Walking With Jesus – Preparing for Newness (Part II – Lent)

A SERVICE OF WORSHIP FOR ASH WEDNESDAY

GREETING:

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

May the love of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

And may the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

Amen.

 

I want to thank you all for taking the time to join me for this Ash Wednesday Service—a service that marks the beginning of the Lenten and Easter Season, a service that invites us to ponder how we are going to prepare our heart, mind, body, and soul for the day that Jesus is raised from the tomb, and a service that encourages us to find ways to become a better disciple this year than what we were last year.

During the service, we will sing a few hymns, read scripture, and listen to a reflection, and then you will be invited forward to receive the sign of the cross on your forehead or on the back of your hand from the ashes before us. And from these ashes we are reminded of the words from Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (see Ephesians 3:20).

 

OPENING PRAYER: Please join me in prayer

Let us pray, O merciful Father, in compassion for your sinful children, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world. Grant us grace to feel and to lament our share of the evil that made it necessary for him to suffer and to die for our salvation. Help us by self-denial, prayer, and meditation to prepare our hearts for deeper repentance and a better life as your disciple. And give us a true longing to be free from sin, through the deliverance won by Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

 

HYMN: “The Old Rugged Cross” (#429)

 

SCRIPTURE LESSON Joel 2:1–2, 12–16 (New Revised Standard Version) Pg. 1283 in your Pew Bible

Our First Scripture Reading comes from the Book of Joel 2:1-2, 12-16.

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—
² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountain a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come….

¹² Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³ 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.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly; ¹⁶ 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.

 

SCRIPTURE LESSON 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:10 (NRSV) Pg. 1628 in your Pew Bible

Our Second Scripture Reading comes from Paul’s letter to the people of Corinth:   2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ² 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! ³ We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴ but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶ by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷ truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

 

SCRIPTURE LESSON Ephesians 4:21-23, 30-32 (NRSV) Pg. 1648 in your Pew Bible

Our Third Scripture Reading comes from Paul’s letter to the people of Ephesus: Ephesians 4:21-23, 30-32

²¹ For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹ Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

 

These have been the words of God for God’s People.

And God’s People said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

 

 

Sermon Title: Walking With Jesus – Seeking To Be Made New

Good News Statement: Jesus calls us to be made new for him

Preached: Sunday, March 9^th, 2025 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

 

Scripture (NRSVUE): Luke 5:1-11 Today’s scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke. During the Lenten and Easter Season, we are going to be walking with Jesus to the Cross, listening to his parables, deciphering his teachings, and experiencing our own resurrection. Our walk begins in the deep waters seeking to be pulled to the shore. Our scripture reading is Luke Chapter Five, Verses One thru Eleven. May the hearing and understanding of this scripture add a blessing to your life.

 

The Question about Fasting

³³ Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? ³⁵ The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” ³⁶ He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise, not only will one tear the new garment, but the piece from the new will not match the old garment. ³⁷ Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine but says, ‘The old is good.’”

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

The following Sermon Series will be drawn from the words of Biblical Scholar Charles R. Swindoll, who offers commentary and thoughts on the Gospel of Luke in his book

”Swindoll’s New Testament Insights: Insights on Luke” published in 2012 by

Zondervan Publications in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s New Testament Insights: Insights on Luke, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2012.

 

 

Introduction:

In August of 1988, a Scottish duo known as the Proclaimers released a song that five years later reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The lead single from their second album, Sunshine on Leith¸ has been featured in several movies and television shows, is still played on the radio today, and is said that the band’s earnings from this one song are “five times more than the rest of their music catalogue combined.”[1] Needless to say, this 1988 song has become a “live staple”[2] for millions of people across the world. The name of this song is “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”

The song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” according to Charlie Reid, the lead singer of the Proclaimers, “is a devotional thing about how far [a person] would walk for [someone they love].” The chorus is probably the most remembered of the song, and it goes like this, “But I would walk five hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door.” How far are you willing to walk for the person and people you love?

