Christ Church Online Ash Wednesday Worship

Heat. Heat.

Thank you very much.

I don't

Thank you.

Heat. Heat.

Hallelujah.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't think

Good job.

Good evening. Welcome to worship at

Christ Church. Uh whether you're

worshiping with us here in person or

online, we are glad that you decided to

make this a part of your Lentin season.

I am Chris Morgan, senior pastor here at

the church. I just want to share a

little bit about the background of why

we do Lent. The early Christians

observed with great devotion the days of

our Lord's passion and resurrection. And

it became the custom of the church that

before the Easter celebration, there

should be a 40-day season of spiritual

preparation. During this season,

converts to the faith were prepared for

holy baptism. It was also a time when

persons who had committed serious sins

and had separated themselves from the

community of faith were reconciled by

penance and forgiveness and restored to

participation in the life of the church.

In this way, the whole congregation was

reminded of the mercy and forgiveness

proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus

Christ. I invite you therefore in the

name of the church to observe a holy

Lent by self-examination and repentance

by prayer, fasting, and self-denial and

by reading and meditation on God's holy

word. Now, I'd like to invite you to

rise physically or spiritually and join

us for our opening hymn, hymn number 269

in the blue himnil, Lord throughout

these 40 days.

glory

for us

and Pray

us

the

way.

Oh, give us

all

My life was

a great

Glor

Jesus

Christ.

Will you remain standing physically or

spiritually and join together in our

call to worship? Even now, return to me,

says God. Let the sirens in the streets

rage. Let the trumpet from the church

house blow. Let those consumed with

darkness return.

>> Let the abused and abusing hear the

defiant and disobedient revere. Let the

sinner and the scornful draw near.

Return from your ignorance. Return from

your injustice. Return from your apathy.

Return from your agony.

>> Return from your selfishness. Return

from your greed. Return from your

neglect. Return out of need.

>> Return to me.

>> Return to me with a clean heart. Return

to me with fasting, weeping, and

mourning.

>> Return to me.

I am

slow.

Return to me.

Please be seated.

What

love is this? Oh my soul.

Oh my soul,

what wonderous?

to my soul.

What wonderous

that was the Lord of

the tread

for my soul.

You bear a dreadful curse

for my soul.

I was singing down, sinking down,

singing down.

When I was singing down, singing down

when I was singing down,

Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

for my soul.

Christ laid us on his ground for my

soul.

To

the lamb

I will sing.

I will sing to God and to the Lamb.

I will sing.

I will sing. To God and to the Lamb

is the great I am.

Join the king.

I will sing.

I build on the king

will sing

amen. Amen.

Amen.

Good evening. I'm Sean Lewis and the

creative arts pastor here at Christ

Church. As we prepare to share in a

prayer of confession, remember that

following the prayer, we will take a

moment for silent confession. God begs

us to turn from those words, those acts,

those obstacles which keep us from being

God's people. As we begin our Lenton

journey, I invite you to join with me

with words and in silence as we bring

our brokenness to God who desires to

make us whole. Let us pray. Forgiving

God, too often we heed the voices of the

world around us instead of to you. Calls

of worldly success, the desire to have

what everyone else has, and the race for

greed and power. As we enter Lent, lead

us back to you, oh God. Listen to our

prayers for forgiveness,

healing, and wholeness.

Give us strength to repent and turn back

to you.

God, you remind us in your word that

When we are in Christ, we are new

creatures and the old things pass away.

This Ash Wednesday, we take hold of your

promise. Renew us, Lord. A new walk, a

new talk, a new mind, a new heart, a new

life.

Thanks be to God.

We often think of the Lenton journey as

a personal and even somewhat lonely walk

with God. As the body of Christ, these

40 days can be an experience of profound

community, a time to draw closer to God

and to one another. As we prepare to

embark on this journey, I invite you to

offer words of support to your traveling

companions. As we take a moment in this

time of worship to share the peace of

Christ, whether we are present here at

the church or if we are worshiping at

home, lift up your neighbors in prayer

with the words, "The peace of the Lord

be with you." Knowing that as we worship

together, we are united in Christ. Now,

please stand and share with one another

the sign of Christ's peace.

