Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024
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St. Paul’s Ocean Grove Church
80 Embury Avenue, Ocean Grove, New Jersey 07756
oceangrove.church | 732-775-1125
Loving God and People - Empowering Christian Leaders
John 15:12 - Ephesians 4:12-13
Ash Wednesday Service February 14, 2024 7 pm
ENTRANCE
Welcome
Opening Prayer
*Song: Lord I Need You
Scripture Reading: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17
*Responsive Reading: Psalm 51: 1-17
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
*Hymn #301 – Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Scripture Reading - 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Message
*Hymn #504 Old Rugged Cross
Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline
Thanksgiving Over the Ashes
Song: Lead Me To The Cross
Prayer of Confession
O, God, when we pause to look back at our lives on this Ash Wednesday, we realize that we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. We have neglected to do good when it was in our power to do so.We, like believers of old, have pulled down your altars and erected idols crafted in our own image. We have turned our backs on the poor, choosing instead to criminalize poverty. We have ignored the cries of the motherless, the fatherless, the widow and the widower choosing instead to turn children and the elderly into the new poor. We have bankrupted the country with our greed and consumed more than our share of the world's riches; we have not dealt honorably with our enemies or our friends, and we have feigned a place in the company of the righteous. Forgive us, O God, for turning sackcloth and ashes into a fashion statement by pursuing form without substance. Forgive us, O God, for the times we have neglected to provide our children and our world an authentic example of Christianity. As we begin the journey of these 40 days, wash us, O God and we shall be clean; cleanse us, O Lord, and we shall be made whole. Amen.
Receiving of the Ashes
Song: Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone
Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Lord’s Prayer #895
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
SENDING FORTH
Blessing
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