Ash Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

God spake these words and said, I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Honor thy father and thy mother.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not steal.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not covet.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all thy laws in our hearts we beseech thee.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

A reading from Joel.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like blackness spread upon the mountains, a great and powerful army comes.

Their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

Rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a green offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast.

Call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her canopy.

Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.

Let them say, Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations.

Why should it be said among the people?

Where is their God?

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Reading from the Psalm, please read.

We will read it responsibly by half verse.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

The Lord will not always accuse us.

The Lord has not dealt with us according to our sins.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, as far as the east is from the West, as a father cares for his children.

For the Lord knows whereof we are made.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.

For he says, At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.

See, now is the acceptable time.

See, now is the day of salvation.

We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

But as servants of God, we have commended ourselves in every way.

Through great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.

We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as own and yet are well known, as dying and see we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Jesus said, Beware of practicing your piety before others and other in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Acknowledge we humbly beseech you a lamb of your own fold, a sheep of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Well, desperate times call for at least different measures, and so welcome to the first Ash Sunday, and hopefully the last Ash Sunday you're ever going to do.

Just to put you at ease, um, most folks don't know this.

There actually are 47 days in Lent because Sundays are feast days and they don't count.

Um, that doesn't mean, by the way, that if you've given up a chocolate, you should go for it on Sundays.

Um, but what it does mean is that you have 42 days left starting today.

So that's plenty of time for you to grow into the holiness of Lent.

And that is what I want to talk about today.

It's kind of counterintuitive when they read the gospel, in which the first words are beware of practicing your piety in front of others in order to be seen.

And the invitation on Ash Wednesday is to put ashes on your head so that you can walk around and be seen with ashes on your head.

There's a little bit of cognitive dissonance, maybe, but I hope not, because the difference, of course, is that the world might not need more displays of public piety, but it sure does need a lot more displays of public repentance.

And I'd like you to consider the kind of repentance that we're in desperate need of.

There's this wonderful story about Gandhi.

Once upon a time, he was a strong advocate of position A.

He spoke it very publicly.

A week or two later, he changed to position B.

Somebody from the opposite political party said, What is this?

You're flip-flopping.

Last time you spoke about position A.

And Gandhi said, Ah, you see, because since then I've learned something.

It's funny, and we're in desperate need as a nation, as a community, of people who are not afraid to say I was wrong.

And I don't have to stay there.

Somehow we've settled for the idea that people who never change are the strong ones.

An Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter is about the idea that there might be more life on the other side of what we'd settled into.

Traditionally, this got co-opted in the 1500s.

There's a reason I prayed the college twice today.

There's that line about being delivered from our wretchedness.

In the 1500s, we decided it's because there was nothing good in us.

Maybe you've heard that prayer before.

It's in the 1928 prayer book.

There's nothing good in us.

That happened in the 1500s.

The scriptures are very clear.

Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.

And to quote the African proverb, God made us because God hoped we would enjoy it.

Lent is not about appeasing an angry God.

Lint is about abandoning the wretchedness we settle for.

We're not wretched.

Ontologically, we choose, sometimes because we don't know any better, to settle for things that will not last.

And that's what the ashes are all about.

The Latin phrase, memento mori, remember you will die.

We have the acclamation, and it's really important theologically, death isn't a bad thing.

God made us to die.

We're made out of dust.

If we weren't supposed to die, God would have picked like iridium or cockroaches.

I mean, something that will outlast us.

But we were made from dust.

It's not D with this, it's not death with a small D that God's worried about.

It's death with a capital D.

That is living a life in which our dignity is destroyed and corrupted.

And these ashes are meant to be a sign that a lot of the pettiness we choose to settle for, it's going to die with us.

Thank God.

But that faith, hope, love, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, those are the virtues that outlive us.

Those are the acts that we do not just in this temporal body that we have, they happen in eternity and they expand the universe infinitely.

We get to where these ashes as a sign to the world and to ourselves.

Pettiness, envy, idolatry, those things die with us.

And we might as well go ahead and let them die now.

