Lenten Journey ... Ash Wednesday

March 1, 2017                         Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51:1-17

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit.”

Psalm 51:17

“O, Thou that doth all things devise

And fashon fer the best,

He’p us who sees with mortul eyes

To overlook the rest.

They’s times, of course, we grope in doubt,

And in afflictions sore;

So knock the louder, Lord, without

And we’ll unlock the door.

Make us to feel, when times looks bad

And tears in pitty melts,

Thou wast the only he’p we had

When they was nothin’ else.”¹

Knowing when and how to be vulnerable is an invaluable skill.  

Our social media images are so carefully crafted.   Projections of something we wish to be rather than who we actually are.  It is in prayer with our Lord that we can show our broken spirit.

When we sacrifice the teflon image of our homemade public projection, we invite God to work with the brokenness that too often haunts us.  

Then we are blessed, as our friend Mr. Riley writes, to feel God is the “he’p” we have.  

Prayer:  Dear Lord, On Ash Wednesday, we mark ourselves with the dust of this world out of desire to reveal to our humble hope for God’s love and mercy.  May your Holy Spirit gently renew and restore all that is broken within us so that we can sing your praises anew.

~ Dr. James R. Brooks, 

Lead Minister

¹  “A Hymb of Faith”, by James Whitcomb Riley, Neghborly Poems, 

The Bowen-Merrill Co, Indianapolis, IN, 1891.