Here a simple intergenerational worship service for Ash Wednesday that focuses on the theme of sand, ashes, and wilderness.
Welcome
Song
Lord Have Mercy by Christ Church East Bay
(V1) Ever begotten and only Son
Teach us, dear Shepherd, our lives to dwell
Deep in your shadows, we pass through hell
(Chorus) Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Only say the word
And we shall be healed
(V 2) Blessed and hidden in Love’s delight
Your Holy Spirit will voice our cry
Life in the Father, exalted the Son
Call to Worship
The dust that shapes the journey,
the cross that guides it,
the color that surrounds it,
the light that fades through it,
the word that foretells it,
the wilderness that invites it.
This is Lent, and into its wilderness God calls us.
Come, siblings, Christ is heading for Jerusalem.
Readings + Songs
Wilderness by Daniel Snoke & Keith Watts, Part 1
Ev’ry failure that we carry
Is a load you long to take
And redeem it for your glory
With the lightness of your grace
Though the wilderness is lonely
Though our hope may seem to wear
Still the wilderness is holy
For we find you meet us there
Genesis 3 (select verses ceb version)
The snake was the most intelligent of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’ cursed is the fertile land because of you; in pain you will eat from it every day of your life. Weeds and thistles will grow for you, even as you eat the field’s plants; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread—until you return to the fertile land, since from it you were taken; you are soil, to the soil you will return.”
Wilderness by Daniel Snoke & Keith Watts, Part 2
Ev’ry trial and temptation
Is a cross you call to bear
That we know more of your patience
And to feel your loving care
Though the wilderness is lonely
Though our faith may seem to bend
In the wilderness you closely
Guard our hearts unto the end
Matthew 6:1-6 (The Message)
“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
Wilderness by Daniel Snoke & Keith Watts, Part 3
Ev’ry stain and imperfection
You are making wholly new
For our marks will be reflections
Of the scars you carry too
Though the wilderness is lonely
Though we wander and we roam
For your presence is our only
Path to love that leads us home
Reading from Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” When God spoke those words in the garden, did their voice crack? Did their hands tremble as the ten knelt to make clothes that would cover the glory they birthed? These words came to us as shame entered the world – and out of shame, all manner of suffering. They were not a proclamation of punishment but a reminder of Eve and Adam’s finitude. It’s a poem of grief and memory. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There is beauty in our humanity. Peer down in the cool, dark ash; there is death there. Watch the particles lift and sway in the wind; there is yet life . . .
On Ash Wednesday we are marked on our foreheads with a reminder of our mortality. The same palms we raise up and wave on Palm Sunday each year are made to know the sting of death – we burn them. And the following year, in an ever-curious act, we pick up the ashes and we mark ourselves with them.
What does it mean that we don’t just talk about the ashes, or even reverently observe them, but that we physically smear them across our faces? Perhaps, in the marking, we approach solidarity. We remember that the same fate that haunts you, haunts me. The same beauty that birthed you, lives in me. And that this comes as a mark on the body. I think, reminds us that the Lenten journey of self-examination is deeply entwined with the physical world. As we mark ourselves with these ashes, we remind ourselves that no grief is solitary. That what has stricken you is also carried by me. We begin our Lenten journey together, reminding one another that we are those whose flesh grows back. We are those who remain. It is not easy, but we cling to this: God has always seen sacred potential in the dust.
Wilderness by Daniel Snoke & Keith Watts, Part 4
Ev’ry stain and imperfection
You are making wholly new
For our marks will be reflections
Of the scars you carry too
Though the wilderness is lonely
Though we wander and we roam
For your presence is our only
Path to love that leads us home
Blessed is his name
Jesus Christ we sing
Worthy to be praised
Hallelujah!
Prayer
(Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley)
God of the Ashes,
Today, let us hold the tension of the story of our making – born of the dirt, beautifully connected to the earth we walk on. And yet, possessing the knowledge of our own mortality – that our common decay cannot be escaped. As we begin Lent, help us to become honest about the ways our societies and selfhoods are marred by injustice, cruelty, neglect, and greed. Help us to see our own role in the degeneration of the world; that as we push back evil around us, we might also admit those secret evils that dwell in us. As we name how we’ve been complicit in the ashes of this world, help us to bear them in solidarity and hope. Amen.
Breathe
Inhale: I will carry the ashes.
Exhale: God, bring rest to the suffering.
Inhale: There is breath in these ashes.
Exhale: No death is final.
Imposition of Ashes & Praying in the Wilderness
Worshippers will have time to roam to different prayer stations.
Prayer station 1: Imposition of Ashes
Since it was also Valentine’s Day, we mixed red glitter in with the ashes.
(Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel during Imposition of Ashes)
Prayer station 2: Communion
MATERIALS: cupcake liners, grapes, gluten free crackers
Prayer station 3: Sand Drawing
MATERIALS: squeeze bottles, colored sand
Prayer station 4: Sand Etching
MATERIALS: sand, skewers
Prayer station 5: Sand Molding
MATERIALS: kinetic sand
Prayer station 6: Lighting prayer candles
Community Prayer from Walter Brueggemann
Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day,
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given,
or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day,
for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.
This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.
We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.
On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
you Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.
We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon. Amen.
Song
Graves into Gardens by Elevation
You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You’re the only one who can
I searched the world but it couldn’t fill me
Vain, empty praise and treasures that fade
Are never enough
Then, you came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in your love
(Chorus) Oh there’s nothing better than you
There’s nothing better than you
Lord there’s nothing
Nothing is better than you
I’m not afraid to show you my weakness
My failures and flaws, Lord, you’ve seen them all
And you still call me friend
‘Cause the God of the mountain is the God of the valley
There’s not a place your mercy and grace
Won’t find me again
(Bridge 1) You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You’re the only one who can
(Bridge 2) You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You’re the only one who can
Blessing from Jan Richardson
All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners
or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—
Did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.
So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise God, all creatures here below
Praise God, ye heavenly host above
Praise God, the Trinity of Love
Still Waters 