Ash Wednesday Service | 2nd Mar '22

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] flowers [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit glorify the lord with me let us exalt his name together i welcome all of you to this service of the ash wednesday and today we will worship with the theme the spirit of christian discipline the spirit of christian sadhana shall we now worship our lord by singing the first hymn of this evening him 443 from the cathedral praise son of my soul [Music] [Music] it is [Music] [Applause] remember [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] r [Music] with me [Music] [Applause] [Music] has [Music] woke me watched [Music] is [Applause] was [Music] when we ring [Music] [Applause] all ourselves [Music] in the order of the lord's supper we turn to section 3 the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all let us pray almighty god to whom all hearts are open all desires known and from whom no secrets are head clench the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through christ our lord amen lord have mercy christ have mercy lord have mercy holy god holy and mighty holy and immortal have mercy on us let us pray father in heaven we thank you for this wonderful opportunity of coming into your house to worship with your people and lord to begin our physical worship on this very great occasion of the institution of the lenten season father we thank you and praise you that we have been able to gather together and worship in unison to be reminded of our need to repent and to act out penitence so that each one of us may go through the season of lent and becoming purged by the presence of your holy spirit come out victorious come out stronger having defeated all that is within and around us all the evil desires all that the devil throws our way to tempt to test and to try us help us to be victorious and set us on the path of victory in christ's name we pray amen collect for the ashmannest disservice almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent created in us new and contrite hearts so that sorrowing for our sins and acknowledging our weakness we may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect pardon and peace through jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit one god now and always amen ministry of the word for us the prophet declares what kind of fasting is pleasing to god the old testament reading is taken from azaya chapter 58 verses 1 to 9. cry aloud spear not lift up your voice like a trumpet declare to my people their transgression to the house of jacob their sins yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteous and did not forsake the ordinance of their god they ask me if they ask of me titus judgments they delight to draw near to god why have he fasted and thou seized it not why have we humbled ourselves and thou take us no knowledge of it behold in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers behold you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit the wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high as such the first that i choose a day for a man to humble himself is it to bow down his head like a rash and to spread suck cloth and ashes under him will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the lord is not this the first that i choose to lose the points of wickedness to undo the thongs of the hook 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 him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speed me your righteous shall go before you the glory of the lord shall be your rear guard then you shall call and the lord will answer you shall cry and he will say here i am this is the word of the lord the responsive reading has been taken from psalm chapter 32 verses 1 to 7 and your response shall be blessed is he whose sin is covered blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven even he whose sin is covered blessed is the man unto whom the lord imputed no sin and in whose spirit there is no guy your response let's disease sin for while i held my tongue my bones consumed away i ceased not from groaning all the day long for thy hand was heavy upon me day and night i was dried up and withered as it were by drought in summer he responds rest is he whose sin is i acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity did i not hide i said i will confess my sins unto the lord and so thou forgive us the wicked wickedness of my sin your response blessed to see whose sin is covered therefore let everyone that is godly make us prayer unto thee in time of trouble when great water floods arise they shall not come nigh him thou art a place to hide me in thou shalt preserve me from trouble thou shalt compass me about with shouts of deliverance your response blessed is god foreign [Music] [Music] we shall now sing him 57 him 79 from the cathedral praise 40 days and 40 nights [Music] 14 days [Music] forty days [Applause] [Music] so [Music] foreign me [Music] joyce [Music] is [Music] we [Music] times is [Music] let me [Music] jesus teaches that good deeds should be done for god's sake and not for sure gospel portion for today's meditation has been taken from gospel according to sin matthew chapter six verses beginning from 1 to 6 and then 16 to 21 [Music] jesus said beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven thus when you give arms sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by men truly i say to you they have received their reward but when you give arms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your arms may be seen in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the streets corner that they may be seen by men truly i say to you they have received their reward but when 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 when