Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Ash Wednesday – 5 March 2025 – 7pm or whenever possible
You may like to light a candle during your time of worship.
Feel free to text the Peace to other members of the congregation.
Acknowledgement:
As we gather this evening, I acknowledge
the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung People of the Kulin nations.
I pay my respects to their elders, past and present,
and to all future leaders and generations.
Gathering:
Welcome to this Ash Wednesday service. You are invited to come from the rush of the day to this moment when we focus on ourselves, how we come before God, and how God receives us.
While today is traditionally a day when we come before God and confess the things we have done and know to be wrong, but this is not about berating ourselves. This day is a reminder that we come before God with humility, that we confess our sins, and that we know God always loves and offers forgiveness.
Hear these words from Genesis … “God formed the human from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being …”
(Gen 2:7)
You are dust.
Take a breath
and in a moment of silence
recall the gift of life.
Call to Worship:
If you have days when you are a little bit lost and a little bit found
then you are in the right place.
If you have days when you are desperate for rest and eager to grow,
then you are in the right place.
If you have days when your prayers could be both shouts and silence,
then you are in the right place.
God meets us here,
in the messy middle of our lives.
So may we bring our full selves into this service
and into this season.
With God’s help, may it be so.
Call to Confession:
Lent is a season that invites us to be intentional.
Lent asks us …
How will you go deeper?
How will you grow closer to God and neighbour?
What will you do to strengthen your faith?
Much like Christ, Lent invites us to go deeper.
Despite our best efforts, that soul-tending work is often easier said than done.
However, instead of entering this season already feeling behind,
let us enter this season with honesty.
Let us enter this season aware of our hopes,
and aware of the challenges.
Let us enter this season wrapped in God’s grace.
Let us speak honestly to God, and receive God’s mercy again.
Prayer of Confession:
Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’
and I said, let me get ready.
Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’
and I said, just one minute!
Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’
and I said, I’ll be there soon!
The invitation is simple, but the work is hard.
Jesus, forgive my delay.
I want to follow you.
Turn my intentions into actions.
Show me the way.
Amen.
We Sing: O Lord, Hear My Prayer – (TiS 741)
O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer: when I call answer me.
O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer. Come and listen to me.
Words of Assurance:
Lent says,
‘How will you go deeper? How will you follow Christ?’
Regardless of what the journey looks like for us,
regardless of what today, tomorrow, or the next day brings,
we are not alone.
We are seen and loved by God.
We are held in grace.
Thanks be to God for a love like that.
Bible Reading: Luke 9:51-62
A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for his arrival, 53 but they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village.
Would-Be Followers of Jesus
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Reflection:
How do you respond to these verses? How do you hear Jesus’ words? If you had been there and Jesus spoke to you this way, how do you think you might have responded? Just think about this for a couple of moments.
This Lent we are letting the Gospel of Luke guide us, as we consider the stories and parables that defined Jesus’ final chapter in ministry. As Jesus makes his way towards Jerusalem, he is approached by people from local towns who promise to follow him. Jesus’ response is harsh, but urgent. As Jesus’ journeys towards Jerusalem, he needs real commitment. He needs disciples who are willing to be rejected and persecuted – and who might still be able to embody hope, compassion and peace along the way. While Jesus’ words seem harsh, it becomes apparent that these potential disciples aren’t quite ready for the task at hand, and Jesus is really telling them how it will be.
As Lent begins I wonder if these are some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves: are we ready? Are we willing to be transformed? Will our actions reflect our best intentions?
The reasons people give in the text for delaying are noble. Hold on, I’m almost ready, but I just need to bury my own flesh and blood. It’s almost unthinkable to imagine this request to abandon unburied family. Marking a generation’s passing is one of those times when we should turn up and do some of the hard work of being human.
I wonder about our readiness to move onto new things, particularly with the old, sometimes harmful yet beloved things of the past, still there. Maybe we put things off because they are just too hard to do. Maybe we keep asking for extensions, because taking the first step in a new direction is more than we feel we can manage, and just like James and John we can fall into old ways of responding, yet Jesus’ calls us to something different.
Whatever is holding you back, this Lent there is the encouragement to align our intentions and actions. Listening is a practice that can be done as we move, and learning can happen as we go. This is the day. Are you ready?
Prayer:
Holy God,
your invitation is simple,
you lean in close and say our name.
With joy in our voice you invite us to follow.
But the noise of this world is distracting, and we are afraid,
so we get stuck somewhere our head and our heart,
somewhere between our intent and our action.
So we pray you speak to us again.
Tell us the story and invite us to follow.
Speak once more of good news that will not leave us alone.
Speak to us again for we are listening.
Amen.
We Sing: O Lord, Hear My Prayer – (TiS 741)
O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer: when I call answer me.
O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer. Come and listen to me.
Imposition of Ashes:
Lent is a time for us to return to our Creator who formed us from the dust of the earth. Our lives are finite, so we want to spend every precious moment in tune with God, living whole, abundant lives—the kind of lives we were called to live.
I invite you to come forward if you wish to receive ash on your hand or forehead.
In repentance walk the way of the cross.
God, in love, promises to lift you to new life.
Poem: Ash Cross – © Rev Jennie Gordon
burnt regrets
consumed and what survives
smears like abandoned fear
left in the corners
of someone else’s house
your face; holy, hidden
I can tell by
your hands
that you have paid
more than you should have for
living like this
come and wipe them
whatever clings tenaciously
despite the constant cleansing
come and wipe it here
on the cross
let your skin touch and turn
brush, smudge with no direct
direction
spill and sweep this ash
across the pain of years
along the span of willing wood
mixed in the spill
of lunchtime’s tears
this ash is
stardust
from whence you came
you are miraculous
you are beloved
Blessing:
As you leave this place,
may you find God in every messy middle.
May you know that God meets you everywhere,
and calls to you, ‘beloved, follow me’.
May you go knowing that you are blessed
and that you always belong to God.
Amen.
Thanks to all those who have assisted in preparation for this liturgy with encouragement, prayers and conversation. I have also utilised the following resources:
Day is Done: A Lenten Journey, Sanctified Art (Everything in Between) and Spill the Beans (Issue 54)