The Liturgy of Ash Wednesday [Full Service] | Trinity Church Wall Street

[Music] lord [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] please [Music] um [Music] [Applause] school trees [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so um [Music] [Music] god be with you let us pray almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may obtain a view the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit one god for ever and ever amen a reading from the book of joel 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 light 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 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 priest 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 hear what the spirit is saying to god's people the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us nor will he keep his anger dealt with forever according to our sins nor awarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so is his mercy upon those who fear him as a father cares for his children so does the lord care for those who fear him a reading from the second letter of paul to the corinthians we entreat you on behalf of christ to 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 is 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 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 yet are true as unknown yet are well known as dying and sea we are alive as punished and as yet not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing everything hear what the spirit is saying to god's people [Music] r [Music] is dear not with us after our sins nor reward us according to our wickedness we [Music] unto me [Music] the holy gospel of our lord jesus christ according to matthew 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 the 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 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 home 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 this small 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 that when you fast who you 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 says in secret will reward you do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where morph and was consumed and where chiefs break in and steal the store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where night a month no verse consumes and where chiefs do not break in and seal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also the gospel of the lord [Music] in the name of god the father the son and the holy spirit amen please be seated it is very much a delight to be with you today and to be physically within your presence it is my custom to come to trinity church on ash wednesday every year for this noonday service but 2020 2020 and 2021 had to be done virtually that was a sadness for many many reasons but it is a glory to be back with you today in person and it is wonderful to be here today four days after my last visit to this church when we came together for the celebration of directorship of phil jackson he is my friend and it is a joy to me that he has been elected to lead this church for this next chapter of the church's life i was glad to be here then to institute him and i'm glad to be here now to join with him and the clergy and people of this church as we begin to make our lenten journey your vicar michael byrd as we have talked in the last couple years about the fact that it's been a 100-year tradition for the bishop of new york to be here on ash wednesday he did a little homework and figured out that this ash wednesday correct me the 101st anniversary the 100th anniversary of the first time the bishop of new york came here on ash wednesday well that's also worth celebrating maybe but anyway i'm very glad to be here it's worth celebrating for me um 45 years ago the movie julia was released which starred jane fonda and vanessa redgrave based on the memoir of lillian hellman about her relationship with a lifelong friend who fought against the nazis in europe in the period foreshadowing the second world war the story on which the film was based came from hellman's book pentamento published 50 years ago hellman's narration appears in the film as a voiceover in which he explains that old paint on canvas as it ages sometimes becomes transparent when that happens it is possible in some pictures to see the original lines a tree will show through a woman's dress a child makes way for a dog a large boat is no longer on an open sea that is called pentamento because the painter repented changed his mind perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception replaced by a later choice is a way of seeing and then seen again my in-laws owned a painting in which the phenomenon of pentimento was very well visible when the light hit the surface of the painting at a particular angle the underpainting could be seen and it was evident that the figure of one woman in the picture had been moved a few steps to the right and her posture was changed no longer leaning on the back of a chair now freestanding reading a letter it was fascinating to see because the fact of the under painting and the pen uh pentamento revealed something of the creative process of the artist you could see the moment when he looked at his not yet completed painting and said no that's not right the moment when he repented of what he had made and then painted out what he had done to try again to make the correct which is to say better balanced more expressive or more visually pleasing new image that moment is i think what lillian hellman means when she speaks of having seen and now seeing again but there is something i find evocative in her metaphor both as one who loves everything there is to love about painting but also as one who comes to ash wednesday each year to try once more to see myself anew to see myself again and by repentance to cover over the things that i have done and lamented with a new visage more balanced more expressive or more pleasing to bring before my god and before the world and the thing that i find moving and disturbing and inspiring all at once is the visible fact of repentance still evident in the countenance of the completed redeemed painting there is a lesson in pentamento in the echoes or shadows of the original work showing itself ghost-like through the new painting they can speak to us of important truths as we come now as christian penitents to lay our case before god and that is that the self we sought to correct are pre-repentance sinning self