You may be seated. Our

scripture from this evening comes from

Psalm 103:es

13 to 18.

As a father has compassion on his

children, so the Lord has compassion on

those who fear him. For he knows how we

are formed. He remembers that we are

dust. The life of mortals is like grass.

They flourish like a flower of the

field. The wind blows over it and it's

gone. And in its place, and its place

remembers it no more. But from

everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's

love is with those who fear him. And his

righteousness with their children's

children, with those who keep his

covenant, and remember to obey his

precepts.

>> The word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

>> In the general scheme of history, human

beings don't live very long. While an

average lifespan of about 72 years seems

like a pretty significant amount of

time, when you compare that to the

entirety of humanity, it's really very,

very tiny. In fact, if you were to

compress all of human history down into

a 24-hour period, one person's life,

yours or mine, lasts only about 1 half

of one second.

We are here for just the briefest of

moments.

And every spring, for every year of our

short lives, we are given the recurring

gift of this remarkable season of Lent.

It's a time to reflect, to ponder God

and how God is at work in our lives.

Lent, I think, gives us permission to

slow down and to hold the weight of

Jesus's death in our hearts. To feel his

expectation as his time to die drew near

and to comprehend even just a little bit

how all of the suffering that he

experienced was done for each one of us.

For Christians, Ash Wednesday, of

course, marks the start of that Lenton

season. And we commemorate that

beginning by being marked with ashes. We

receive this mark as a way to remember

our mortality, to remember that we were

created from dust. And one day, in the

not very distant future, we will be dust

again.

But I think we also do it to remind us

that in the in between time between the

first particle of dust and last, that's

when we get to live. And that's when we

get to experience relationship with the

God who gave everything for us.

So it's fitting that we read this

portion of Psalm 103 as part of our Ash

Wednesday service tonight. The 103rd

Psalm is a song of praise to God as an

acknowledgment of everything that God

has done. The part of the psalm that we

just heard Shawn read teaches us both

what we should be grateful for and how

that gratitude can and should shape our

lives.

In those verses, we learn that God knows

everything about us.

In the New Living Translation of the

Bible, Psalm 103:14

Psalms 103:14

says, "For he knows how weak we are. He

remembers we are only dust."

God created us. God knows us intimately.

Even scripture tells us down to the

number of hairs on our head. He knows

who we are. He knows our sins. He knows

our strengths. He knows our weaknesses.

He knows that we came from dust and that

one day we're inevitably all going to go

back to that. The challenge for us is to

never forget how mortal we are, to never

forget how short our lives are compared

to how long God has been at work in the

world. We're also challenged not to

underestimate our worth and our purpose

just because our lives are so short.

We also learn from Psalm 103 that we are

living a borrowed life. I found that

sentence while I was doing research for

this sermon and it kind of grabbed on to

me immediately. I've heard the phrase

borrowed time before, but never the

phrase borrowed life. But that's exactly

what we have. We are living borrowed

lives lent to us directly from God who

orchestrated us into existence. And we

have this one short, sometimes difficult

and yet incredibly beautiful life to be

in relationship with God and with one

another and to make disciples for the

kingdom.

And finally, we learn from Psalm 103

that God's love is forever. It never

ends. It never changes. It's for all of

us. And yet somehow it feels very

personal and very unique to each one of

us. It was here for our ancestors before

we ever came into the picture. It's here

for us now. And it will be here for our

children's children's children's

children and even beyond that. It is

from everlasting to everlasting. And

nothing can take it away. It bookends

time itself.

A little over a year ago, at the

beginning of January 2025,

you may remember watching on your

televisions as much of Southern

California burned.

