Sermon Tone Analysis

SILENCE

Call To Worship

God sent Christ into the world

not to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

God’s love endures forever.

God is our refuge and strength,

a present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear

though the earth should change,

though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;

though the waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

God’s love endures forever.

SILENCE

Seek Ye First

Holy Is The Lord

Ash Wednesday 2023

Almighty God,

you despise nothing you have made

and you forgive the sins of all who trust in you.

Create in us new and contrite hearts,

that truly repenting of our sins,

and acknowledging our brokenness,

we may receive from you, the God of all mercy,

full pardon and forgiveness;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our redeemer,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

SILENCE

Merciful God,

your word is our way of truth and life.

Create in us hearts that are clean

and put your Holy Spirit within us,

so that we may receive your grace

and declare your praise forever;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Ash Wednesday 2023

God Is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter (Ash Wednesday: God Deceives No One)

In the beginning, even before the start of his ministry, Jesus is tempted by the devil.

The powers of evil, of falling away from God, approach him and try to bring him down at the very moment when he is assuming his role as Messiah (Luke 4:3–4).

Luke reports that Jesus is famished, and then the devil confronts him: If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.

If you have the power of God, then use it for yourself.

Perform a miracle: turn the stone into bread, and you will be filled.

Why, after all, do you have such power?

If you are the Son of God, prove your power.…

In this voice of apparent intercessory love, Jesus recognizes the voice of the devil.

It was an outrageous suggestion, and he rejects the devil: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt.

4:4).

Here that means basically: God deceives no one.

“And take up their cross.”

That cross is already there, ready, from the very beginning; we need only take it up.

But to keep us from believing that we must simply choose any arbitrary cross, or simply pick out our suffering as we will, Jesus emphasizes that each of us has his or her own cross, ready, appointed, and appropriately measured by God.

Jesus Cross was there at the very beginning of his ministry.

It’s not something that we have to wait for, and in a very real way that is what Lent is about.

It’s looking at the cross, remember Jesus died for us, and for us to learn to die to ourselves.

That’s why often people will give up something for Lent.

In Mark 8:27-33, Jesus asks his disciples “Who do people say that I am.

And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

And that’s when he began to teach them, when they recognized Jesus for who he was, yet they still had a ways to go.

He told them that He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and that he would be killed and after three days rise again.

Peter wasn’t having it, and he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him.

But, turning and seeing His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me Satan!

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

Origen wrote in his commentary on Matthew, “If Peter … was called a stumbling-block by Jesus—as not minding the things of God in what he said but the things of men—what is to be said about all those who profess to be made disciples of Jesus, but do not mind the things of God?

[What is to be said about those who] do not look to things unseen and eternal, (but mind the things of man) and look to things seen and temporal?

Would they be seen by Jesus as a stumbling block to Him, and because they are stumbling blocks to Him, as stumbling blocks to His followers also?

In regard to them He says, “I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,” so also He might say, “When I was running you caused me to stumble.”

Let us not therefore suppose that it is a trivial sin to mind the things of men—since we ought in everything to mind the things of God.

How are we to respond?

Tonight, we’re going to spend some time in confession and silence before we impart the ashes.

As we think about these things I have prepared some sheets that you might use throughout the season of Lent to ask questions of yourself.

Allowing you to ask yourself How are you mindful of the things of people?

Are you harboring mindsets, possessions, goals, and desires that are incompatible with God and God’s Kingdom?

You might choose to make a list of things and pray about them.

Let’s take a moment of silence and then share in confession using song and a Litany of Penetance.

Create In Me A Clean Heart

Litany of Penitance

Holy and merciful God,

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.

Have mercy on us, O God.

We have not listened 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.

Have mercy on us, O God.

We confess to you, O God, all our past unfaithfulness.

For the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience in our lives,