To Ash Wednesday

I’ll post on the lessons for Lent 1 for the rest of this week, but today my thoughts are focused on what to preach for Ash Wednesday in a parish I don’t know very well. Ash Wednesday is probably a top-five “liturgies that say more than any sermon ever could” service (with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Ordinations). It is a top-two “our words and actions don’t line up” service (fighting with Palm Sunday for the title of most cognitive dissonance). It contains my favorite prayer. It is an all around good service that should not be missed by anyone.

I’m seriously considering preaching on the Matthew text and comparing the faiths of Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow, but every time I suggest that ol’ #15 isn’t the be all and end all of discipleship people start searching for pitchforks and torches.  I’ve thought about telling my favorite Ash Wednesday story featuring a 6pm service and 7:30pm dinner reservations at an Indian restaurant.  I’ve even considered following the advice of Alison Krauss who argues, “you say it best, when you say nothing at all.”  Despite all that, this morning I was drawn to the Collect for Ash Wednesday and realized that it might just be the perfect prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.