Because we have the opportunity to live larger, not to appease God, but so that we can live into what God wanted us to have all along.

Grace.

Peace.

Joy.

It's a big room.

And there may even be people watching on the YouTube stream this morning, and I don't know what's going to make your Lent holy in the sense that your life will be bigger on the other side.

That's the goal.

Some people need, as a spiritual discipline, to start saying no.

One of my good friends has given up rewriting school policy for Lent because they need a break.

There's other folks that could start writing some school policy for Lent.

I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Lent is not always about giving something up.

Sometimes it's about taking something on.

Really, what it's about more than anything is making some holy trades.

It's about freeing up space that we fill with things that are going to die with us so that we can make space for things that are going to outlive us.

And I cannot help but think about the Zen proverb, about the man who comes to learn from the Zen master.

And the Zen master says, Let me pour you some tea.

Perhaps you've heard this story before.

The man holds out the cup, the master starts to pour the tea in the cup.

The cup fills up.

He continues to pour the tea.

It spills, it makes a mess.

The truth seeker wonders why this person is not coordinated enough to stop pouring.

The Zen master says, You have come to me completely full, so how on earth can I give you anything else for your cup because it is already full?

And Lent might be for you making some room so that new life can come in.

Don't get me wrong.

If you're an alcoholic, please give up the drink for Lent.

Don't give it up for Lent.

Give it up for the sake of the joy God imagined for you before you were born.

If that's today, start it today.

If it was yesterday, start it yesterday.

If you have a gambling addiction, give that up.

Please.

Many of us do not have those kinds of addictions.

Frankly, we live in a state of wretchedness that is socially acceptable, like workaholism or chronic worrying about our parenting decisions.

Or, quite honestly, the one that is my personal favorite is wishing I'd done things a different way.

So that sometimes when I look in the mirror, I don't even see the person who's in front of me.

I see the person that could have been if I'd made a different decision 25 years ago, when frankly I didn't even have it in my power to do anything different back then.

What a wretched way to live.

And God would like to deliver you from that wretchedness.

Because God hoped you would enjoy this.

If I got one wish from a genie, I'm pretty sure I know what I would really like to have happen.

My wish would be that I would enjoy the life I have no matter what.

So that if I lost my power and my water this week, I'm not minimizing that.

It's catastrophic.

I wish I could stay centered.

And if my children disobeyed me and didn't go to college, I could still enjoy my life.

After all, that's their life anyway.

I wish I could wish for the enjoyment of the self God has made me to be.

And of course, don't you see, the only thing stopping me from doing that is myself.

And those breaks we put on ourself.

Breaks from being present.

Breaks from seeing awe and wonder every time we look in the mirror.

Maybe we just need to give up those breaks for Lent.

I guarantee you somebody's life would be bigger if you would.

Starting with your own.

We often think that sin is about doing some kind of moral infraction and messing up the perfection that God had intended.

And you know, at least in Hebrew, sin is as much about carrying around a burden as it is missing the mark.

And the burdens that I carry are things like regret.

And to be honest with you, folks did things to me that I didn't deserve or earn, and they weren't fair, and I continue to hurt from those things.

And maybe part of Lent is saying, you know, for All that was wrong that happened to me.

And by the way, I don't mean to excuse anything that happened to me.

Maybe a holy lint is being able to say those things made me who I am.

And I'm so grateful for who I am.

But I'm no longer going to be burdened by those things.

What would it take to live like that?

Gratitude.

So maybe for Lent.

You need to say, I'm sorry.

And maybe for Lent, we need to be able to say thank you more often.

Anne Lamotte says that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.

And you know, if you think about it, it really just means accepting who you are as God's gift to the world.

I don't mean God's gift to women or God's gift to astrophysics.

I mean God's gift to the world in the most humble way possible.

No more than you are and no less.

Boy, that'd be a holy way to live, don't you think?

The world is desperate for people who are authentically themselves.

The world is desperate for people who can change their mind and admit it and go forward because they learned something.

Those are the people God asks us to be.