however effectively we believe that we have remade ourselves and our lives is still part of who we are under the surface of the new self we show to the world sometimes in unguarded moments in a certain light our old unredeemed selves will simply reveal themselves unbidden through our face and the poignancy of all this the path pathos of it is that the face we present to the world is always the corrected version my face 2.0 a work in progress we come before our god and before one another as redeemed and forgiven sinners which it once states two complementary and enmeshed truths that we are redeemed and that we are sinners and we can see our sin through the covering of our redemption and we cannot let ourselves forget that we are revealing both of those truths of ourselves all the time ash wednesday is our annual day of repentance as we prepare to begin our lenten fast and our journey toward easter the incredibly counter-cultural thing about ash wednesday is that at the heart of this action is our collective public act of confession no matter that no one here will be called upon to name before others the offenses for which their consciences are aggrieved we know what they are in our prayers in litany in the things we say and do here today we will acknowledge that we have as a community and each of us as individuals failed to live up to and uphold the charge we have been given by god to righteous and just lives and we will acknowledge that in the real language of failure and selfishness and wrong intent and rebellion against god as to we will receive the words of release and renewal and redemption ash wednesday is the occasion expressed through liturgy on which we all and each as the artists of our own lives look at what we have made of ourselves and admit no that's not right and resolve to paint out that which came before and to found a new creation of ourselves and that amendment of life and turning toward god and desire to be absolved is the promise and the possibility of this day that lives of godly discipleship are possible even for the fallen alongside our act of confession and language of wrongdoing and ill faith is the promise of redemption that god does not hate anything he has made that god's desire is not to destroy but to redeem that god calls upon us to turn to him and live i am certain that we may approach god and trust and accept the forgiveness of sin which is god's grace of this day even knowing as we do the shadow beneath our surface and the scratched out rubbed out painted over failings of our lives and that that offers us something today more profound than simple forgiveness and that is the miracle of pentamento that which shows through that which we thought we were done with that makes itself seen sin and redemption held together in tension that the absolution of god and the new lives contained in that absolution will be for us a lived reality right alongside the offenses and failures of will and purpose which had taken us so far from god we will be told today that god will put our wickedness far from us but we will not and cannot and do not want to forget those things we have done and said and the hurt we have done to others and why we needed a redeemer is an artistic miracle where the past explodes into the present and those things forgotten and put away may be seen it is where the painter can say to his audience see this place right here the image showing faintly through the paint this is where i repented this is where i saw that the painting was a mistake and i corrected myself and my work it is the chance for genuine communication between the mind of the artist and the mind of his viewer absolution provides us a like spiritual pentamento another miracle where we may say to one another about our own lives this is where i turned back this is where i stopped myself and saw myself again this is where i repented and cast myself on god and this is where i corrected myself and my life and that self-awareness is a gift without which ash wednesday can happen simply as a cheap and easy grace this pentamento of the human condition sin showing itself through forgiveness error revealing itself through correction crime coming forward through absolution taken all together is where the genuine humility is born of those who know they do not own their own redemption and where the vulnerability that lets us stand before the god from whom no secrets are hid in something like confidence is shaped and formed and where honest self-knowledge teaches us that confession and self-offering and repentance are the work of a whole lifetime and our redemption and our need for redemption are threads of a single fabric this is why we return to ash wednesday observance year after year the absolved the forgiven the committed christian comes back and still says from the place of his deep yearning and most fervent hope i know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and though this body be destroyed yet shall i see god this ash wednesday is a little different we are now seven days into the russian invasion of ukraine like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes their like has never been from old nor will it be again after them in ages to come what shall we do as christians in the face of this aggression in the face of this malice and in the face of this suffering 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 each day the papers reveal new horrors and new heartbreaks there are hundreds of thousands of refugees on the roads crowding the borders civilian residential communities are being shelled the city of kiev is in danger of being completely surrounded in a 21st century version of medieval siege warfare we don't know how this story will end the good guys don't always win in this world and right now the power of all the rest of the world to stop vladimir putin is substantively limited history will tell this story but what will history say this may resolve quickly with some kind of diplomatic settlement yet to be worked out or this may be remembered as the birth pangs of world war iii but as we come to the altar today on this such holiness of days it is with the certainty that we are in the midst of a surge of historical urgency unlike that which we have seen in a very many years we are here today to contemplate to bring into our prayers to bring into our thinking and the things that we say and the things that we do our understanding of good and evil we always do that on ash wednesday but this year and today we do it