you fast do not look dismal look like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that they that their fasting may be seen by men truly i say to you they have received their reward but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by man but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you do not lay up layer for yourself treasure on on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break break in and steal but lay up for yourself treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also this is the gospel of christ [Music] please be seated i once again welcome all of you to this worship service we have been longing for it we have been looking forward to it and i know even though it is difficult for many people to come this far in this evening time you are here there are many others who are also watching us online and they are worshiping with us praise be to god that on this occasion we can come together and begin with the season of lent and our preparation of it in the last two years we have picked up many words that are in the english language but may not have been part of our daily vocabulary hybrid i always thought it had to do only with plants now i know it has to do with teaching asymptomatic we knew what it meant but a fearsome reality that somebody who is carrying a deadly virus could be in your presence and you are not aware of it saturation to reach to its limit and after that threat of life is the new interpretation and of course concentrator i always thought that as per the language ending in or meant a person one who is good at concentrating is a concentrator and now we have heard a new interpretation something similar was shared with the people of the old testament a very simple word that they were asked to exercise once a year leviticus chapter 23 verse 26 to 29 the lord said to moses the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves and present a food offering to the lord do not do any work on that day because it is the day of atonement when atonement is made for you before the lord your god those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut or cut off from their people those who do not deny themselves literally meant those who do not stop eating in a more simple manner those who do not proclaim or practice a fasting on that day will be cut off from your people the hebrew word soon comes to us from the root that also can be described as denial and so the people of go of god were given a word and because this word was exercised only once a year they probably didn't it did not become part of their vocabulary and their psyche and every time the lord had to remind them that this is a day of atonement where you come into the setting of a discipline that takes you through the whole ear and that is the reminder we give ourselves on the day of ash wednesday we begin a period of self-denial a period where we deny ourselves the luxuries that we are so in ingrained in only because throughout the year we have indulged in many things we were not meant to it is a reminder to us that we need to begin now exercise it and probably keep it going for the whole year let the word fasting let the word denial let the word lent remind us not only in this period of 40 days but over the whole year how our lives should be the law also said on in verse 32 it is a day of sabbath rest for you and you must deny yourselves from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath and in this are involved people of your family your household people who work with you your colleagues people who work under you people who work above you your superiors and your subordinates and in this verse fasting or the day of atonement does not just remain restricted to an individual this whole idea of atonement becomes a corporate exercise and therefore today as a church we remind ourselves not one person not two people not three people but every one of us are called to repent and to be penitent in last sunday's message i had also shared that penitence is far more important than repentance because repentance leaves us with a sense of guilt but penitence helps us to act out on the realization of our wrongdoing and that penitence is also a way to make things right in the old testament people were reminded to cover themselves with ashes and sackcloth an action that was out of the ordinary actions of the day or their routine today we we will indulge in something similar so we will give all of you little ash and you will put that ash on your forehead something out of the ordinary something we do do once in a year but this exercise today must be carried with us through and through this exercise must not stop with us washing our face away but should become a part of our ongoing penitence and that is where our sadhana our long or year-long discipline will become consolidated the annual observation of fasting was enough for god a day of atonement one day was enough for god unfortunately people took it the other way around and people began to think of it as if it pronounces their righteousness and so we come to isaiah 58 verse 3 god says you say why have we fasted and you have not seen it why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please and exploit all your workers so the day of fasting is a day of repentance and penitence and the beginning of repentance and penitence it is not it is not self-righteousness unfortunately these people began to think that when they fast they do something right and this right puts them in a better place than the others so it makes them more righteous than the others and they began to expect things out of fasting many of the many of the churches today they believe that if god is not listening to our prayers we must fast and then turn the heart of god so to say the will of god it comes