And that's why I'm a really big fan of putting ashes on our foreheads.

And I wish we didn't have to be socially distanced right now so we had the chance to walk around with these ashes with the hope that somebody would dare to ask us about them.

There's something on your head.

Do you need a tissue?

Nope.

I wanted that to be there so that I could say publicly and openly with all the heart that I have that God wants more for the world than we're living into, and I'd like to do something about it this year.

That's what this day is about.

God has more joy for the world than we're living into.

God has more grace for the world than we're living into.

God has more justice for the world than we're living into.

And being public with those things is the heart of the gospel.

There might be enough piety in the world, just to be honest.

Public piety, quite honestly, is often very condemnatory and divisive.

There might be enough of that.

But there is not enough justice, and there is not enough peace, and there is not enough grace or joy.

And I would love to make you a billboard for that announcement this morning.

Not just for other people you see, but maybe your London journey starts when you go home and look in the mirror.

And you see, Mike, God has more joy for you than you're living into, and you get to do something about it.

You have the privilege of working with God in order to live into God's dreams for you and the rest of the world.

I would love for you to fast from the idea that God loves you but doesn't like you.

I would love for you to fast from that idea so that you can feast on what grace is about.

Every time you look in the mirror, every time you look at your partner or your children or your coworkers.

If you don't get it right, I guarantee you we'll do this again next year.

But don't you see the urgency that Paul writes is joy and peace and grace are so important.

Why wait?

Today is that day.

Or tomorrow.

If you need to wait until next year, you can, but why wait?

Why wait?

I pray that we can be a community that encourages one another to live not into a pious land, but into a holy one.

Dear people of God, the first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, and it became the custom of the church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting.

This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy baptism.

It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the fellowship of the church.

Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, by fasting and self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God's holy word.

And to make a right beginning of repentance and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord as we're able, our Maker and Redeemer.

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth.

Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, and that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Amen.

I'm going to invite you to receive ashes by family groups, because I'll be cleaning in between each family my hand.

Beginning on my right, your left, if you'll come in family groups in six-foot socially distanced increments.

And after you receive ashes, maybe return around the room to your seat so we can stay socially distanced.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness.

Wash me through and through from my wickedness.

And cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions.

Against you only have I sinned.

And done what is evil in your sight.

And so you are justified when you speak.

And upright in your judgment.

Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth.

A sinner from my mother's womb.

For behold, you look for truth deep within me.

And will make me understand wisdom secretly.

Purge me for my sin and I shall be pure.

Wash me and I shall be clean indeed.

Make me hear of joy and gladness.

Hide your face from my sins.

Let us give thanks to God for all the gifts freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation in earth and sky and sea.

Thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of women and men, revealing the image of Christ.

We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families and our friends.

For minds to things and hearts to love and hands to serve.

We thank you, Lord.

For health and strength to work and leisure to rest and play.

We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity.

We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice.

We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints in all times and places.

We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Give me praise and glory with you, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live, has given power and commandment to ministers to declare and pronounce to God's people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sin.

God pardons and absolves all those who truly repent and with sincere hearts believe the holy gospel.

Therefore we beseech God to grant us true repentance and the Holy Spirit, that those things may please God, which we do on this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to eternal joy through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

I just wanted to bring a few announcements to your attention.

One, many of you know that we're a sponsoring parish for Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church.

We use the acronym LOTS for Lord of the Streets.

LOTS is a congregation that ministers to the chronically both past and present homeless families in Houston.

And we do a lot for LOTS because there's a lot that needs to be done.

And particularly they're called up short right now on being able to give people non-perishable foodstuffs akin to what we put in our little blessing bags that are available in the hallway.

So they're so called up short.

We're going to make a special delivery on Wednesday, and um we're just putting out an al-call on things like tuna pouches or um peanut butter cracker packages or uh granola bars or fruit cups.

We're going to collect them either in that brown box outside the front doors.

Schools open tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday, but there is some urgency for us to get some supplies there on Wednesday.

So we'll be making a supply run on Wednesday.

