Redeemer Lutherhan Church

Praising God, serving neighbors with Christ at the center!

Ash Wednesday

Pastor Mark BerlinFebruary 22nd 2023

First Reading: Job 30:11-19

11Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. 12On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me. 13They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me-- without anyone's helping them. 14They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in. 15Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud. 16'And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. 17Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. 18In his great power God becomes like clothing to me ; he binds me like the neck of my garment. 19He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

Psalm:

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Gospel: Matthew 11:20-30

20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21'Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.' 25At that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27'All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'