A Service for Ash Wednesday
Let us pray for grace to keep Lent faithfully.
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings: Joel 2.1 & 2, & 12-17
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, a day of darkness and gloom is at hand, a day of cloud and dense fog. Like blackness spread over the mountains a vast and countless host appears; their like has never been known, nor will be in all the ages to come.
Yet even now, says the LORD, turn back to me wholeheartedly with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn back to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, long-suffering and ever constant, ready always to relent when he threatens disaster. It may be he will turn back and relent and leave a blessing behind him, blessing enough for grain-offerings and drink-offerings to be presented to the LORD your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, appoint a solemn fast, proclaim a day of abstinence. Gather the people together, appoint a solemn assembly; summon the elders, gather the children, even babes at the breast; bid the bridegroom leave his wedding-chamber and the bride her bower. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, stand weeping between the porch and the altar and say, ‘Spare your people, LORD; do not expose your own people to insult, to be made a byword by other nations. Why should the peoples say, “Where is their God?” ’
John 8.2-11
At daybreak Jesus appeared again in the temple, and all the people gathered round him. He had taken his seat and was engaged in teaching them, when the scribes and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught committing adultery.
Making her stand in the middle they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the law Moses has laid down that such women are to be stoned. What do you say about it?’ They put the question as a test, hoping to frame a charge against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they continued to press their question he sat up straight and said, ‘Let whichever of you is free from sin throw the first stone at her.’ Then once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard what he said, one by one they went away, the eldest first; and Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. Jesus again sat up and said to the woman, ‘Where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She answered, ‘No one, sir.’ ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus said. ‘Go; do not sin again.’
Thanks be to God for this his holy word.
Reflection on the Readings
What happens when we repent, and turn to God to save us? The prophet Joel tells the people to turn back to God. That’s what God wants you to do, he tells them. So will it change his mind? No. What changes is not the mind of God, but the relationship between God and his people, between the people and God.
Even the smallest scrap of sin changes that dynamic, and takes away from us the power and the right to act as though we had God’s approval - as we see in the story of the woman taken in adultery. “Let the one without sin cast the first stone,” Jesus tells them. Not one of those there can claim the right to do it.
Lent is God’s gift to us, so we can admit our failings and work to correct them, so we can grow in discipline, and maybe take on some new commitment of service or care, and so we can place ourselves under God’s authority and judgement, but also under God’s mercy, as mediated to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
For while sin remains real, and deadly, if we are striving to do what is right and good, even though we fail and fall short, God meets us in our striving with generosity and grace, and makes us more than mere dust and ashes.
Prayer:
Let us call to mind our sin and the infinite mercy of God.
God the Father:
have mercy upon us.
God the Son:
have mercy upon us.
God the Holy Spirit:
have mercy upon us.
Holy, blessed & glorious Trinity:
have mercy upon us.
From all evil and mischief;
from pride, vanity and hypocrisy;
from envy, hatred, and malice;
and from all evil intent:
good Lord, deliver us.
From sloth, worldliness and love of money;
from hardness of heart,
and contempt for your word and laws:
good Lord, deliver us.
From sins of body and mind;
and from the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil:
good Lord, deliver us.
In all times of sorrow;
in all times of joy;
in the hour of death, and at the day of judgement:
good Lord, deliver us.
By the mystery of your holy incarnation;
by your birth, childhood and obedience;
and by your baptism, fasting and temptation:
good Lord, deliver us.
By your ministry in word and work;
by your mighty acts of power;
and by your preaching of the kingdom:
good Lord, deliver us.
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 amend our lives according to your holy word.
Holy God, holy and strong,
holy and immortal, have mercy upon us.
Silence is kept
Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, 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 marred 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 out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.
May the Lord enrich us with grace, and nourish us with his blessing; May the Lord defend us in trouble and keep us from all evil; May the Lord accept our prayers, and absolve us from our offences, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. 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 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, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing
May God the Father, who does not despise the broken spirit, give to us a contrite heart. Amen.
May Christ, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, heal us by his wounds. Amen.
And may the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, speak to us words of pardon and peace. Amen.
So may the blessing of the Holy Trinity rest upon us, and remain with us, this season of Lent, and always. Amen.
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