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Ash Wednesday ›
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51:1-17
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First Sunday in Lent ›
Matthew 4:1-11
Romans 5:12-19
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 2
Psalm 99
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New & Featured This Week

  • Children's sermon, Illustration, Preaching, Sermon, Worship

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Christopher Keating
    Dean Feldmeyer
    Thomas Willadsen
    Katy Stenta
    Mary Austin
    Nazish Naseem
    George Reed
    For February 22, 2026:

  • Sermon

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Marian R. Plant
    David G. Plant
    Our Ash Wednesday service is full of rich symbols. With the Imposition of Ashes and the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we are reminded that our faith, our church, and our worship life, has much outward symbolism.

    The scripture for our time together this Ash Wednesday is one of those passages that seems to go against the very fabric of our tradition as we understand it. We might be...

  • Stories

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Keith Wagner
    Keith Hewitt
    Contents
    "A Little Soul Searching" by Keith Wagner
    "It’s All About Grace" by Keith Wagner
    "The Gift" by Keith Hewitt

    A Little Soul Searching
    by Keith Wagner
    Matthew 4:1-11

    Several years ago there was a television program that was called "Super Nanny." The show was about a British woman who visited homes where the children...

  • Commentary

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Sandra Herrmann
    It’s the beginning of Lent, and having worshiped on Ash Wednesday, we have declared that we are separated from God by our own doing. Oh, wait. We probably evaded that idea by talking about “the sins of man.” That does not absolve any of us. WE are sinners. WE disappoint and offend each other on a daily basis. (If you think that’s not you, ask your spouse or children.)

    We refuse to...

  • Children's Story

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Janice B. Scott
    Stella Martin first became aware of her unusual gifts when she was quite small. When she was three, Stella had been a bridesmaid at her cousin Katy's wedding. Just three months later, Stella had looked at Katy and uttered just one word, "baby." Katy's mouth had fallen open in astonishment. She'd looked at Stella's mum and asked, "How did she know? I only found out myself...

  • Stories

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Keith Hewitt
    Larry Winebrenner
    Sandra Herrmann
    Contents
    "Silver Creek" by Keith Hewitt
    "The Rich Man and the Tailor" by Larry Winebrenner
    "Open My Lips, Lord" by Larry Winebrenner
    "A Broken Bottle, A Broken Pride" by Sandra Herrmann
    "March of Darkness" by Keith Hewitt


    * * * * * * * *


    Silver Creek
    by Keith Hewitt
    Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

    On the...

  • Stories

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    David E. Leininger
    Temptation. Every year, the gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Lent is about temptation, and the temptations of Christ in the desert in particular. What's wrong with turning stones into bread (if one can do it) to feed the hungry? Later, Jesus will turn five loaves of bread and a couple fish into a feast for 5,000. What's wrong with believing scriptures so strongly that he trusts the angels to...

  • Stories

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    John E. Sumwalt
    God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

    Dag Hammarskj ld


    Dag Hammarskj ld, Markings (New York: Knopf, 1964).

    Lent 1
    Psalm 32

    Still Learning Not...

  • Preaching

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Elizabeth Achtemeier
    The first thing we should realize about our texts from Genesis is that they are intended as depictions of our life with God. The Hebrew word for "Adam" means "humankind," and the writer of Genesis 2-3 is telling us that this is our story, that this is the way we all have walked with our Lord.

    Thus we learn from Genesis 2 that while we were created in the most intimate fashion by God...

  • Preaching

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Carlos Wilton
    Theme For The Day
    The temptation of Adam and Eve has to do with their putting themselves in the place of God.

    Old Testament Lesson
    Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
    The Serpent Tempts Eve
    After briefly mentioning, by way of background, God's prohibition to Adam and Eve of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:15-17), the...

  • Preaching

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Russell F. Anderson
    BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS

    Lesson 1: Genesis 2:15--17; 3:1--7 (C); Genesis 2:7--9; 3:1--7 (RC); Genesis 2:4b--9, 15--17, 25-3:1--7 (E); Genesis 2:7--9, 15--17; 3:1--7 (L)
    This text derives from the second Genesis creation account. Just prior to our reading, the stage is set. Adam and Eve are created from the dust of the earth and then infused with God's Spirit. They live...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Thomas A. Pilgrim
    Robert Penn Warren wrote a novel called All The King's Men. It was the story of a governor of Louisiana and his rise to power. His name was Willie Stark. At the end of his story he is shot down dead.1 Here was a man who gained a kingdom and lost all he ever had.

    Two thousand years earlier a man from Galilee said, "What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    David O. Bales
    "He started it." You've probably heard that from the backseat or from a distant bedroom. "He started it." If you have a daughter, the variation is, "She started it." Children become more sophisticated as they grow up, but the jostling and blaming continue.

    Blaming one another is a human trait; that's why it's recorded in the Bible's story of Adam. In Hebrew, the name, Adam, means "...