I was thinking about this song the other day as I was contemplating the Lent and Easter Season. Jesus walked everywhere, except when he was in a boat. He walked to Nazareth to Jerusalem every year with his parents to celebrate the Passover Meal; He walked from village to village and town to town preaching the good news; He walked all over the Galilean Region healing the sick, casting out demons, restoring sight to the blind, helping the deaf hear again, giving words to the mute, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, releasing captives, blessing the poor, and telling the paralyzed to stand up and walk. He walked by wells and places of gathering to forgive sins and to eat with Pharisees, Tax Collectors, and Unbelievers; He walked throughout the land inviting people to give up everything and to “follow him”; He walked in deserts, up mountains, into deserted places, and within the peacefulness of gardens to find restoration, isolation, and hope; and He walked, while carrying his cross, to his death on Calvary. Then three days later, He walked out of the tomb!

It is extremely evident that Jesus walked. He probably walked more than 500 miles! As a matter of fact, according to Ray Downing—a 3D illustrator and animator—“The Gospels give us a detailed accounting of these walks and destinations [within a region roughly the size of the state of New Jersey] and is [estimated] that during the three years of Jesus’ public ministry he walked approximately 3,125 miles.”[3] Besides walking to share the good news and to change the hearts and lives of many people, why did Jesus walk all those miles?

For the next several weeks, leading up to Easter, we are going to attempt to answer that question by walking with Jesus, from town to town as he takes his last step on Calvary but also takes his first step out of the tomb. And hopefully, as we walk with Jesus, it will become clear to why he walked all those miles and to why he invites us to continue to walk for him on this earth. Are you willing to walk 500 miles? Are you willing to put on those boots that are made for walking? Are you willing to walk for those you love and for the One who loves you?

 

Body:

Our walk continues by officially welcoming the Lenten Season. Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. In between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday, we find ourselves gathered in the upper room around the table with Jesus and his disciples as he begins to offer himself as a holy and living sacrifice on Maundy Thursday: he took the bread, gave thanks, and gave it to the disciples; and after the supper he took the cup of the blood of the new covenant and gave it to his disciples and all of us. Then we walk with him and pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane in the place known as the Mount of Olives. This is the place where we either fall asleep next to the disciples or we stay awake to hear these words, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Following Maundy Thursday is Good Friday. Good Friday, although is not so good when we read about the beatings, the torture, and the relentless cruelty and the pain Jesus endured as he travelled to Golgotha in agony, defeat, and suffering, crying out in pain with each step, and then later dies on the cross, it does provide us with a glimpse of hope—a glimpse of restorative and redemptive hope. Embedded in this restorative and redemptive hope is a message that death does not have the last word and that the resurrection is what we all long to receive in this life. We all seek to one day to walk out of the tomb—a place of darkness, doubt, worry, stress, frustration, and disappointment—and to stand face to face with Jesus as he looks in our eyes and says, “Child, you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Go and be the light of this world for you have been healed, made well, and saved by your faith. Well done good an faithful servant (Matthew 25:23).” The tomb does not have the last word because even in darkness, there is still light, there is still hope, and there is still love.

On Holy Saturday, when the Lenten Season comes to a close, many people find themselves in a frenzy: filling Easter Eggs, traveling from store to store to find ingredients to make that last minute dish that someone requested for the family gathering, and even some may be traveling to see family or friends. Holy Saturday is often overlooked because it is the last opportunity to finalize everything for Easter the next day. However, Holy Saturday should not be a frenzy, but rather a day of reflection: spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Holy Saturday is the last day to prepare our heart, mind, body, and soul for the resurrection of Christ as well as for our own resurrection with Christ.

Every day from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday is important because each day we are given the opportunity and chance to be made new in the image of Christ: each day we are renewing ourselves by asking for forgiveness so that we can walk out of the tomb transfigured and changed. Nevertheless, before we become transfigured and changed, we must begin our journey by seeking repentance from our sins, seeking and wanting to be made new.

Today, we come together to prepare ourselves for the Easter Season; and we do so, by receiving a mark, a seal, of protection and love which reminds us that the time has come to confess our sins before God and those around us.[4] Today, we prepare ourselves for the victory that is to come walking out of the tomb; and we do so by allowing God to search our heart and by reminding us that there is a transfiguration story waiting for each of us. Today, our walk takes us to a moment during Jesus’ ministry when he is invited to eat with a tax collector Levi. During this meal, Jesus is questioned by Pharisees and scribes who doubtfully believe in the teachings and doings of Jesus as Jesus informs them that he is here to do a new thing. Are you willing to be made new for Christ?

