ask again that we pause in silence before stepping into this time may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each one of our hearts be acceptable in your sight o lord our rock and our salvation amen the first time i met larry trexler 37 years ago the scar on his forehead stood out noticeably it was an indentation about one inch above his eyebrow line and it was deep in the center of his head larry was quiet he was pleasant kind and thoughtful and as one of the members of my first church said larry is a man of prayer the scar was so noticeable that it begged questions but somehow i heard the voice of my mom saying do not ask do not ask so i stopped the first time and i tried not to stare at the scar a few weeks later larry called and asked if we could meet of course i said and we met in my office and as he sat down he told me that he wanted to tell me a story about how the lord's prayer had saved his life he went on to describe a night a few years before when he was 27 and he was closing the convenience store that he managed on the west side of cleveland and as he went to close the front door a man with a gun came in and pointed it at his head he was robbing the store and he said give me everything you had larry was scared to death but did everything that the man demanded gave and gave him two hundred dollars then the man tied him up pointed the gun at larry's temple and said goodbye to this life say goodbye to this life he bowed his head and he started to pray the lord's prayer a single shot with fire and the man fled somehow miraculously larry opened his eyes to realize he was still alive as he laid in the pool of blood on the floor and he continued his story with this reverend tim it was only the prayer that saved me it was the only prayer i could think of in the moment of terror before i died because i tilted my head down and started praying the lord's prayer the way the bullet entered saved me i only got to the words our father before the shot was fired reverend tim it was a miracle my life was saved by god my life was saved by our father when i awoke he said i gave my life to god since he had spared my life i pray the lord's prayer constantly that prayer has led me to faith and a life of devotion i am grateful for every minute of every day that i have life and i'm here today to ask you how can i work with you to serve god and the church and so we began our journey of prayer and devotion larry teaching me how to pray you know when you come out of yale you think you know how to pray because they told you that with the degree but i knew nothing and he taught this young pastor what prayer looked like called the pastor nodder the the our father the lord's prayer has saved many lives through the years i'm living testimony to that perhaps you are too with only sixty-four words the pastor nader is the prayer given by jesus to his disciples when they asked him how do we pray as his disciples this prayer is our prayer too this is the prayer he gave them this is our prayer as well pastor nada really is a total prayer a concern its concerns embrace the whole world from the coming of the kingdom of god to daily bread large things and small things spiritual things and material things inward things and outward things nothing is beyond the purview of this prayer it is lifted to god in every conceivable setting it rises from altars of great cathedrals and from obscure shanties in distant lands it is spoken by children and kings by paupers and princes the soldiers and citizens of ukraine fighting for their lives this day for freedom are praying this prayer at this hour as we worship and christians across the globe are praying this prayer today and tonight as well ins in great and small ash wednesday services it is prayed at weddings and on deathbeds it is prayed by nobel laureates and noble illiterates it is everyone's prayer for me it was the first prayer i learned as a child i found out at an early age at about three years old that i wasn't allowed to talk in church which was really troubling to me and so i learned that the people who were talking were saying one thing over and over and over again so i learned the prayer i didn't learn it well and i didn't learn it right but i was able to talk in church and from those first days of prayer and worship that prayer has changed my life it's the first prayer i pray every morning when i rise it's the last prayer i pray each night how about you how is the lord's prayer part of your life the lord's prayer is essentially a petitionary prayer it's a prayer of asking adoration is present at both the beginning and the end of the prayer but petition is the heart of the prayer seven perfectly crafted requests three of which are entreaties to god for help god help me give me daily bread god help me forgive me and forgive me for what i have done so that i may be forgiven and forgive others god deliver me from all temptation and evil give and forgive and deliver add to these the coming of the kingdom of god on earth the will of god to be done on earth and glory and power come together all coming from and returning to god there you have it over the next seven sermons emily and i will unpack the lord's prayer line by line phrase by praise we will do this through preaching and then again we will look at writings on prayer and we'll go beyond the prayer as we study prayer and as we pray together through this lenten season all of this is at your fingertips this prayer of ours on this ash wednesday when we are called into the heart of confession and prayer i want to call on each one of us to deepen our life of prayer to pray is to change prayer is a great grace prayer is a gift from god to give us a pathway whereby our lives can be overtaken by love and joy peace and justice patience and kindness goodness and faithfulness gentleness and self-control the movement begins with inward steps because without interior change in our hearts and minds transfer transformation cannot take place if we cannot be still if we cannot be humble if we cannot be open we cannot be changed and we cannot become a new person with a new perspective prayer opens all of this portal prayer opens our hearts prayer stops us and instills in us the need for transformation as we step into lent i ask that each one of us give ourselves over to prayer think of larry so many years ago who bowed his head in the midst of facing his moment of death and all he could say before the shot was fired was our father and woke up alive with a bullet one centimeter from his brain this maybe is too brutal a visual for too many to grasp but consider soprano and harriet consider coretta and martin consider mother teresa bishop tutu consider your mother and father consider your grandmother and grandfather your children yourself on your knees talking to god in the end that is all prayer is about it is about talking to god each of us needs to stop worrying about being perfect in prayer and simply pray as we can not as we can't stop worrying start praying we need to talk to god we need to start with a simple prayer we begin right where we are without pause without judgment of ourselves and i think artists on ourselves when it comes to prayer or listening to the judgment of anyone else listening in if you're just beginning you may not have a prayer your prayer may start something like this to whom it may concern i guess i'll call you god but i'm