Don't hurt yourself, but this is a great way to give to people who, especially given last week, are really sort of in the desperate category for foodstuffs.

Two other opportunities I want to call to your attention.

One is that if you're on our parish email list, you're receiving these daily devotional blogs, and those are the grists for us to do some Bible study around Genesis on Sunday morning.

So that happens on Zoom at 9 a.m.

from 9 to 10.

Um, and we record them and put them up on YouTube in case you're having trouble sleeping.

So I just want to put that before you there's this opportunity to do some serious Bible study around Genesis and think about ways that we can find a new Genesis in our own lives.

Also, we're beginning a series this Wednesday.

It'll be five weeks on this is great for Lent, the Rite of Reconciliation, shame, guilt, sin, and forgiveness theologically, traditionally, psychologically, and biblically.

So that'll be from 9 to 10 on Wednesdays.

There's a Zoom link in our parish email.

Uh, email me if you can't find it, talk to me if you can't find it, and like the others, we'll record them in case you'd like to view them later.

Prayers for a holy lent so that when we celebrate the new life of our Lord on Easter, you have found your own.

Walk in love as Christ can Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed.

Come not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.

The Lord be with you.

Lift up your hearts.

Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

It is very meet right in our bound in duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God.

And therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we lord and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst create heaven and earth and didst make us in thine own image.

And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.

He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.

For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.

And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sins.

Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.

Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious.

Death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.

And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.

Grant, we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.

And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with Him, that He may dwell in us and we in Him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

By whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.

Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.

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.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Christ our Passiver is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.

Behold who you are and become what you receive.

Invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down forward and returning to your seat on the far side.

You taught us, Lord, to pray, but you alone can grant us grace to live as we say.

How can your heart reach and bless the forgiving hood that push on rocks and will not let old bitterness deep on lacing light your cross reveals the truth we did not soul and it raised our lives will spread your God?

Our lives will spread your peace.

Almighty and ever-living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us, and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs to the hope of thy everlasting kingdom.

And we humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be our honor and glory, world without end.

Amen.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break, and all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go.

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.

Amen.

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

God spake these words and said, I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Honor thy father and thy mother.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not steal.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not covet.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all thy laws in our hearts we beseech thee.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like blackness spread upon the mountains, a great and powerful army comes.

Their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

Rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a green offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her canopy.

Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.

Let them say, Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations.

Why should it be said among the people?

Where is their God?

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Reading from the Psalm, please read.

We will read it responsibly by half verse.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

The Lord will not always accuse us.

The Lord has not dealt with us according to our sins.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, as far as the east is from the west, as a father cares for his children.

For the Lord knows whereof we are made.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.

For he says, At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.

See, now is the acceptable time.

See, now is the day of salvation.

We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

But as servants of God, we have commended ourselves in every way.

Through great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.

We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as own and yet are well known, as dying and see we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Jesus said, Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your father who is in secret.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Acknowledge we humbly beseech you a lamb of your own fold, a sheep of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Well, desperate times call for at least different measures, and so welcome to the first Ash Sunday, and hopefully the last Ash Sunday you're ever going to do.

Just to put you at ease, most folks don't know this.

There actually are 47 days in Lent because Sundays are feast days and they don't count.

That doesn't mean, by the way, that if you've given up a chocolate, you should go for it on Sundays.

Um, but what it does mean is that you have 42 days left starting today.

So that's plenty of time for you to grow into the holiness of Lent.

And that is what I want to talk about today.

It's kind of counterintuitive when they read the gospel, in which the first words are beware of practicing your piety in front of others in order to be seen.

And the invitation on Ash Wednesday is to put ashes on your head so that you can walk around and be seen with ashes on your head.

There's a little bit of cognitive dissonance, maybe, but I hope not, because the difference, of course, is that the world might not need more displays of public piety, but it sure does need a lot more displays of public repentance.

And I'd like you to consider the kind of repentance that we're in desperate need of.

There's this wonderful story about Gandhi.

Once upon a time, he was a strong advocate of position A.

He spoke it very publicly.