The combination of very dry land and the

powerful Santa Ant winds, Santa Ana

winds com um combined to reignite embers

from a previous fire, sparking the

horrific Palisades fire. When that fire

was finally extinguished at the end of

January after burning for about 3 weeks,

it had killed 12 people, destroyed 6,800

buildings, including homes, businesses,

and churches, and consumed approximately

23,500

acres of land, leaving in its wake a

charred landscape covered in ash.

The affected area, when you saw it on

television, appeared apocalyptic and

hopeless.

But even in the midst of what appeared

to the naked eye to be total ruin and

devastation, all hope was not lost.

In the spring of that year, so a few

months after the fire, something

incredible happened.

Through the black landscape, where it

seemed that all forms of life had been

lost to the fire, green shoots started

to peek out from the ashes. They were

sprouts of a plant called fire poppies.

This is what fire poppies look like.

They are part of a unique type of flower

called a fire follower. According to

wildlife experts, these firefall

flowers, say that five times fast, only

bloom during the spring after a

wildfire.

Before that, their seeds lie dormant in

the ground just waiting for a fire to

happen. The fire serves two purposes.

The first purpose is it destroys the

shrubs and other uh plants that grow low

to the ground. Those low-lying plants

can take keep new vegetation from

growing up. And so when they are

destroyed, there is space for new life

to happen.

The second thing that these fire

follower flowers are waiting for is a

signal from a fire to start sprouting.

Some members of that species need the

intense heat of the fire to crack open a

seed pod.

Others need the chemicals that are only

present in the charred soil in order to

come to life.

Fire poppies need the smoke from the

fire. There is something in that smoke

that triggers in the seed of that

particular flower that it is time to

start germination.

And then after that they burst to life.

Their bright orange petals and yellow

centers sit on top of vibrant green

stems, bringing splashes of brilliant

color and new life, as you can see, to

an otherwise dark black and barren

landscape.

You would think that after waiting so

long for just the right conditions for

life that fire poppies would stay in

bloom for a while, sharing their beauty

with the world for at least a few weeks.

But after all that time of being

dormant, all that time of waiting, lying

buried in the ground, fire poppies only

stay in bloom for a maximum of 48 hours.

That's it.

Then the bloom is gone and they slowly

wither and die, returning to the earth.

Their life is extraordinarily brief, but

the impact of their beauty rising up

from the ashes and the hope that they

bring after such destruction is

immeasurable.

Scripture tells us that God knew us when

we were dust. That there is no part of

our frames that is hidden from God when

we were woven together in the depths of

the earth. that God knows every little

thing about us.

Scripture tells us that God's ways are

perfect. In essence, that God does not

make mistakes.

Therefore, we can derive from that that

it is not an accident that all of us are

here in this place in this time for a

reason.

We were created to bloom right now,

given these borrowed lives when we were

for such a time as this.

Scripture tells us that no matter how

short our lives are, no matter how

quickly we bloom and then vanish back

into the dust in the ground, God's love

is always present.

It creates us. It nurtures us. It gives

us what we need to shine as our uniquely

knit selves and then ushers us back to

the earth when our time is up.

And so the question becomes, what are we

going to do with the short time that we

have? What are we going to do to bring

hope and color and the message of Jesus

into a dark and scarred world?

The word Lent comes from an old English

word meaning springtime.

Because this season of the church's

lurggical calendar roughly corresponds

for us with the start of spring, it's

appropriate to call it that.

But understanding that we are given this

very short amount of time to really live

and to really make a difference, I think

we can look at the meaning of Lent in a

different way.

What if Lent also reminded us of our

borrowed lives?

What if it reminded us that God did

indeed lend to us these lives that we

have?

What if we remember that because they

are lent to us, we have a responsibility

to use them well, knowing how perfectly

God created us with the gifts that God

gave each one of us.

So, here is my Lenton invitation for

you. Or maybe it's a challenge. You

decide.

I invite you to take these 40 days to

remember how uniquely important you are

to God.

Take these six weeks to consider the

brevity of your life and what changes

you can make in your life to draw closer

to God.