 

Movement One: Joel, Corinthians, and Ephesians…

Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “spring”—a season of preparation for many things in our life. During springtime, flowers are planted and then begin to bloom, soil is overturned in the fields, birds begin to make homes in the surrounding trees, people are seen outdoors, the sun greets us earlier in the morning, and the baseball season captures the interest of many people. During springtime, God’s creation is preparing for the beauty that waits to bloom before our very eyes. The beginning of Lent, with its curiosity and perplexes, is our time to prepare our heart for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To help us in the preparing process, we turn to the Book of Joel and the epistles of 2 Corinthians and Ephesians.

In season of warning, Joel, a prophet of the Old Testament living during the Persian era (539-333 BCE), proclaimed to the people, “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…” (Joel 2:1-2). Joel is encouraging his people to blow the trumpet, to make a joyful noise, to sound the alarm that something new is about to happen. The day of the Lord is coming: a day when earth will rejoice, the people will join together in praise and acclamation, and a day that will bring new beginnings. Joel wants the people of Zion to experience the good news that is coming: he is blowing the trumpet to alert everyone to prepare their heart for what is to come. Essentially, Joel is telling the people to wake up: to get up from their slumber—their comfortable way of living because change is on the horizon and this change will lead to being transfigured into the Lord’s glory.

But then, his words of encouragement and adoration change. Joel says, probably in a voice that is filled with fear and trembling, “[A] day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness [is near]! Like blackness spread upon the mountain a great and powerful army comes” (Joel 2:2). “A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick darkness is near.” Joel knows that defeat and pain must arrive before the battle is won. Joel knows that darkness will cover the earth. Joel knows that suffering must be endured before the trumpets can truly be heard from the mountaintop. Joel knows that the tomb will be sealed and hearts will become unsearchable—covered in clouds of thick darkness. Joel knows that some of the people will fall. Joel knows that a great day of decision is upon the people.

This darkness is our suffering. Peter tells us, that “we must suffer a little awhile…” (1 Peter 5:10). Before we are resurrected, and before we are transfigured, we must suffer, we must experience darkness and clouds, and we must face giants like David, feel overwhelmed like the disciples during a time of great storms, and lost like the sheep. The beginning of the Lenten Season reminds us that suffering is part of the journey to being healed, to being saved, to being found, and to being made new. If you remember the message from last week, you could say that Joel knows that the “deep waters” of life will consume us at some point. If you don’t believe me that pain is part of the Lenten Season, then just think about the torture, pain, ridicule, and exhaustion of Jesus has carried and died on the cross.

Joel knows what we know today. He knows the day of the Lord is coming—blow the trumpet and sound the alarm—but he also knows that devastation, mourning, and weeping must lead the way. John wrote in the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation, “The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining and likewise the night” (Revelation 8:12). Amos, writing almost 700 years before John, asks the question, “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light…” (Amos 5:18). Compiling his writings around the time of Amos, the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” (Isaiah 10:13). Isaiah’s words are later echoed in Mark 13:24-25, “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

Joel knows that “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:2) will conquer our heart before the light can fully shine. This darkness, the tomb that we find ourselves in, is what propels us to open our heart to God because God knows who we are and who we belong to, and He knows that no amount of darkness will be able to conquer the light of His Son in our life. We just have to allow God to search our heart and allow the light to guide us toward forgiveness and to be being made new, away the darkness.

Joel continues, “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” (Joel 2:12-13). Jonah uses these same words while he watches the city of Nineveh repenting and accepting their second chance (Jonah 4:1-2). Joel is giving us a heads up, a warning, about what is to come: he is sounding the alarm. Joel wants us to return to the Lord, to rend our hearts not our clothing—to get tear open our heart for Jesus—before things get worse: to be cleaned and washed in the blood of the lamb. He seeks refuge for us in the gracious, merciful, and steadfast love of our Lord. Joel wants us to return to the Lord, which is what the Prophet Malachi commands the descendants of Jacob to do: “Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord (Malachi 3:7). When we take time to return to the Lord, we give everything to Him: our fasting, our weeping, our mourning, our pain, our grief, our happiness, our, and our heart.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning when we give everything to the Lord; when we find ways to return to him so that we can walk out of the darkness. As we walk out of the darkness, we find ourselves shedding the old and putting on the new which happens when we seek forgiveness, when we rend our heart and realizing that Jesus’ coming is near.[5]

Paul, when writing to the people of Corinth during the formation of Christian communities in the greater Greco-Roman Empire, is aware that people need to return to the Lord, and so he provides the people with some instruction to lead to forgiveness. The people in Corinth need to “be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). When we choose reconciliation—to be restored, to seek forgiveness, to experience harmony with God—after enduring “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger,” as Paul articulates, we accept the grace of God not in vain but in means of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:4-5).