  • Sermon

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Schuyler Rhodes
    I might as well get this off my chest. I have an abiding dislike for alarm clocks. Truth be told, more than a few of them have met an untimely demise as they have flown across the room after daring to interrupt my sleep. It's true. There is nothing quite so grating, so unpleasant as the electronic wheezing that emerges from the clock by my bedside every morning at 6 a.m. It doesn't matter if I'm...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Lee Griess
    A young man was sent to Spain by his company to work in a new office they were opening there. He accepted the assignment because it would enable him to earn enough money to marry his long-time girlfriend. The plan was to pool their money and, when he returned, put a down payment on a house, and get married. As he bid his sweetheart farewell at the airport, he promised to write her every day and...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Richard E. Gribble, CSC
    Once there was a man who owned a little plot of land. It wasn't much by the world's standards, but it was enough for him. He was a busy man who worked very hard, and for enjoyment he decided to plant a garden on his plot of land. First he grew flowers with vibrant colors which gave promise of spring and later fragrant flowers which graced the warm summer days. Still later he planted...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Robert J. Elder
    Three observations:

    1. If newspaper accounts at the time were accurate, one of the reasons Donald Trump began having second thoughts about his marriage -- and the meaning of his life in general -- can be traced to the accidental deaths of two of his close associates. The most profound way he could find to describe his reaction sounded typically Trumpian. He said that he could...

  • Sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Albert G. Butzer, III
    In his best--selling book called First You Have To Row a Little Boat, Richard Bode writes about sailing with the wind, or "running down wind," as sailors sometimes speak of it. When you're running with the wind, the wind is pushing you from behind, so it's easy to be lulled into a false sense of security. Writes Bode:

    Since my boat and I were moving at almost the same speed...

  • Sermon

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Richard E. Gribble, CSC
    "I'd sell my soul to play for the Washington Senators." Joe Hardy, the protagonist in the popular Broadway musical, Damn Yankees, says these words in a fit of frustration. Joe is what we call today an average middle--aged couch potato. He sits in front of his television and watches baseball and most of the time his beloved team, the Senators, are defeated by "those damn New York Yankees."...

  • Sermon

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Richard W. Ferris
    It's time to update your resume!

    If you're a part of the workforce of the early twenty--first century, that's a common--sounding statement. Job security is almost nonexistent. Competitive wages might mean a couple dollars above minimum wage. Advancement could very well propose that for your good efforts you would be awarded more work for the same salary. Benefits rarely include 100...

  • Worship

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Amy C. Schifrin
    Martha Shonkwiler
    Hymns And Songs
    Savior, When In Dust To You -- LBW 91
    Your Heart, O God, Is Grieved -- LBW 96
    Lord Jesus Think On Me -- LBW 309; PH 301; MBW 764
    Lord, Teach Us How To Pray Aright -- LBW 438
    Return To The Lord -- WOV 615
    O Sun Of Justice -- WOV 659 (alt. tune: ERHALT UNS, HERR)
    Lord, Let My Heart Be Good Soil -- WOV 713
    That Priceless Grace...

  • Worship

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Thom M. Shuman
    (Note: We use Taizé songs for our worship, but other songs can be substituted for other congregations.)

    Silent Prayer In Preparation For Worship
    As you begin this service, take a few moments to bring yourself before God -- your present state of mind and preoccupations, as well as your desire to meet God during this time.

    Call To Worship...

  • Commentary

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Oscar Wilde penned a powerful story about justice called The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian was a handsome young man, a model of physical beauty and moral virtue. People complimented him on his good graces. Parents pointed to him as an example to their youth. One artist even painted an exquisite portrait of him.

    Dorian idolized the painting. He woke each morning to admire it...

  • Commentary

    Ash Wednesday - A
    A now-famous credit card company advertisement asks, "What's in your wallet?" The implication is that if you have their card you will have smooth sailing through life, protections from all that would rob you of life, and in general have a more pleasant and prosperous journey through life. The ads are humorous and well done, if overstated. Certainly, the card is a passport to much that our...

  • Children's sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a bottle of (name of brand) with me this morning. Do any of you have this at your house? (Let them answer.) This is medicine. Why do we take medicine? (Let them answer.) That's right. We take medicine when we don't feel well. If we have a headache, and maybe a high temperature, taking some of this medicine will help us feel better. Sometimes you begin to...

  • Children's sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and for 40 days he did not eat! It was a hard time for him. Imagine how hungry he must have gotten. Forty days is a long time to go without food.

    I brought along a yardstick to kind of measure off what those 40 days would be like. If each inch were like a day, we would go from 1 to 7 and have the first week (Count the "days" on the yardstick...

  • Children's sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Good morning! Jesus once spent forty days in the desert
    without eating anything. Have any of you ever gone forty days
    without eating? (Let them answer.) No, of course not. None of us
    have done that, but if you did that, do you think you would be
    hungry? (Let them answer.) Yes, you would be, and Jesus was
    hungry, too. The devil came to Jesus and tempted him. The...

  • Children's sermon

    Ash Wednesday - A
    Good evening! It's not often I get to say good evening
    because we're usually here in the morning. Why are we all in
    church tonight? (Let them answer.) Yes, this is Ash Wednesday,
    the first day of Lent. Lent is a time when we spend time
    thinking about our sins and what Jesus did for us to take those
    sins away. It's a time to think about what is most important in...

  • Children's sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Who remembers what Lent is? (see if someone can tell you) Lent is the season right before Easter. It's the time when we begin to prepare for Jesus' death and resurrection. Lent is a serious time. We think and pray about hard things during this time.

    In today's lesson, Jesus goes into the wilderness to spend some time alone. He fasted for 40 days and...

  • Children's sermon

    First Sunday in Lent - A
    But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died though the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. (v. 15)

    Good morning, boys and girls. This is Lent and we talk a lot about sin and the way that Jesus saves us from sin. Sin is real. It makes us different...

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