Use this time between now and Easter

Sunday to ponder what things you can

give up that are preventing you from

doing what God created you to do and

what things you can add to your life

that will help you become who God

created you to be.

Like the fire poppies after a wildfire,

God created you from the dust with a

purpose of bringing light and life and

reminders of his love and hope to a

devastated world.

Will you use this Lenton season to

remember his gift of your life?

Remind remember his sacrifice for your

sake and remember his commission to use

your one brief and beautiful life to

make a difference for the kingdom.

Let's pray.

God, I give you thanks for the lives

of each person here, of each person

worshiping as part of this service

tonight. And I pray for this Lenton

season that it may be a time where we

realize how wonderful you created us to

be, how uniquely you created each one of

us. That you might empower us to shine

brightly, to shine so that we are hope

and we are love and we are your

ambassadors ambassadors in a world that

just desperately needs to know you.

Help us to use this season to become the

disciples you are calling us to be in

Jesus name. Amen.

Good evening. I'm Pastor Pat and always

proud to be part of this church family.

As we enter into our prayer time, I

would ask that you just open up your

hearts, clear your minds to be able to

receive the prayers that we share. Our

prayer rails are open. And you're more

than welcome to come up during the

prayer hymn. And at this time, I would

invite you to stand in body or spirit.

Our prayer hymn is number 496, Sweet

Hour of Prayer. Please rise.

See our prayer

that calls me from the World of

the earth my heart is

all my heart and

Jesus

is

free.

My soul has all been cal

and all this

my

return

of

See,

the hour of prayers

Heat. Heat.

shows his face

and glide.

I

to

he

and trust his grace.

I pass

my every

hour of prayed.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Lord Jesus,

how amazing it is that you know by name

each one of us that are right here,

right now. How amazing it is that we

know your presence. We can feel your

presence right here in this sacred

place.

How amazing it is, Lord, that you have

chosen us to be here tonight. We thank

you for that. But Lord, we all come to

you as sinners knowing that by the grace

of God, we are forgiven.

Lord, I pray that during these next 40

days, we can prepare our hearts, asking

for forgiveness,

asking for healing and wholeness. Lord,

I lift up each one of us that we can be

the men, the women, the children that

you created us to be.

Lord, during this 40 days, empower each

one of us to be more like Jesus.

We lift our hearts up to you tonight,

Lord, with our joys, with our concerns,

knowing that we've put everything in

your hand and it is answered.

Lord, I lift up all of the individuals

that we love that aren't here tonight.

We lift those up and their families

knowing that again your presence is

right there with them.

Lord, we come to you in one voice

tonight with the prayer that you taught

us, saying, "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 trespassed

against us. And lead us not into

temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power

and the glory forever. Amen.

As we prepare to serve the sacrament of

communion, I would like to invite those

who are helping to serve this evening to

come forward at this time. As they are

doing that, let me give you a few

instructions about how we are going to

serve the sacrament and how we are going

to do imposition of ashes. In just a

moment, when I invite you to come

forward, you're going to do so using the

center aisle. You'll come up in uh two

lines. You'll take a piece of bread.

You'll take a cup. You can eat and drink

both of those immediately. And then

there will be an opportunity for you to

receive ashes. If you don't want to

receive ashes, that's okay. You can just

keep going. If you'd like to receive

ashes, simply stay there. And uh they

will be put on your forehead unless you

indicate otherwise. And then you can

return to your seats using the side

aisles, placing your um your cup and

your uh your cup from the juice into the

receptacles on your way back. If you

can't come forward for any reason, stay

where you are and raise your hand. And

as we are uh finished serving the choir,

we will come and we will serve you right

where you are. All of the bread is

gluten-free. So if that is you and you

need gluten-free bread, we all have it.

So we are covered there.

The communion table at the United

Methodist Church is an open table. And

what that means is you don't have to be

a member here. You don't have to be a

member of any church in order to receive

communion tonight. Christ our Lord

invites to his table all who love him,

all who earnestly repent of their sins,

and all who live to see all who seek to

live in peace with one another.