to us from that deep rooted need of probably being healed of a desire that we we want something very bad and when we go into fasting we go with the intention not of supplication not of confession not of bringing our sinfulness before god but with the sense that we will transform god's heart without realization when in all of these years when god has not been able to transform us is it possible for us to transform god because that's not the idea that is not the idea of god it is his will that we must submit and surrender to my friends we must we must seek to submit to the will of god and not to seek for reward that is what the people of the old testament did they were seeking reward we have fasted and you have not seen us we have fasted and you have not seen us where is our reward where is our reward in matthew chapter six when jesus is talking to his disciples in the in the in the sermon on the mount he says and something i i quote to you from chapter 6 verse 6 he says be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them if you do you will have no reward from your father in heaven you have become a generation who seeks to fulfill the will of god and to seek reward with that and gradually the will of god becomes secondary to seeking of reward and my friends i don't think it is difficult to understand that gradually in such a case we begin to think that we are better almost as equal to god with our claims when i pray god listens when i pray god listens if that is true i would like you to pray for the for for ukraine and i would like you to pray for the students who are all left behind yes we need to pray but when we begin to pray it is the will of god not my will but let thy will your will as it is in heaven be on earth and yet we claim that by fasting we may transform the heart of god we may turn his will and we may become almost as good as god so jesus says when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others truly i tell you they have received their reward in full full there is nothing else that they will receive and the reward in full is you wanted notoriety you got notoriety you wanted a celebrity status you got a celebrity status nothing more because that is what you were asking for and that is what you received nothing more no reward in heaven how many of us would like to trade our life here with a reward in heaven how many of us would like to trade our celebrity status here for a life in heaven think about it we are all becoming celebrities in our own ways and yet it is the name of the lord that needs to be glorified the second problem with them was not only did they want to be rewarded they also wanted appreciation for their humility now this is this is uh you know uh i think i think in english it's called an oxymoron you want appreciation for humility so either you want appreciation or you want humility both cannot go together and to seek appreciation for humility is like saying hello look at me i am the humble one look at me don't look at him don't look at him look at me i am the humble one hello i don't think that is what the lord meant because in isaiah he says your fasting ends in quarreling and strife in striking each other with wicked fists you cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high which means in heaven so the humility that you are asking for or you want to understand that you are humble the best way to do that is be quiet because then it is between us and god and not people the moment we come into limelight humility is gone it is counterproductive to humility appreciation is counterproductive to humility seeking of appreciation is furthermore demeaning to humility because then we begin to purposely defeat the idea of humility my the lord has spoken and we have heard now it is our chance our opportunity and our responsibility to respond we have needs around us these needs are probably greater than us there are people who are in pain and suffering there are people in agony their needs are greater than us if only we take a step back away from ourselves then we will begin to see what it means to observe fast if we take a step back from ourselves then we would realize what god meant when he said keep yourself away on the day of atonement keep yourself away from yourself on the day of atonement i don't know whether that is sufficient for us for a whole period of lent i don't know whether this days of 40 40 days is sufficient for us for the whole year through but we have a very short time and the pandemic has reminded us we may be here today and gone tomorrow and the time that we have let us humble ourselves before god and let us observe his will and his purpose in our lives there is this prayer that we always say before the altar team comes on on the uh chancel oh lord we are unworthy through our many sins to offer you any sacrifice yet we pray that you will accept this offering of praise and thanksgiving the duty and service that we owe do not weigh our merits but pardon our offenses and fill us all who share in this holy communion with your grace and heavenly blessing through jesus christ our lord and the congregation says amen we shall now affirm our faith in the words of the apostles creed you have this in section 14 the second creed which we follow during the period of lent i believe in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth i believe in jesus christ his only son our lord he was conceived by the power of the holy spirit and born of the virgin mary he suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead on the third day he was the jew he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father he will come again because the living and the dead and believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church a communion of sins forgiveness the resurrection of