February 18th, 2026 - Ash Wednesday Service

Feb 18, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Fast God Desires: Moving Beyond Performative Worship

God’s call through the prophet Isaiah is not for a showy, self-focused faith but for a genuine fast that impacts the world. This true fast involves loosening the bonds of injustice, sharing bread with the hungry, and welcoming the poor into our lives. It is an invitation to ensure our spiritual practices translate into tangible acts of love and justice for our neighbors. When our worship aligns with our actions, our light breaks forth like the dawn. [22:06]

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7 NIV)

Reflection: As you consider your own spiritual practices, what is one tangible way you could move from a performance of faith to actively participating in God’s work of justice and compassion this week?

Day 2: Realigning Our Gaze: From Looking Up to Looking Around

It is easy to become so focused on our vertical relationship with God that we neglect the horizontal relationships with those around us. A faith that is only upward-looking can miss the very people and matters that are most important to God. The invitation is to adjust our gaze, to see where our feet are, and to notice the needs and the people right in front of us. This realignment is where we often find God most readily. [28:28]

“Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.” (Isaiah 58:2a NRSV)

Reflection: Where have you noticed a disconnect between your devotion to God and your awareness of the needs in your immediate community? How might you begin to bridge that gap?

Day 3: The Call to Congruent Living

God is deeply interested in the congruence between our worship and our daily actions. A life of faith is not meant to be contained within the walls of a sanctuary but is designed to spill out and change the landscape of our communities. Our spiritual disciplines, like fasting, are meant to create space for this outward living, freeing us to love more fully and act more justly in the world. [30:21]

“Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8 NRSV)

Reflection: In what area of your life do you feel an invitation from God to live more congruently, allowing your beliefs to directly shape your actions and choices?

Day 4: Embracing Our Finite Nature to Embrace Community

The reminder that we are dust is not meant to diminish us but to ground us in our shared humanity and dependence on God’s grace. This acknowledgment of our limitation and mortality calls us away from self-exaltation and toward a deeper connection with our siblings and peers. In our shared finitude, we find the common ground for building authentic community. [36:14]

“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil…” (Isaiah 58:9 NRSV)

Reflection: How does remembering your own limitations and need for grace influence the way you offer grace and understanding to others in your life?

Day 5: Participating in Collective Seeking

The journey of faith is not a solitary endeavor but a communal quest. We are invited to seek God together, to process big questions in community, and to offer our unique perspectives for the wisdom of the whole. This horizontal practice of conversation and connection embodies the very fast God desires, moving us from solitary spirituality into shared participation. [33:34]

“Then your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” (Isaiah 58:12 NRSV)

Reflection: Who is one person or group you could engage with this week to collectively explore what it means to live out your faith in practical, world-changing ways?

Sermon Summary

Lent begins as a season of realignment: a forty-day preparation that aims not only toward the cross but toward the empty tomb. Isaiah 58 confronts a people whose religious devotion focuses upward while their communal life remains unchanged; the text demands a fast that unbinds oppression, shares bread with the hungry, welcomes the homeless, and covers the naked. The portrait of devotion that ignores neighbors receives a stark summons to let worship shape ethics and action. Personal stories and practical images—climbing a mountain, driving through fog—underscore the discipline of keeping attention where the next step matters: don’t only look up; look around and watch the lines that guide the way.

Fasting receives reframing. Simple sacrifices—giving up sweets, social media, or other comforts—remain useful only if those practices create space for love and justice to emerge. The real test asks whether a fast loosens bonds that keep others in need and whether worship translates into neighbor-aware living. Communal practices appear central: daily reflection cards and short Sunday circles invite shared discernment so that faith moves from performance into participation. An artwork titled “Don’t Look Up” visualizes the danger of elevating ritual over neighborly care and insists that God’s light often shines on what lies below.

