As we usher in the reflective season of Lent, Pastor Lora East invites you to join her on a journey of spiritual discovery and transformation. Embarking from the solemnity of Ash Wednesday, we'll traverse together through moments of self-examination and repentance, seeking the profound lessons of Psalm 51. The ashes we receive are not just reminders of our mortality, but signals of the rebirth to come through Christ. This episode is an invitation to explore the depths of our faith, as we prepare our hearts for the joyous celebration of Easter, and to contemplate the sustaining role of our beliefs in the face of life's inevitable challenges.
In our sacred space at Brentwood Presbyterian Church, we gather not just as a congregation but as a community committed to nurturing resilient faith. Our reflection on adversity isn't just about enduring it, but finding strength and support within our belief and each other. I encourage you to immerse yourself in this conversation, where we aren't just passively listening but actively participating in the growth of our spiritual fortitude. Together, let's emerge from this season with a fortified sense of purpose and invigoration for the path that lies ahead.
Welcome to Resilient Faith, the podcast. Opportunities to find deeper resilience within ourselves can come when life seems most challenging. This podcast is to help you develop that resilience and connection with God. Being resilient and having power starts with faith. Welcome, friends, to another episode of the Resilient Faith podcast. My name is Pastor Laura East and I'm the Associate Pastor at Brentwood Presbyterian Church. We are so glad that you are with us today as we mark the beginning of the season of Lent.
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Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this season. Lent is a time to prepare for the celebration of Easter and to renew our life in the mystery of the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for the mercy, forgiveness and hope of everlasting life proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes, a biblical symbol of mourning and penitence. This ancient sign speaks of the fragility of human life and marks the penitence of the community of faith. In the name of Christ, you are invited to observe a holy Lent by self-examination, by prayer and fasting, by works of love and by reading and meditating on the Word of God, beginning with Ash Wednesday.
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One of the most common scriptures read on Ash Wednesday comes early on in the book of Genesis. It is the fallout from Adam and Eve eating the fruit from the tree, and God says to Adam you are dust and to dust you shall return. For our spiritual ancestors, the people of Jewish and other Near Eastern cultures, wearing ashes was a sign of mourning and lamenting. Ashes were usually associated with sackcloth, which was the clothing worn to mourn the death of a beloved or to lament a personal or communal disaster. Ashes are the only species we know of who are capable of contemplating their own death, yet so few of us do. Ash Wednesday challenges us to reflect on our own death so that we can truly embrace life. The mark of ashes reminds us that, while death is inevitable for all mortal human beings, it does not have the final word as we experience the promise of new life found on Easter.
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One of the traditional scriptures that is read on Ash Wednesday is Psalm 51. This is a Psalm that encourages us to move into repentance, contemplation and a season of reflection. Not only do we not want to contemplate our own deaths, we don't even like contemplating the things that we've done wrong, or the things that might require forgiveness of us, or the ways in which we have harmed one another, harmed ourselves, harmed the creation. And so this repentance, this penitence, is a chance to do just that, for us to truly reflect on our lives, on our behavior, on the words that we have said and left unsaid, that have caused hurt and harm. And we do this not just for self-flagellation, but so that we can truly embrace forgiveness, healing and wholeness. So here are these words from Psalm 51. This is verses 1 through 17.
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Have mercy on me, o God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner, when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be wider than snow.
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Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, o God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, o God, o God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise, for you have no delight in sacrifice. If I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise Beloveds as we enter into Ash Wednesday and indeed into this season of Lent which will see us at the end of March, into Palm Sunday and Monday, thursday and Good Friday and the joy of Easter morning.
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I pray that for you, this will be a season that meets you where you need it. There is so much brokenness in our world, there is so much hurting and suffering and pain, and yet it is into this broken and hurting world that Jesus comes and tells us that we don't have to go it alone and that, indeed, this pain and suffering, this death, will not have the final word, because it has been conquered through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we are all brought into new life. So, friends, I pray that this season, as you move through, whatever it might bring for you, if you are bringing a new practice, maybe a devotion or a prayer or a reading through your Lenten season, maybe you're giving something up this Lenten season. Whatever speaks to you this season for you to bring in deeper meaning, I hope that the Spirit of God will speak to you and will reach into your heart, bring you deeper into your discipleship, speak you words of comfort and grace and peace and mercy and, ultimately, that you will feel reassured of God's presence and God's love that is with us and for us, without measure and without end. Thanks be to God, amen.
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Friends, we will have worship this Lent at Brentwood Presbyterian Church. We're having an Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, the 14th, at 6.30 in our garden. That will not be live streamed, so please do come in person. We will be worshiping every Sunday morning at 8 o'clock and 10.30. The 10.30 service is live streamed, so please do join us for Lenten worship on Sunday mornings. If you can come in person, come at 8 or 10.30. If you want to watch online, you can worship with us online on our website or on our Facebook page or on our YouTube channel.
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Our series for Lent is called Trustful and we will be discussing the ways in which we trust God and which we trust this life of faith to guide us and to lead us in paths that God might have for us. When there are so many other things that are pulling our energy from us and so many distractions in this world, it really does take some level of discipline to stay focused on God and to walk this life of faith. So I will be praying for all of you this Lenten season and I look forward to worshiping with all of you as well. You can join us for Palm Sunday worship on March 24th, and then we will have Monday, thursday at Brentwood Presbyterian Church and Good Friday will be at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, and then, of course, the glory of Easter morning on March 31st. God bless you all.
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My friends, you've been listening to Resilient Faith. The podcast Resilient Faith is sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles. You can follow our church and this podcast on Facebook at BPCTeam and Instagram at BPC underscore USA. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and thanks for listening.