A week or two later, he changed to position B.

Somebody from the opposite political party said, What is this?

You're flip-flopping.

Last time you spoke about position A.

And Gandhi said, Ah, you see, because since then I've learned something.

It's funny, and we're in desperate need as a nation, as a community, of people who were not afraid to say I was wrong.

And I don't have to stay there.

Somehow we've settled for the idea that people who never change are the strong ones.

An Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter is about the idea that there might be more life on the other side of what we'd settled into.

Traditionally, this got co-opted in the 1500s.

There's a reason I prayed the college twice today.

There's that line about being delivered from our wretchedness.

In the 1500s, we decided it's because there was nothing good in us.

Maybe you've heard that prayer before.

It's in the 1928 prayer book.

There's nothing good in us.

That happened in the 1500s.

The scriptures are very clear.

Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.

And to quote the African proverb, God made us because God hoped we would enjoy it.

Lint is not about appeasing an angry God.

Lint is about abandoning the wretchedness we settle for.

We're not wretched.

Ontologically, we choose, sometimes because we don't know any better, to settle for things that will not last.

And that's what the ashes are all about.

The Latin phrase, memento mori, remember you will die.

We have the acclamation, and that's really important theologically, death isn't a bad thing.

God made us to die.

We're made out of dust.

If we weren't supposed to die, God would have picked like iridium or cockroaches.

I mean, something that will outlast us.

But we were made from dust.

It's not D with this, it's not death with a small D that God's worried about.

It's death with a capital D.

That is living a life in which our dignity is destroyed and corrupted.

And these ashes are meant to be a sign that a lot of the pettiness we choose to settle for, it's going to die with us, thank God.

But that faith, hope, love, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, those are the virtues that outlive us.

Those are the acts that we do not just in this temporal body that we have, they happen in eternity and they expand the universe infinitely.

We get to where these ashes as a sign to the world and to ourselves.

Pettiness, envy, idolatry, those things die with us, and we might as well go ahead and let them die now.

Because we have the opportunity to live larger, not to appease God, but so that we can live into what God wanted us to have all along.

Grace.

Peace.

Joy.

In the sense that your life will be bigger on the other side.

That's the goal.

Some people need, as a spiritual discipline, to start saying no.

One of my good friends has given up rewriting school policy for Lent because they need a break.

There's other folks that could start writing some school policy for Lent.

I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Lent is not always about giving something up.

Sometimes it's about taking something on.

Really, what it's about more than anything is making some holy trades.

It's about freeing up space that we fill with things that are going to die with us so that we can make space for things that are going to outlive us.

And I cannot help but think about the Zen proverb, about the man who comes to learn from the Zen master.

And the Zen master says, Let me pour you some tea.

Perhaps you've heard this story before.

The man holds out the cup, the master starts to pour the tea in the cup.

The cup fills up.

He continues to pour the tea.

It spills, it makes a mess.

The truth seeker wonders why this person is not coordinated enough to stop pouring.

The Zen Master says, You have come to me completely full, so how on earth can I give you anything else for your cup because it is already full?

And Lent might be for you, making some room so that new life can come in.

Don't get me wrong.

If you're an alcoholic, please give up the drink for Lent.

Don't give it up for Lent.

Give it up for the sake of the joy God imagined for you before you were born.

If that's today, start it today.

If it was yesterday, start it yesterday.

If you have a gambling addiction, give that up.

Please.

Many of us do not have those kinds of addictions.

Frankly, we live in a state of wretchedness that is socially acceptable, like workaholism or chronic worrying about our parenting decisions.

Or, quite honestly, the one that is my personal favorite is wishing I'd done things a different way.

So that sometimes when I look in the mirror, I don't even see the person who's in front of me.

I see the person that could have been if I'd made a different decision 25 years ago when frankly I didn't even have it in my power to do anything different back then.

What a wretched way to live.

And God would like to deliver you from that wretchedness.

Because God hoped you would enjoy this.

If I got one wish from a genie, I'm pretty sure I know what I would really like to have happen.