the body and the life of her lost amen so literature of penitence the bible the putting on the bible says the putting of on of ashes symbolizes purification or sorrow and sometimes recognition of our own mortality all three stands of meaning that in intervened in the imposition of asses this ceremony from which as well state take its name has been practiced by the church in some from ancient times to the present day palm branches saved from the previous years are burnt and mock is made with the ash on the forehead of each penitent with the words remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return turn away from sin and be faithful to christ you may be seated or knee down while we go through this liturgy of penitence you may kneel or see your response would be have mercy on us to the prayer which i will be leading have mercy on us god the father have mercy on god the son god the holy spirit holy blessed and glorious trinity now on your response would be good lord deliver us good lord deliver us from all evil and mischief from pride vanity and hypocrisy from envy hathard and melis and from all evil interned good lord deliver us from sloth worldliness and love of money from hardness of heart and from contempt for your word and your laws good lord deliver us from sins of body and mind from the desires of the word world the flesh and the devil good lord deliver us in all times of sorrow in all times of joy in the hover of death and at the day of judgment good lord deliver us by the mystery of your holy incarnation by your birth childhood and obedience by your baptism fasting and temptation [Music] by your ministry in word and work by your mighty acts of power and by your preaching of the kingdom by your agony and trial by your cross and passion and by your precious death and burial good lord deliver us by your mighty resurrection by your glorious ascension and by your sending of the holy spirit good lord deliver us give us true repentance forgive us our sins of negligence and ignorance and our deliberate sins and grant us the grace of your holy spirit to among our lives according to your holy word let holy lord holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy on us let us spend a moment in silence let us submit ourselves and confess all our sins you may repeat with me as i say make our hearts clean oh god and renew a right spirit within us let us keep a minute silence ask for his grace and mercy ask him to forgive and accept us let us confess together you may repeat after me father eternal giver of light and grace we have sinned against you and against our neighbor in what we have thought in what we have said and done through ignorance through weakness through our own deliberate fault we have wounded your love and murder your image in us we are sorry and ashamed and repent of all our sins for the sake of your son jesus christ who died for us forgive us all that is past and lead us to from darkness to walk as children of light amen almighty god who forgives all who forgive one another and truly repent of their sins have mercy on us pardon and deliver us from all our sins confirm and strengthen us in all goodness and keep us in life eternal through jesus christ our lord amen thanks be to god friends we will now go to the high altar and from there the ashes will be shared with you we would request you that as we call out please come in twos and take these ashes we are still being a little careful so we are not imposing ashes on each other but if you are from the same family you are invited to do so and you can carry the ashes for your other family members in small bottles as well you may please come in two rows [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] shall we now bring our offerings before the lord by singing him 513-513 from the cathedral praise love divine or loves excelling 513. [Music] oh is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] come on [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] salvation [Music] [Applause] [Music] praise [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] lord as we have given this offering to you father it is our humble prayer that you may receive them and it may be used for the furtherance of your glory and your kingdom father bless all those who have given from their pockets father and may their giving bring meaningful blessings to their false father in your most precious name we pray amen as our savior christ has taught us so we pray oh is oh [Music] christ the lord give you grace in holiness to deny yourself to take up your cross and to follow him and the blessings of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be among you and remain with you always [Music] go in peace to love and serve the the lord of christmas [Music] friends as we receive from the sanctuary may i remind you that every wednesday during the period of lent we have at 6 00 pm our even song so we will continue with that 6 p.m even song and on friday 6 p.m is the tamil service and so please ski 6 30 uh sorry friday at 6 30 tamil service and wednesday 6 pm is the english even song and please do come the last lord's prayer was very rusty i think we have we need to improvise on that and practice that and may the lord have a wonderful lent may you have a wonderful lent and may the lord bless all of us with his presence shall we now worship the lord in recession him 81 8 1 jesus keep me near the cross [Music] r [Music] is [Music] my glory [Music] [Applause] his friends before [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] let's [Music] trusting [Music] just [Music] r [Music] you

Channel: The Cathedral Church of the Redemption

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Id: Zd1_aVHQmJ8

Length: 69min 49sec (4189 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022