| Prelude Greeting and Welcome Lighting of the Candles Hymn of Invocation – Abide with Me (LSB 878) Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. I need Thy presence ev’ry passing hour; What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r? Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me. Come not in terrors, as the King of kings, But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings; Tears for all woes, a heart for ev’ry plea. Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away; Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me. I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless; Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness. Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still if Thou abide with me! Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies. Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
+ Preparation + Invocation P: In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. C: Amen. Confession and Absolution – Psalm 51:1-9 P: Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; C: according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. P: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, C: and cleanse me from my sin! P: For I know my transgressions, C: and my sin is ever before me. P: Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, C: so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. P: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, C: and in sin did my mother conceive me. P: Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being, C: and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. P: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; C: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. P: Let me hear joy and gladness; C: let the bones that You have broken rejoice. P: Hide Your face from my sins, C: and blot out all my iniquities. P: On this day of ashes, we reflect on our sin-filled lives and seek God’s forgiveness. Silence is observed. P: Most merciful Father in heaven, C: I am a sinner. I have no one to blame. The fault is my own. I deserve to be punished. I am truly sorry for my sins. Yet, for the sake of the loving sacrifice of Your only Son, Jesus Christ, I dare to beg for Your forgiveness. Remove from me the guilt of my sin and wash me that I may be whole again. Help me to be faithful today, tomorrow, and each day, by the power of Your Holy Spirit. P: Almighty God, our heavenly Father, has had mercy on us and has given His only Son to die for us and for His sake forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. C: Amen.
Imposition of Ashes You are invited to come forward for the imposition of ashes. The ashes are a sign of repentance, and we are marked with the sign of the cross as a sign of the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus.
The pastor places the ashes on the forehead of each person in the sign of the cross, saying: P: Remember that from dust you came and to dust you shall return. After receiving the ashes, each person returns to his place in silence. + Word + Prayer of the Day P: Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may, like David before us, receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. C: Amen. Old Testament Reading – Joel 2:12–19 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. 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? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. Epistle – 2 Corinthians 5:20—6:10 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. Holy Gospel – Matthew 13:10–17 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Hymn – Savior, When in Dust to Thee (LSB 419) Savior, when in dust to Thee Low we bow the_adoring knee; When, repentant, to the skies Scarce we lift our weeping eyes; O, by all Thy pains and woe Suffered once for us below, Bending from Thy throne on high, Hear our penitential cry!
By Thy helpless infant years, By Thy life of want and tears, By Thy days of deep distress In the savage wilderness, By the dread, mysterious hour Of the_insulting tempter’s pow’r, Turn, O turn a fav’ring eye; Hear our penitential cry! By Thine hour of dire despair, By Thine agony of prayer, By the cross, the nail, the thorn, Piercing spear, and torturing scorn, By the gloom that veiled the skies O’er the dreadful sacrifice, Listen to our humble sigh; Hear our penitential cry! By Thy deep expiring groan, By the sad sepulchral stone, By the vault whose dark abode Held in vain the rising God, O, from earth to heav’n restored, Mighty, reascended Lord, Bending from Thy throne on high, Hear our penitential cry! Sermon Nicene Creed I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. Prayer of the Church P: Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we acknowledge Your great goodness toward us and praise You for the mercy and grace that our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, and our hearts have known. We sincerely repent of the sins of this day and those in the past. Pardon our offenses, correct and reform what is lacking in us, and help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Inscribe Your law upon our hearts and equip us to serve You with holy and blameless lives. Grant that each day reminds us of the coming of the night when no one can work. In the emptiness of this present age, keep us united by a living faith through the power of Your Holy Spirit with Him who is the resurrection and the life, that we may escape the eternal bitter pains of condemnation. By Your Holy Spirit, bless the preaching of Your Word and the administration of Your Sacraments. Preserve these gifts to us and to all Christians. Guard and protect us from all dangers to body and soul. Grant that we may with faithful perseverance receive from You our sorrows as well as our joys, knowing that health and sickness, riches and poverty, and all things come by permission of Your fatherly hand. Keep this day under Your protective care all the sick and those who suffer, and preserve them with us, securely trusting in Your everlasting goodness and love, for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. C: Amen. | 
