Worship Guide - Ash Wednesday, Year W

“Thus it is written, ‘The first human, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam became a spirit that gives life.”
~1 Corinthians 15:45


We speak of Lent as a time of testing, but what kind? Surely we can understand this wilderness not only as suffering and endurance, but testing of another kind—testing that seeks to clarify what is true and what is fake, what endures amidst hardship and unsettledness, and what does not last. A refiner’s fire. We watch a miles-long serpentine convoy of aggression twist along a neighbor’s roads, and we might wonder if this way of active nonviolence really makes for peace when desperate autocracy has its finger on a red button. We may doubt that our small actions could make any difference at all against a rising tsunami of climate change. We might wonder if peace can break out closer to home—in our families, in our children, in me. What do we truly believe? What hope might bud in us in this Lenten season that means to lengthen our days?

​Let Lent be a gift, then: 40 days, a season, to suspend belief and test, to be curious, to discover, to dream, to chance. A litmus test. What have we to lose save that which might save us? Surely we are dust, but we are more: The Spirit that gives Life—she lives on in us and with us as the Spirit of Truth.
Enter into worship. Enter into Lent.

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We are so grateful to be gathering again in person. If you can't join us, you can watch the service in real-time. This Ash Wednesday liturgy is scheduled for 7:00pm, March 2, 2022. Join us in person or watch it here live. You can view it upon completion by clicking on the video graphic to the left.