not really sure about all that i've never talked to you before and i'm not really sure where you are or who you are but i know there's something out there something beyond myself something outside of my daily existence that needs a source of light and life and hope beyond myself i know that something is missing in my life i'm not sure what that something is i only know that it might involve you i'm not sure how to say this but it might have to do with words like words that i've never said like i'm sorry or let me try something new or i love you i know i'm stubborn i know i'm easily distracted and i know i'm self-centered i know i need help i know i need something more than i have right now so please help me goodbye that's how it happens just take a breath and pray in time that prayer may take on more words more feeling more conversation and eventually possibly and hopefully a conversion of your heart but let's not get ahead of ourselves for today let's just start talking to god simply start that will help so here we go our father amen uh foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] [Music] brothers and sisters and siblings in christ every year at easter we celebrate with joy our redemption and renewal through the life death and resurrection of jesus christ the season of lent is a time to prepare for this celebration and make room in our lives for the spirit of god to renew us in this mystery we begin this holy season by acknowledging our humanity our mortality and our need for repentance and our need for the love and forgiveness shown to us in jesus christ i invite you in the name of christ to observe a holy lent by self-examination and penitence by prayer and fasting by practicing works of love and by reading and reflection on god's holy word let us pray almighty god you have created us out of the dust of the earth grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life through jesus christ our savior amen amen i invite you to take this time in silent reflection to lift your thoughts and your prayers to god let us be silent and still together let us pray most holy and merciful god we confess to you and to one another and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth that we have sinned by our own 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 have mercy on us oh god we have been deaf to your call to serve as christ served us we have not been true to the mind of christ we have grieved your holy spirit have mercy on us we confess to you o god all our past unfaithfulness the pride hypocrisy and impatience of our lives we confess to you oh god our self-indulgent appetites and ways and our exploitation of other people we confess to you oh god our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves we can confess to you oh god our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts and our dishonesty in our daily life and work we confess to you oh god our negligence in prayer and worship and our failure to commend the faith that is in us we confess to you oh god accept our repentance oh god for the wrongs we have done for the neglect of human need and suffering and our indifference to injustice and cruelty accept our repentance oh god for all false judgments for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us accept our repentance oh god for our waste and pollution of your creation and our lack of concern for those who come after us accept our repentance oh god restore us o god and let your anger depart from us favorably hear us o god for your mercy is great amen as we come to this time of the imposition of ashes we invite you to come forward to receive the ashes on either your palm or your forehead in the sign of a cross and for those who are home we invite you if you have ashes to put them on your forehead in the name of the father and son and holy spirit to place those ashes on your head or to make the sign of the cross if you're choosing to sit take this time to reflect and pray for all on this night and this day of ash wednesday i invite you now to come forward oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] my [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] is [Music] give me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] god is [Music] [Music] offerings [Music] oh [Music] accomplish in us o god the work of your salvation that we may show forth your glory by the cross and passion of our savior bring us with all your saints to the joy of christ's resurrection amen almighty god does not desire the death of sinners but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live therefore we implore god to grant us true repentance and the holy spirit that those things which we do this day may be pleasing to god that the rest of our lives may be lived faithfully and that at last we may come to god's eternal joy through jesus the christ thanks be to god in the space following each petition you are invited to offer a loud or in the silence of your heart the names of those for whom you are praying this night god of heaven and earth the greatness of your love is beyond words to describe by the power of your spirit liberate us from all self-centeredness that we may be free to love others as christ loves us gracious god hear our prayer make of us pilgrims throughout these forty days lead us through discipline to discipleship through fasting to feasting through provation to freedom free us from our own struggles so that we may more fully serve one another gracious god hear our prayer help us to be obedient and joyful humble and caring merciful and loving anchor us in your life-giving word and make us radiant for you fitting ambassadors of your message of reconciliation gracious god hear our prayer help us to remember those who are sick in mind body or spirit and in need of your healing power those who grieve for nancy joe and kevin those faithful departed who now live with you in a greater light those who are oppressed or imprisoned or live in constant fear those who are homeless hungry or without dignity those in authority that they may do justice love mercy and walk in the ways of truth those members of our armed forces who face constant danger to safeguard the peace of others those who are lonely failing and infirmed those who do not yet know your unconditional love as we work together with christ help us not to accept your grace in vain but to remember that now is the day of salvation and to call upon you and serve you as you desire we ask these things in your name amen our father who art in heaven hallowed be 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] it is the practice each year at ash wednesday that we put offering plates at the doors to receive an offering for the work of good samaritan the good samaritan fund meets our neighbors as they come to us in their need and serves them in that need so feel free to share an offering as you go and for those who are home tonight to go to the qr code to make a gift now would you join me in our benediction and dismissal may god bless you and keep you may god's face shine upon you and be gracious to you may god look upon you with kindness and give you peace amen depart to love and serve the lord our god thanks be to god [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio

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Length: 84min 40sec (5080 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022