When we choose reconciliation, we come to love our neighbor and enemy as we love ourselves. When we choose reconciliation, we receive “knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Corinthians 6:6-7). Just like the woman who touched the cloak of Jesus in Mark 5, we can also receive the power of God in our act of reconciliation but we must be willing to ask God for forgiveness. When was the last time you simply prayed, “Lord, forgive me: forgive me for I do not know what I am doing” (Luke 23:34).

When we choose to be reconciled by God, when we ask God to forgive us of our sins, we gain a deeper meaning of the words that Jesus cried out from the cross in the Gospel of Luke, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).[i] Truth be told, we don’t always know what we are doing. Truth be told, we sometimes struggle with discerning the goodness and badness of life, sometimes finding it difficult to separate the good from the bad and the bad from the good. Truth be told, we are not perfect. Jesus knows all this, and for him to publicly announce just minutes before his last breath that we do not know what we are doing should be a warning—a trumpet should be sounding in your head—to all of us to wake up and begin doing what Christ needs us to do.

Needless to say, from reconciliation, by preparing and giving our heart to Christ, by returning to our Lord, we not only allow our heart to be searched and made new but we allow God to lead us in the “way everlasting” (Psalm 139:24), in the way of salvation towards the mountain of transfiguration. We must seek forgiveness if we want to return to God, if we want to be made new.

The Lord wants us to forgive so that we can live a healthier spiritual life. Ephesians 4:32 states, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Mark notes in his gospel, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). John wrote in his first epistle, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Luke 6:37 reads, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven…” As the Body of Christ we pray these words, “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). The Lord wants us to seek forgiveness so that we may see that the day of salvation is coming. We must not put obstacles in anyone’s ways, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way to the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:2-4) through the act of forgiveness.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of wanting to seek forgiveness in the sight of the Lord. For the next 40 Days, begin and end your day with simply praying, “O Lord, forgive me.” If you do that, I promise you will see an improvement in your spiritual health and your relationship with others will improve. Today, make a promise that you will seek forgiveness so that you can be made new. Return to the Lord by asking for forgiveness.

Just as Jesus wanted us to be made new in his salvation and protected by his love after asking and seeking forgiveness, so does the Apostle Paul. Paul’s heart is wide open for you. This is evident in his proclamation to the citizens of Ephesus. Paul proclaimed, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness…. [You] were marked with a seal for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:22-24, 30).

You were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Let that sink in….you have been marked with the seal of God: with a seal of protection, love, grace, and salvation. The sign of the cross that is placed on either one’s forehead or hand on Ash Wednesday is a seal for the day of redemption. It is a seal that invites you to cast away the things of old and to put on the things of new. It is a seal that encourages you to leave the old, the sins and wrongdoings at the foot of the cross and in the tomb, to walk away from the darkness, and to ask Jesus to forgive you so that you will be made new when he rises from the tomb on Easter morning. It is a seal in which protects you from bitterness, wrath, anger, and slander (Ephesians 4:31). It is a seal that reminds us to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted [towards one another], [to forgive] one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). It is a seal, just like in the case of Cain who was marked by God, of eternal protection and forgiveness. It is a seal of love, of newness of life, of restoration, of salvation, and of redemption. It is a seal of new beginnings. It is a seal just for you from God. But is your heart ready to receive the seal of God?

As you think about that question, I invite you to remind yourself of how scripture is providing you with opportunities to be made new. Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed in Isaiah 43:19, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Paul extolled to the people of Rome, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). Ezekiel wrote, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Throughout scripture, both God and Christ through their servants, provide us with words to be made new because it’s newness that we need to pursue. We need to shed the old and put on the new. “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ash Wednesday is the beginning of your newness. Ash Wednesday is the beginning to shed the old—to let go of what is keeping you from Christ—and to put on the newness of Christ’s eternal salvation. Ash Wednesday is the day by which you begin your redemptive story in Christ. Ash Wednesday is a new day: a new day to find hope and love in Christ. “For this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