in the face of an invasion which is an act of evil waged by a single man whose impulses approach the demonic and who has amassed enough power around himself to do whatever he wants how are we to be christians what is it that god would have us to do we don't need to equivocate vladimir putin is unafraid of the world accountable to no one and motivated it seems solely by a personal desire for power grandeur and greed the events of the last week have revealed in terms as stark as we have ever seen the destructive power of one person wedded to principles of viciousness who holds the reins of power over this world and the violence unleashed upon ukraine is putin's witness war is to state the obvious and the very least the most egregious manifestation of sin and before this is over it may extract a price from every person on earth mars is the god of war and the moons of the planet mars are named after his sons phobos and deimos meaning fear and dread we are in days of terror now we are in days in which our own self-offering before god is mitigated and met by the breakdown of the purposes of the world the ukrainians are ravaged now by terror and the countries of the west are paralyzed by the enormity of the threat before us and paralyzed by systems long established that now are in the hour of crisis render us all but helpless war redefines the relations among people and nations in the pure language of hatred war diminishes and degrades anything that we would say about the humanity of our adversaries until their destruction is rendered acceptable the kind of evil laid before us in these days so transcends the ordinary language of ash wednesday in our ordinary repentance that it would seem we will need a new vocabulary a language forged in a different furnace to give expression to our outrage our fear and our dread and what is happening before our eyes is so unspeakable and our reactions to it so intense that this is also very urgently an hour in which people of faith and history are called to guard our hearts despite our shock over putin's aggression this invasion did not come from nowhere we thought that the business of the world was business and imagined that we could buy russian gas and oil and sell russia our cars and never be brought to account we thought that we could treat putin as an ordinary world leader and perhaps he would become one we thought that mutually assured destruction was a rational and sane strategy to preserve the peace but the ukrainians remember that the borders and lines of their map have been involuntarily redrawn by others again and again just in the last century a thousand years ago ukraine was the most powerful nation in europe but now for hundreds of years it has become a patch of land over which armies have crossed and on which the powers of the world have contended the threat of nuclear weapons has been raised this week by putin but his threat is just a piece of the larger background danger of a nuclear world which was unleashed by the united states eight decades ago putin's threat now reveals that nuclear weapons make no one strong everyone weak and the very suggestion that they might be used serves only to paralyze the world so we watch and there is so little we can do like a kind of global pentamento through the civilized and veneer of this world all ancient history and the wrongs done by nations and the suffering of generations and the treaties and alliances created and violated and recreated are revealing themselves once again through the headlines of our very days some of that history may call us to the remembrance of glory but so much of it calls us to repentance everything calls us to compassion and generosity for the ukrainian people and the russian people too and all who are in danger the war which putin alone desires may force war upon the many who do not want it the evil of one man may force evil upon and from other peoples and other nations we are in it now and we must guard our hearts and no one knows what the next days or weeks or years may bring but it falls to us now as ever to be brave and strong and faithful to be true to our calling as disciples of christ to be lovers of peace hopeful and compassionate and just in the hour in which we find ourselves and in the hour to which we are coming even if or especially if we do not yet know what this will mean or require of us and on this ash wednesday observed in time of war to rend our hearts and repent our sins and with humility before god and the prince of peace and the world to acknowledge that we have been in this all along it is our comeuppance and then to say how much how urgently how immediately we need to know the love and courage and strength of our redeemer for we who are redeemed amen dear people of god the first christians observed with great devotion the days of our lord's passion and resurrection and it became the custom of the church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting this season of lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy baptism it was also a time when those who because of notorious sins have been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the fellowship of the church thereby the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the gospel of our savior and of the need which all christians continually have to renew the repentance and faith i invite you therefore in the name of the church to the observance of a holy lent by self-examination and repentance by prayer fasting and self-denial and by reading and meditating on god's holy word and to make a right beginning of repentance and as a mark of our mortal nature let us now kneel before the lord our maker and redeemer almighty god you have created us out of the dust of the grant that these earth may be to us a sign of our mentality repentance that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are giving everlasting life through jesus christ our savior amen i would invite the congregation to be seated please know that the clergy will bring the ashes to you where you are and so please stand as the clergy arrive at your aisle for the imposition of ashes yes [Music] says [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] cool [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] his face [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] this is [Music] foreign [Music] us [Music] food [Music] oh is [Music] [Music] oh oh most holy and merciful father 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 