February 18, 2026 Ash Wednesday
Invitation to Observe Lenten Discipline
Every year, Christians remember Jesus dying on the cross and rising again. Today, called Ash Wednesday, is the start of Lent, the forty day period when Christians prepare for holy week. …The week Jesus entered Jerusalem with people shouting “save us” ...the week that people then turned on Jesus and nailed him to a cross, …the week the tomb was found empty because Jesus came back to life.
The forty days of Lent remind us of how other disciples like Noah spent forty days in the ark, how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and how Jesus fasted while enduring temptation in the wilderness for forty days.
Lent is a time to consider the ways in which we separate ourselves from God and from each other. I invite you now, as Jesus invites us, to spend the next 40 days, this time called Lent, by praying to God, studying the scriptures, and listening carefully to what God wants us to do.Prelude: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Lowell Mason/arr. Pam Asberry
Welcome & Call to Worship
[Joel 2]
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’
Let us worship the LORD!
Be Thou My Vision (Hymn 339)
Irish ballad
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Nought be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
Confession
[Psalm 51]
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin. For we know our transgressions, and our sin is ever before us. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach us wisdom in our secret heart. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and sustain in us a willing spirit. Amen.
Silence
Create in Me a Clean Heart
Anonymous
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence, O Lord,
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
and renew a right spirit within me.
[Psalm 51:10 –12]
Forgiveness in Jesus Christ
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Scripture Readings
Tina Russell
Old Testament: Psalm 51:10-12
New Testament: 2 Corinthians 4:5-11
Homily: How God uses our cracks to break in
Rev. Pamela Starbuck
Focus: Ash Wednesday invites us to lean into the joy of our salvation by embracing our cracks.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Hymn 101)
Watts/Mason
When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
Imposition of Ashes & Benediction
Sign Us With Ashes
Bringle/Rowan
Refrain:
Sign us with ashes, merciful God, children of dust, as to dust we return.
Sign us with ashes, merciful God. Mark us and make us your own.
Surely, you alone can save us. You pay our price with precious blood.
Reaching through your great compassion, you lift up your people with love.
Surely, you alone can uphold us. You give us strength for all our needs.
Shielding with a father’s favor, you bless us with pardon and peace.
Surely, you alone can heal us. Yours is the will to make us whole.
Soothing with a mother’s kindness, the contrite of heart, you console.
Surely, you alone can free us. You break the bonds of guilt and sin.
Bracing, till we walk uprightly, you bolster our hope once again.
Surely, you alone refine us. You give us grace for lives made new,
Forging, through your fire and radiance, a sacrifice worthy for you.
Surely, you alone redeem us. You fill our dust with holy breath.
Bursting from the grave in glory, you rise from the ashes of death!
OneLicense# A-727502
CCLI# 283345