This seal is the trumpet blown by the people during Joel’s time alerting and alarming us that the time has come to cry out to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Search me, O God. Search me and make me whole. Search me and guide me to promises of new beginnings. Search me, O God, and prepare my heart to receive the light and love of your Son, Jesus Christ. From this seal we are, as King David notes in his 139^th Psalm, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). There is no room for darkness in our life when Christ is in our heart guiding us toward green pastures and still waters (Psalm 23). There is no room in our heart for darkness when we have been made in the image of God. Instead, there is only room for light, love, and new beginnings. Search me, O God: search me and make me new. Shed away the old and be made new so that you can experience a change this Lenten Season.

 

Movement Two: Christ’s Parable on Newness…

With all that being said, we know turn to Jesus’s teaching on newness. While Jesus is invited to the banquet of Levi (aka. Matthew), a tax collector, Jesus encounters Pharisees and scribes who merely want to test Jesus by contrasting him to the disciples of John the Baptist, who followed the authoritative voice of the old covenant while also preparing the way for the new covenant. During the Pharisees’ questioning, Jesus responds by offering three examples dealing with cloth, wineskins, and wine.

First, Luke 5:36 quotes Jesus, “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise, not only will one tear the new garment, but the piece from the new will not match the old garment.” Luke’s presentation of the cloth analogy differs slightly from that of Matthew and Mark. Matthew and Mark tell the story from the perspective  of the old cloth, which suffers greater damage when patched with new cloth. From this perspective, asserts Swindoll, “the old cloth—the old covenant—has suffered enough abuse at human hands.”[6]

Luke’s retelling takes the perspective of the new cloth—the blood of the new covenant found in Jesus. Why would someone cut a hole in a new garment—thus ruining it—then use a piece of new cloth to repair an old article of clothing?  Jesus, as Paul will do latter on, is encouraging us to see the newness in him: to seek a new life in Christ, a new work of art, and a new way of living where the new isn’t used to mend the past but rather is used to do something new in the present. During the Lenten Season, we are called to put on the new garments of Christ so that we can live in his newness: we are called to do something new that brings us closer to the salvation of Jesus today.

Second, Luke 5:37-38 continues Jesus’ response to the Pharisees: “Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Grape juice was poured into a sack created from sheepskin, which is supple and stretchy when first sewn together. Because an old wineskin is brittle instead of elastic, it splits under pressure—pressure caused by the fermentation process. Fortunately, new wineskins stretch to contain the increased pressure and volume. What Jesus is trying to say, is that sometimes in life the old way of doing things does not fit into the future way of doing things. Old wineskins cannot expand for new things, but new wineskins have ample room for expansion and experimentation. During the Lenten Season, Christ wants us to be like the new wineskins: doing something new, trying something new, taking risks and chances to becoming a better disciple and a better church. The Lenten Season is our new wineskin that invites us to fill it with new ideas, new ways to grow our faith, new opportunities to seek forgiveness.

Third and lastly, Luke 5:39 concludes Jesus’ lecture: “And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine but says, ‘The old is good.’”[7] This final lesson tweak’s the noses of the Pharisees a bit. Jesus turned the “old wine/new wine image into a challenge, a good-natured taunt, saying in effect, ‘Complacent people settle for what is merely good enough, rejecting what is excellent simply because it is new.’”[8] Complacent people settle for what is merely good enough. We are not complacent people. We are people that seek to find and do beyond what is good enough because that is what Christ is calling us to do. Could you imagine if you only live your life by what is merely “good enough”? If you simply settled for good enough all the time in your life, would you be here today? Would this church be here today? During the Lenten Season, Christ is calling us to do more than what is considered “good enough.” Christ needs us to dig a little deeper, go a little longer, go a little farther, become a little better.[9] Essentially, Lent encourages us to look inside ourselves and to see what needs to be changed so that we can become more than good enough for Christ. We are the new wineskins seeking to be filled with the new wine of Christ, who is preparing to make us new.