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 we confess to you lord all our past unfaithfulness the pride hypocrisy and impatience of our lives our self-indulgent appetites and ways and our exploitation of other people our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts and our dishonesty in daily life and work our negligence in prayer and worship and our failure to commend the faith that is in us accept our repentance lord for the wrongs we have done for our blindness to human need and suffering and our indifference to injustice and cruelty for all false judgments for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us for our waste and pollution of your creation and our lack of concern for those who come after us restore us good lord and let your anger depart from us accomplish in us the work of your salvation glory by the cross and passion of your son our lord almighty god the father of our lord jesus christ who desires not the death of sinners but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live has given power and commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people being penitent the absolution and remission of their sins he pardons and absolves all those who truly repent and with sincere hearts believe his holy gospel therefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his holy spirit that those things may please him which we do on this day and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy through jesus christ our lord amen from ease beloveds the peace of the lord be always with you peace peace be with everyone good to see you welcome thank you for being here with us to begin this holy season of lent as bishop deichi said he is a friend of mine and he is a friend of this parish and bishop we are so glad and honored to have you not 101 times but this is your this is what your your 12th very happy new year thank you bishop um welcome to you all we will bring communion out to you as we've been doing this season that we have been under covered restrictions so please just stay in your pew and now walk in love as christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to god [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] nice [Music] tomorrow [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] so ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] i [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] so the lord be with you lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you father almighty creator of heaven and earth through jesus christ our lord who was tempted in every way as we are yet did not sin by his grace we are able to triumph over every evil and to live no longer for ourselves alone but for him who died for us and rose again therefore we praise you joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name holy holy lord god of power and might heaven and earth are full of your glory hosanna in the highest blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord hosanna in the highest all glory be to you o lord our god for you created heaven and earth and made us in your own image and of your tender mercy gave your only son jesus christ to take our nature upon him and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption he made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world and it institute and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice until his coming again for in the night in which he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks to you he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me likewise after supper he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink this all of you for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me therefore o lord and heavenly father we your people do celebrate and make with these your holy gifts which we now offer to you the memorial son the memorial your son commanded us to make we remember his death we proclaim his resurrection we await his coming in glory and we most humbly beseech you o merciful father to hear us and with your word and holy spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine that they may be to us the body and blood of your dearly beloved son jesus christ and we earnestly desire your fatherly goodness to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving whereby we offer and present unto you o lord ourselves our souls and bodies grant we beseech you that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of your son jesus christ and be filled with your grace and heavenly benediction and also that we and all your whole church may be made one body with him that he may dwell in us and we in him all this we ask to your son jesus christ by him and with him and in him in the unity of the holy spirit all honor and glory is yours almighty father now and forever amen and now as our savior christ has taught us we are bold to say 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever amen the gifts of god for the people of god behold what you are [Music] oh foreign [Music] [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] yes is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] me [Music] [Music] us [Music] is [Music] oh jesus [Music] [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] eternal god heavenly father you have graciously accepted us as living members of your son our savior jesus christ and you have fed us with spiritual food in the sacrament of his body and blood send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart through christ our lord amen grant most merciful lord to your faithful people pardon and peace that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be amongst you and remain with you always amen [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] joy [Music] is r please let us bless the lord [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] uh foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] see [Music] more you

Channel: Trinity Church Wall Street

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Keywords: Ash Wednesday, trinity church wall street, trinity church. nyc, trinity church nyc, trinity church service, full church service, ash wednesday church service, episcopal church, episcopal church services, allegri miserere, church music, worship service, episcopal worship, online worship, episcopal, sermon, The Rt. Rev. Andrew ML Dietsche, The choir trinity church wall street

Id: fgBc2RB9Pyo

Length: 88min 17sec (5297 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022