The call to Lent includes mortality and mercy: ashes mark human limitation even as they point to God’s sustaining grace. The season asks for humility expressed through prayer, fasting, study, service, and justice work—practices that train attention outward as much as upward. When worship informs everyday decisions and community life, light breaks forth like dawn: healing, restoration, and guidance follow practical alignment of devotion and deeds. The invitation stands clear—observe holy Lent by honest internal work and renewed communal action so that faith becomes the force that repairs breaches and restores streets where life can flourish.

Key Takeaways

1. Fast toward neighbor-aware action True fasting moves beyond private sacrifice into public repair. The fast God chooses undoes yokes of injustice, feeds the hungry, welcomes the homeless, and stops slander. Such fasting reorients attention from personal piety to tangible mercy, making worship a catalyst for structural compassion. [29:07]
2. Align worship with daily living Devotion must translate into ethics so that vertical attention yields horizontal change. When liturgy and prayer shape daily choices, faith becomes embodied and accountable to neighbors. Alignment prevents worship from becoming mere performance and cultivates a consistent moral imagination. [30:21]
3. Practice communal reflection through circles Shared conversation deepens discernment and resists isolated spirituality. Short gatherings and daily prompts invite diverse perspectives to test private conviction and expand communal care. Community practices help convert individual fasting into collective action that repairs social fractures. [03:55]
4. Fast from performative, solitary faith Reject rituals that function only to display devotion or to avoid responsibility. Spiritual disciplines should clear space for attentiveness to others, not simply remove comforts for their own sake. True fasting cultivates humility that leads to justice and mutual flourishing. [36:35]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:41] - Ash Wednesday & Lent Invitation
[02:49] - "Seeking" Series Overview
[03:55] - Small Groups and Circles
[05:26] - Call to Worship & Questions
[20:55] - Reading: Isaiah 58:1–12
[23:53] - Mountain Story: Don't Look Up
[26:40] - Historical Context: Exile & Conflict
[29:07] - The Fast God Desires
[30:21] - Aligning Worship and Action
[34:41] - Art Reflection: "Don't Look Up"
[36:35] - Fast from Performative Faith
[37:47] - Imposition of Ashes & Prayer
[48:36] - Closing Blessing & Sending

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading: Isaiah 58:1–12 (ESV)

“Shout aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.”

Observation questions

According to verses 3-4, what were the specific complaints of the people, and what were the actual outcomes of their fasting?
What are the six specific actions that God says constitute the fast he chooses in verses 6-7?
What are the four promises God makes for those who practice the fast he desires, as listed in verses 8-9?
In the sermon, what two practical examples were given (a mountain and driving in fog) to illustrate the danger of only "looking up"? [23:53]

Interpretation questions

Why do you think the people were so confused about why God was not noticing their fasting? What might have been their underlying assumptions about what God values?
The text contrasts a "vertical" focus on God with a "horizontal" focus on neighbors. [28:09] Why is it so easy for religious devotion to become disconnected from how we treat people in our daily lives?
God promises that light will "break forth like the dawn" when his people live justly. What do you think this "light" represents—is it personal blessing, social transformation, divine presence, or something else?
What does it mean to be called a "repairer of the breach" and a "restorer of streets to dwell in" in a modern context?

Application questions

The fast God chooses involves loosening bonds of injustice and sharing bread. What is one tangible "yoke" in our community—a systemic issue or a local need—that our group could learn about or engage with this Lent? [29:07]
How can the practice of giving something up for Lent (like sweets or social media) be intentionally connected to creating space for "neighbor-aware action" rather than just being a personal discipline? [31:24]
The sermon warned against "performative faith" that functions to display devotion. [36:35] What is one area of your spiritual life that might be more about performance for others than genuine participation with God?
The invitation is to let worship shape our ethics and daily decisions. [30:21] Describe one recent decision you made at work, home, or in your community. How might that decision have been different if you had consciously connected it to your worship from the previous Sunday?
Communal reflection helps resist isolated spirituality. [03:55] What is one question or struggle from your faith journey that you need to bring out of isolation and share with this group for discernment?
The season asks for humility expressed through service and justice work. What is one practical step you could take this week to move your faith from a "skyward focus" to an "outward living" that serves someone in need? [34:08]