 

Movement Three: Transfiguration, The End Goal…

On Ash Wednesday, we begin our own journey to being made new. Being made new is another way of expressing one’s transfiguration. Let me remind you of Jesus’ Transfiguration story. Matthew captures this story in his gospel: “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead’” (Matthew 17:1-9).[10]

Ash Wednesday begins your journey from death to resurrection, from sinfulness to forgiveness, from living in the old to living in the new, and from being lost in the dark to being found by the light of Christ. Ash Wednesday commences your willingness to want to do more and be more than merely “good enough”. Ash Wednesday is your chance to realize that Christ wants to do something new in your life. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of your transfiguration story: receiving the glory of God, being washed cleaned, being forgiven of your sins, being encouraged by the power of the Holy Spirit, and being made new.

But what will you do to be transfigured? Will you dig a little deeper? Will you seek ways to strengthen your faith? Will you pray more? Will you worship and give thanks to God more? Will you find news way to grow God’s kingdom here on earth? Will you set aside the old to make room for something new? What will you do during the Season of Lent to prove to Christ that you are ready to walk out of the tomb with him as a new person?

 

Conclusion:

I mention the task of doing something, because traditionally, Ash Wednesday is honored by giving something up that you tell yourself you can’t live without—chocolate, social media, shopping, etc.—as a means to make a sacrifice to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. However, Ash Wednesday is more than simply saying I am going to give this up or that up. Maybe instead of giving something up, you might add something new to your schedule to help you become the disciple that Christ needs you to be. As I mentioned earlier, maybe you will pray more, maybe you will read scripture more, maybe you will listen to Christ more, maybe you will have a copy of the Upper Room Devotional in your back pocket wherever you go, maybe you will download a Bible app on your phone that sends you scripture reminders every day, maybe you will make it a point to pray every morning or before you eat supper or before you go to bed, maybe you will decide to share Bible stories with your kids or grandkids, or maybe, just maybe, you will do something that reminds you every day that you have been fearfully and wonderfully made and sealed by God.[11]

This Ash Wednesday, I challenge you to shed away the old and to put on the newness of Christ’s love, to seek forgiveness as you forgive others, to leave your pains and sorrows at the foot of the cross, and to leave the dark tomb full of your worries, stresses, and frustrations, so that Jesus’s salvation has room to live in your heart. Embrace reconciliation and redemption; and experience the restorative hope found in the light of Christ. I challenge you to remind yourself every day during the Lenten Season that the seal you receive today, the ashes, is a mark that prepares you for a new beginning. I challenge you every day to simply pray, “Lord, forgive me. Lord, search my heart. Lord, make me new.”

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of promising the Lord that you will take the time to prepare the way, you will take the time over the next 40 days to prepare your heart for the resurrection of Jesus, that you will ask for forgiveness and reflect on His word, and that you will take the time to help lead others to Jesus: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And most importantly, allow these 40 days to be an opportunity to allow God to search your heart, to allow Jesus to see your needs, and to allow the Holy Spirit to motivate you to be a better disciple today than what you were yesterday.

In death is our resurrection. In our resurrection is our new beginning. In our new beginning is the promise that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And in this promise is the comfort that God will search our heart and make us new. “For the day of the LORD is coming, it is near.” It’s time to walk with him to our own resurrection.

Let it be so...

 

HYMN “The Way of the Cross” (#162)

 

INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINE

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

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 forty–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 [repentance] 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

and the need we all have to renew our faith.

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 meditating on God’s Holy Word.

To make a right beginning of repentance,

and as a mark of our mortal nature,

let us now be in silence before our Creator and Redeemer [asking him to forgive us of our sins].

 

 

THANKSGIVING OVER THE ASHES

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

Grant that these ashes—upon which the King of Nineveh sat in as a sign of remorse—may be to us a sign of our mortality and [repentance]

so that we may remember that only by your gracious gift

are we given everlasting life [and continually made in your image];

through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

 

IMPOSITION OF ASHES

If you would like to receive Ashes, I invite you forward to receive them. If you prefer to remain seated, I will come to you. You are invited to receive the seal of Christ’s protection and love…

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

 

Or they say: Repent, and believe the gospel.

Has everyone received ashes that would like to receive them?

CONFESSION AND PARDON Let us Pray:

May the almighty and merciful God,

who desires not the death of a sinner

but that we turn from wickedness and live,

accept your repentance, forgive your sins,

and restore you by the Holy Spirit to newness of life.

 

HYMN “I Surrender All” (#252)

 

BENEDICTION: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-14, 23-24

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

May God Bless you and guide you this Lenten Season as you seek forgiveness, allow God to search your heart, and to become the disciple He has called you to be. May you experience your own transfiguration story this Easter Season. Amen.