My wish would be that I would enjoy the life I have no matter what.

So that if I lost my power and my water this week, I'm not minimizing that.

It's catastrophic.

I wish I could stay centered.

And if my children disobeyed me and didn't go to college, I could still enjoy my life.

After all, that's their life anyway.

I wish I could wish for the enjoyment of the self God has made me to be.

And of course, don't you see the only thing stopping me from doing that is myself.

And those breaks we put on ourself.

Breaks from being present, breaks from seeing awe and wonder every time we look in the mirror.

Maybe we just need to give up those breaks for Lent.

I guarantee you somebody's life would be bigger if you would.

Starting with Iran.

We often think that sin is about doing some kind of moral infraction and messing up the perfection that God had intended.

And you know, at least in Hebrew, sin is as much about carrying around a burden as it is missing the mark.

And the burdens that I carry are things like regret.

And to be honest with you, folks did things to me that I didn't deserve or earn and they weren't fair, and I continue to hurt from those things.

And maybe part of Lent is saying, you know, for all that was wrong that happened to me.

And by the way, I don't mean to excuse anything that happened to me.

Maybe a holy Lent is being able to say those things made me who I am.

And I'm so grateful for who I am.

But I'm no longer going to be burdened by those things.

What would it take to live like that?

Gratitude.

So maybe for Lent, you need to say, I'm sorry.

And maybe for Lent, we need to be able to say thank you more often.

Anne Lamont says that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.

And you know, if you think about it, it really just means accepting who you are as God's gift to the world.

I don't mean God's gift to women or God's gift to astrophysics.

I mean God's gift to the world in the most humble way possible.

No more than you are and no less.

Boy, that'd be a holy way to live, don't you think?

The world is desperate for people who are authentically themselves.

The world is desperate for people who can change their mind and admit it and go forward because they learned something.

Those are the people God asks us to be.

And that's why I'm a really big fan of putting ashes on our foreheads.

And I wish we didn't have to be socially distanced right now, so we had the chance to walk around with these ashes with the hope that somebody would dare to ask us about them.

There's something on your head.

Do you need a tissue?

Nope.

I wanted that to be there so that I could say publicly and openly with all the heart that I have that God wants more for the world than we're living into, and I'd like to do something about it this year.

That's what this day is about.

God has more joy for the world than we're living into.

God has more grace for the world than we're living into.

God has more justice for the world than we're living into.

And being public with those things is the heart of the gospel.

There might be enough piety in the world, just to be honest.

Public piety, quite honestly, is often very condemnatory and divisive.

There might be enough of that, but there is not enough justice, and there is not enough peace, and there is not enough grace or joy.

And I would love to make you a billboard for that announcement this morning.

Not just for other people you see, but maybe your Lenten journey starts when you go home and look in the mirror.

And you see, Mike, God has more joy for you than you're living into, and you get to do something about it.

You have the privilege of working with God in order to live into God's dreams for you and the rest of the world.

I would love for you to fast from the idea that God loves you but doesn't like you.

I would love for you to fast from that idea so that you can feast on what grace is about.

Every time you look in the mirror, every time you look at your partner or your children or your coworkers.

If you don't get it right, I guarantee you we'll do this again next year.

But don't you see the urgency that Paul writes is joy and peace and grace are so important.

Why wait?

Today is that day.

Or tomorrow.

If you need to wait until next year, you can, but why wait?

Why wait?

I pray that we can be a community that encourages one another to live not into a pious land, but into a holy one.

Dear people of God, the first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, and it became the custom of the church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting.

This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy baptism.

It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the fellowship of the church.

Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, for the observance of a holy lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, by fasting and self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God's holy word.

And to make a right beginning of repentance and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord as we're able, our Maker and Redeemer.

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth.

Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, and that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Amen.

I'm going to invite you to receive ashes by family groups, because I'll be cleaning in between each family my hand.

Beginning on my right, your left, if you'll come in family groups in six-foot socially distanced increments.

And after you receive ashes, maybe return around the room to your seats so we can stay socially distanced.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness.

