A Proper Liturgy
for
Ash Wednesday
6. March 2019
Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day the Church begins the holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From ancient times this season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self denial and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on His Word and draws from it life and hope.
Let us pray that our dear Father in heaven, for the sake of His Beloved Son and in the power of His Holy Spirit, might richly bless this Lententide for us so that we may go to Easter with glad hearts and keep the feast in sincerity and truth. (altar book 483)
Suffrages LSB 282-84
P Holy God, holy and most gracious Father,
C Have mercy and hear us.
C 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. Matthew 6,9-13
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
C I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life ✠ everlasting. Amen.
P I cry to You, O Lord;
C in the morning my prayer draws near to You. Psalm 88,13
P Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
C and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51,12
P My mouth is filled with Your praise,
C and with Your glory all the day. Psalm 71,8
P Every day I will bless You,
C and praise Your Name forever and ever. Psalm 145,2
P By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness,
C O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas. Psalm 65,5
P Bless the Lord, O my soul;
C and all that is within me, bless His holy Name! Psalm 103,1
P He redeems your life from the pit
C and crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Psalm 103,4
P Hear my prayer, O Lord;
C let my cry come to You. Psalm 102,1
P Let us pray.
O Almighty and Everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts so that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen. (Ash Wednesday Collect)
Morning
Thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, so that all my dealings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body, soul and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, so that evil foe may have no power over me. Amen. (423) Small Catechism
Joel 2,12-19
12The Lord declares: „Yet even now return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; 13and rend your hearts and not your garments.“ Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster. 14Who 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? 15Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 17Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say: „Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples: ‘Where is their God?’“ 18Then the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people. 19The Lord answered and said to His people: „Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.“
Confessional Address
1. We begin Lent today with the call to repentance, for the Prophet Joel speaks of a gloomy prognosis for the future. Joel proclaims that the advent of God at the day of the Lord is a day of ruin and the judgment upon the world. Joel uses some stark images.
2. He speaks of a locust plague that devastates everything. The land that once was as lush as the Garden of Eden becomes a desert wasteland (2,3). Then Joel talks about war and chaos. And finally, we hear that the stars are darkened, and the Lord sends His angelic host to inaugurate the judgment. The whole description ends right before our lection for today with the words: »Behold, the day of the Lord is great and full of terror, who can endure it?« (2,11)
4. Joel exhorts us to repent before the arrival of the impending judgment, for he reminds us that God is gracious and merciful to those who repent.
5. This call to repentance, love and fellowship is God’s attempt to bring His lost people back to their senses, so that in seeing His impending judgment upon sin we turn to Him and find His grace.
6. God calls His people to repentance. It is a call which derives from the heart of God Himself. With this call, God wants to arouse in us a repentance that is more than a superficial, symbolic act or a desperate solution to an embarrassing predicament.
22. The call to repentance is therefore not a Divine violation
against humanity, but a diagnosis that serves our salvation. Joel himself speaks of God’s time of grace when he promises that the repentant are dear to God’s heart.
23. Joel’s call to repentance is not based upon the wrath of God but upon the grace of God. »Turn unto the Lord your God! For He is gracious and merciful, long-suffering and full of mercy, and He soon relents of His punishment.«
27. For there on the cross we see sin and its consequences in a way that truly breaks our hearts. Before the face of Christ who is cruelly suffering for us and crucified, the stony heart of the sinner shatters into a thousand pieces. And when that happens, because the Father answers the request of His Son, and through His spirit He gives us a new, living heart that no more beats defiantly against God but sings with Paul Gerhardt: „I caused Your grief and sighing By evils multiplying As countless as the sands. I caused the wounds unnumbered With which Your soul is cumbered, Your sorrows raised by wicked hands“ (elkg 64,4; lsb 453,4). The one who sings like this has realized that our repentance has already gone to God’s heart before we have done it. The Lord has reached out to us long before the call to repentance, and Christ has become a salutary gift for us; He has become our Mediator with His Heavenly Father. Amen. (Wenz)
9. O God, You desire not the death of sinners, but rather that they turn from their wickedness and live. We implore You to have compassion on the frailty of our mortal nature, for we acknowledge that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Mercifully pardon our sins so that we may obtain the promises You have laid up for those who are repentant; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (altar book 485)
Congregants may proceed to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes.
P Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.
Confession and Absolution (left side) LSB 184-85
P O almighty God, merciful Father,
C I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.
P Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. John 20,19-23
C Amen.
P Let us bless the Lord. Psalm 103,1
C Thanks be to God.
P The Lord bless us, defend us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
C Amen.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in His Word I hope.
Psalm 130,5
,,A Proper Liturgy for Ash Wednesday“ is taken in part from the Lutheran Service Book and the Lutheran Service Book Altar Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Editor Copyright © 2019.
Wenz, Armin. A sermon preached on 7. March 2011 (Ash Wednesday) in Oberursel, Germany on Joel 2,12-19. Copyright © 2011 The Rev. Dr. Armin Wenz. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2019.
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