>> The Lord be with you.

>> And also with you.

>> Lift up your hearts.

>> Lift them up to the Lord.

>> Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

>> It is right to give our thanks and

praise. It is right and a good and

joyful thing always and everywhere to

give thanks to you, Father Almighty,

creator of heaven and earth. You brought

all things into being, and you called

them good. From the dust of the earth,

you formed us into your image, and you

breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away and our love failed,

your love remained steadfast. When the

rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and

40 nights, you bore up the ark on the

waters, saved Noah and his family, and

made covenant with every living creature

on earth. When you led your people to

Mount Si for 40 days and 40 nights, you

gave us your commandments, and you made

us your covenant people. When your

people forsook your covenant, your

prophet Elijah fasted for 40 days and 40

nights on your holy mountain. He heard

your still small voice.

And so with your people on earth and all

the company of heaven, we praise your

name. And together we join in singing

their unending hymn.

Holy, holy, holy Lord.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosana

in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of

the Lord.

Holy are you and blessed is your son

Jesus Christ. When you gave him to save

us from our sin, your spirit led him

into the wilderness where he fasted for

40 days and 40 nights to prepare for his

ministry. When he suffered and died on a

cross for our sin, you raised him to

life, presented him alive to the

apostles during 40 days, and exalted him

at your right hand. by the baptism of

his suffering, death, and resurrection,

you gave birth to your church, delivered

us from slavery to sin and death, and

made with us a new covenant by water and

by the spirit. Now, when we, your

people, prepare for the yearly feast of

Easter, you lead us to repentance for

sin and the cleansing of our hearts,

that during these 40 days of Lent, we

may be gifted and graced to reaffirm the

covenant you made with us through

Christ. On the night in which he gave

himself up for us, he took bread. He

gave thanks to you, broke the bread,

gave it to his disciples, and said,

"Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, he took the

cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his

disciples, and said, "Drink from this

all of you. This is my blood of the new

covenant poured out for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as

often you as you drink it in remembrance

of me.

And so in remembrance of these your

mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer

ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as

a holy and a living sacrifice in union

with Christ's offering for us as we

proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ.

>> Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered

here and on these gifts of bread and

juice. Make them be for us the body and

the blood of Christ that we may be for

the world the body of Christ redeemed by

his blood. By your spirit, make us one

with Christ, one with each other, and

one in ministry to all the world until

Christ comes in the final victory, and

we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your son, Jesus Christ, with the

Holy Spirit, in your holy church, all

honor and glory is yours, Almighty

Father, now and forever.

Amen.

Jesus

Christ.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

The heart

is strong.

Jesus

the cross

of preious.

mountain

to all

those from Calary's mountain

in the cross

in the cross.

Till my rap soul shall find

rest

of the river.

Come and merry

and morning star

sh his wings around

me

in the cross.

In the cross

be my glory

ever

till my

chos. Oh sh

of God

bring his

help

from day to day.

In his shadow

in the cross,

in the cross

the glory

ever

till our

soul shall

rest

on the river.

cross

till I reach the voice

of the river

with the

in the cross

be my glory

ever

till my

soul

rest

on the way.

Let us pray.

God, we give you thanks again for this

meal. May it nourish our spirits. May it

stay with us throughout these 40 days

and give us the strength to be who it is

you are calling us to be. In Jesus name

we pray. Amen. I invite you to rise

physically or spiritually as we sing

together our sending hymn. It's number

384 in the blue himnil. Love divine, all

loves excelling.

The diving

joy of to come down

us.

Jesus power

with my salvation

and Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Heat.

Yeah. Heat.

Heat.

Yeah.

Heat.

As you go from this place, I challenge

you to think sincerely about how you are

going to use these 40 days of Lent. How

is it that you are going to connect with

the God who created you to be exactly

who you are to shine brightly in this

moment in time? Use these days wisely.

Go in peace. Amen.

Heat. Heat.

Heat.

Heat. Heat.

Heat.