Wash me through and through from my wickedness.

And cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions.

Against you only have I sinned.

And done what is evil in your sight.

And so you are justified when you speak.

And upright in your judgment.

Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth.

A sinner from my mother's womb.

For behold, you look for truth deep within me.

And will make me understand wisdom secretly.

Purge me from my sin and I shall be pure.

Wash me and I shall be clean indeed.

Make me hear of joy and gladness.

Hide your face from my sins.

Let us give thanks to God for all the gifts freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation in earth and sky and sea.

Thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of women and men, revealing the image of Christ.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families and our friends.

For minds to think and hearts to love and hands to serve.

For health and strength to work and leisure to rest and play.

We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity.

We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice.

We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints in all times and places.

We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Give me praise and glory with you, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live, has given power and commandment to ministers to declare and pronounce to God's people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sin.

God pardons and absolves all those who truly repent and with sincere hearts believe the holy gospel.

Therefore we beseech God to grant us true repentance and the Holy Spirit, that those things may please God, which we do on this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to eternal joy through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thank you for worshiping with us at St.

Thomas today.

I just wanted to bring a few announcements to your attention.

One, many of you know that we're a sponsoring parish for Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church.

We use the acronym LOTS for Lord of the Streets.

LOTS is a congregation that ministers to the chronically, both past and present homeless families in Houston.

And we do a lot for LOTS because there's a lot that needs to be done.

And particularly they're called up short right now on being able to give people non-perishable foodstuffs akin to what we put in our little blessing bags that are available in the hallway.

So they're so called up short.

We're going to make a special delivery on Wednesday, and we're just putting out an all-call on things like tuna pouches or peanut butter cracker packages or granola bars or fruit cups.

We're going to collect them either in that brown box outside the front doors.

Schools open tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday, but there is some urgency for us to get some supplies there on Wednesday.

So we'll be making a supply run on Wednesday.

Don't hurt yourself, but this is a great way to give to people who, especially given last week, are really sort of in the desperate category for foodstuffs.

Two other opportunities I want to call to your attention.

One is that if you're on our parish email list, you're receiving these daily devotional blogs, and those are the grist for us to do some Bible study around Genesis on Sunday morning.

So that happens on Zoom at 9 a.m.

from 9 to 10.

And we record them and put them up on YouTube in case you're having trouble sleeping.

So I just want to put that before you.

There's this opportunity to do some serious Bible study around Genesis and think about ways that we can find a new Genesis in our own lives.

Also, we're beginning a series this Wednesday.

It'll be five weeks on, this is great for Lent, the Rite of Reconciliation, shame, guilt, sin, and forgiveness theologically, traditionally, psychologically, and biblically.

So that'll be for nine to ten on Wednesdays.

There's a Zoom link in our parish email.

Email me if you can't find it.

Talk to me if you can't find it.

And like the others, we'll record them in case you'd like to view them later.

Prayers for a holy lent so that when we celebrate the new life of our Lord on Easter, you have found your own.

Walk in love.

As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

Into the woods my master came for spent with love shame.

The little great leaves were cut to him.

Say true hill us.

When ought to go seeking when things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed.

Come not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.

The Lord be with you.

Lift up your hearts.

Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

It is very meet right in our bound in duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God.

And therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst create heaven and earth and didst make us in thine own image.

And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.

He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.

For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.

And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sins.

Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.

Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.

And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.

Grant we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with Him, that He may dwell in us and we in Him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

By whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.

Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.

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.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Christ our Passiver is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.

Behold who you are and become what you receive.

Invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down forward and returning to your seat on the far side.

You taught us, Lord, to pray, but you alone can grant us grace to live the words we say.

How can your heart reach and bless the forgiving hood that push on wrongs and will not let old biternist deep in lacing light your cross reveals the truth we did not bring her to you?

Let's pray together.

Almighty and ever-living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us, and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs through the hope of thy everlasting kingdom.

And we humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be our honor and glory, world without end.

Amen.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break, and all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go.

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.

Amen.