From ancient times, Christians have on this day searched their hearts and sought to be cleansed from sin. They have sought repentance and reconciliation with God and with one another. They have received ashes marked on their foreheads as a sign of sin’s disfigurement and of their own mortality.
Today is Ash Wednesday, and it marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. It is a season of preparation during the 40 days and six Sundays before Easter. Lent is a time when we remember that the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good News! (Marc 1:15)
Lent is not a time to worry about God’s wrath but rather a time to consider our limits, our mortality, and the need for Christ. Lent is a time of reflection on what God has done to find and redeem us and how we can live a whole and full life as a child of God.
While Lent is a time for prayer, fasting, service, and contemplation, at the top of our list should be a prayer for the observance of repentance, not out of guilt but out of the desire to be reconciled with God. Once again, for the season of Lent, we invite you to reflect upon the gift of repentance.
The season of Lent moves us to reflect deeply upon repentance.
We live in a world in desperate need of peace, but before there is peace, we must repent and embrace Christ. We often don’t talk about repentance because of a lack of confidence, less-than-ideal habits, or because we believe we are good already.
We often see “Repentance!” as auto-incrimination or a gateway to guilt and shame, but what if we were to consider Repentance as “Rectification” as the thing that will lead us to restoration…
To celebrate repentance, though, we must explore the full extent of its meaning. The search for repentance, we must examine it as relational, connectional, and communal. This Lent, let us challenge our preconceptions and embrace a journey of repentance—not as an admission of guilt, but as an affirmation of God's unending grace.
Come and hear how Jesus leads many to repentance
in a way that is life-giving and guides us to abide in grace.
Join us on Sundays for worship, beginning on Feb. 18th, as we traverse from the wilderness of our wanderings to the promise of Easter morning.
Litany for Ash Wednesday
On this first day of Lent, we pause, look within
and examine our consciousness.
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
Where we have neglected prayer, been apathetic in worship, found
reasons to avoid generosity or lacked compassion:
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
Where we have colluded in the oppression of those who become
invisible in their suffering and ignored on the streets:
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
Where anxiety has eroded the gift of Your peace, and where we
have cared too much about what others think:
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love.
"By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the
ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust,
and to dust, you will return.” — Genesis 3:19 (NLT)
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