 

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Gonna_Be_(500_Miles)

[2] “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” has become a live staple at the Proclaimers’ concerts. The duo played it at Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push at Murrayfield Stadium on 6 July 2005, the final concert of Live 8, to symbolize the conclusion of “The Long Walk to Justice”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Gonna_Be_(500_Miles)

[3] Ray Downing, “How Far Did Jesus Walk”, an online blog post published on February 21, 2023: https://www.raydowning.com/blog/2023/2/20/how-far-did-jesus-walk#:~:text=His%20journey%20was%20not%20a,he%20walked%20approximately%203%2C125%20miles.

[4] This evening, is the time when we realize what Natalie Sleeth promised in her hymn titled Hymn of Promise, “In our end is our beginning, in our time infinity. In our doubt there is believing. In our life eternity. In our death, a resurrection. At the last a victory. Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see” (Hymn of Promise, 1986).

[5] Did you know that the act of forgiveness can have huge rewards for your health? According to Hopkins Medicine, forgiveness can “lower the risk of heart attack, improve cholesterol levels and sleep, reduce pain, lower your blood pressure, and decrease anxiety, depression, and stress.”

[6] Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s New Testament Insights: Insights on Luke, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2012. Pg. 138.

[7] Fermentation preserved grape juice for long-term storage in an age without refrigeration, and it was almost always mixed with water. This had the triple advantage of stretching the supply of wine, reducing its potency, and rendering water safer to drink. Therefore, wine was not a delicacy but a product of necessity. In fact, the art of winemaking originally sought to make the best of an otherwise second-rate situation. Even today, homemade wine is functional in that it’s safe to drink but it rarely tastes good. (Swindoll, pg. 139).

[8] Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s New Testament Insights: Insights on Luke, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2012. Pg. 139.

[9] “Dig A Little Deeper” from the film Princess and The Frog (2009).

[10] We see this story happening in the lives of others who Jesus encounters. According to Luke 7:11-17, as Jesus approached the town of Nain, he met a funeral procession leaving the city. In the coffin was a young man, the only son of a widow. When Jesus saw the procession, “he was moved with compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not cry’” (Luke 7:13). Jesus came forward and touched the coffin and said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (Luke 7:14). Obeying these divine orders, the young man rose and began to speak (Luke 7:15).

On another occasion, Jesus was approached by a synagogue leader, by the name of Jairus, whose twelve-year old daughter was to the point of death or had already died. Jesus followed Jairus and told him, “Do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved” (Luke 8:50). While everyone was weeping and grieving, Jesus said, “Do not cry, for she is not dead but sleeping….Child, get up!” (Luke 8:52, 54). The child got up.

Lastly, after receiving news from Mary and Martha regarding the severe sickness of Lazarus, Jesus—after waiting and weeping—appears before the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus calls out, “’Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ’Unbind him, and let him go’” (John 11:43-44).

The common thread in all these passages is the idea of worldly death but resurrection in Jesus Christ. In death is our resurrection. In our resurrection is our new beginning. In our new beginning is the promise that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). And in this promise is the comfort that God will search our heart and makes us new and help us to experience our own transfiguration story. Allowing God to search your heart and to make you knew begins today, on Ash Wednesday when you repent and reflect on the salvation and hope of Jesus Christ.

[11] In closing, I encourage you don’t give anything up this Lenten Season; instead, do something new that makes you a better disciple during these 40 days. The seal for the day of redemption begins today, all you have to do is blow the trumpet and sound the alarm that you are ready to seek forgiveness and be saved. The time has come to allow God to search your heart and to be made new in the light of Jesus Christ. Remember, Ash Wednesday is more than just another day: it is a day that begins our journey from death to resurrection, to surrender all to Jesus.

[i] At a time of near death, when each breath was a struggle and caused excruciating pain, Jesus, looking out into the crowd—maybe catching the eyes of some looking at him from a distance, prayed to his Father to forgive them. Jesus forgave the soldiers, the High Priests who sentenced him to death, the people who screamed out, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” Pilate who presented him to the people as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” and Jesus even forgave you and forgave me. At a time of near death, Jesus prayed that we would be set free from our transgressions and sins in hope that we would forgive those who trespass against us. At a time of death, Jesus wanted us to be marked with a seal of love and protection. He wanted us to experience forgiveness.