Sermon Clips

41s

#FastFromPerformance

“It seems what God is interested in is that fast which would move us from performance to participation, not merely a a skyward focus or navel gazing, but a neighbor aware action from up to out and all around. And this seems to be the answer to the question that God is asking, is this the fast that I desire? And over these next few weeks, we're gonna be invited to ask and to maybe grapple at answers with lots of questions, like this one tonight or on Sunday, who will you listen to? And that's part of this seeking series that we're entering into.”

49s

#HeartAlignedFasting

“Is giving this up, is this fast helping me align with God's heart? Is it loosening something that keeps me from loving well? Is it breaking the yoke that keeps somebody else from living well? Is it freeing me to see more clearly? Am I focusing more on the thing that I'm getting rid of instead of the space that it's creating to let something new emerge. To put it in more specifics, if I give up sugar but don't meet the needs of the hungry in my community, if I fast from social media but remain disconnected from my actual neighbor, if I give up gossip or negative talk but I don't serve or speak for those or with those who are maligned in our country, are any of these really the fast that God would choose?”

36s

#FastFromPerformativeFaith

“Keep your eyes focused on what's ahead and around. And may we fast then this season from performative faith, and may we fast from solitary spirituality. May we fast from a fixation on only looking up. May we embrace the fast that God desires, and may we look around and do that internal work of alignment through these forty days that we too may come to see that the light shall break forth like the dawn. Amen.”

36s

#RemoveTheYoke

“What is the fast then that God desires? It's not all things devoted to God in all time and energy and confession, but to remove the yoke from among you and the pointing finger to quit speaking evil of one another and to satisfy needs for the afflicted. That's what God is after. God says all of this performative worship isn't all that I'm asking for. God says you're so focused on heaven, you're missing your neighbor. You're not living your faith outside of the confines of the boxes that we build to contain religiosity.”

35s

#WorshipIntoAction

“What I believe our text is telling us is that what God is most interested in is in in alignment. In other words, that our focus up here would be changing our actions down here, and that our actions down here would be changing the landscape everywhere. If we're living congruent to the way that we worship, then we would find ways for this worship to affect our lives and the world around us. So if you're thinking about giving up something for Lent, please do so. That's often been a meaningful practice for me. But let's not stop there. Let's ask deeper questions.”

40s

#LookAroundNotUp

“Do understand what I mean there? When, when we worship, we tend to give our focus heavenward or or however you understand God to be, but then sometimes we don't put that that focus, that devotion, that attention, that reflection into the ways that we live in our day to day lives when we confront actual needs and ethical decisions. We're often in this sphere, not in this place. We invest our energies and devote our dollars to things here. And it's almost as if God is saying, don't look up or or at least don't get stuck there and instead look around.”

31s

#EyesOnTheRoad

“I'll give you another example that also interestingly I learned most vividly in Colorado, and that's when you're driving through fog, it's best to keep your eyes on the lines on the road. Have you ever noticed that? Even though you can't see if you turn your brights on, it just gets substantially worse. If you look sort of ahead to where you want to go, you will not end up where you want to go. But if you look down right in front of you, you can usually stay on the road. So don't look up in the fog or when climbing a mountain, keep your eyes where your feet are.”

30s

#FeedAndFree

“God wants to see bonds being loosened and captives set free and bread being shared so that people aren't hungry, the widow and the wanderer welcomed. And the point of this, by the way, isn't that looking up isn't that that worship isn't that that devotion is bad. It's just that if that's the only thing they've lost the plot, their fasting hasn't changed the way they actually live. One was supposed to lead to the other, but the people forgot that. And friends, that's a worthwhile thing for us to consider.”

36s

#BeyondGivingUp

“I don't know, but maybe you came into this service, with some idea, of of what you were going to fast from for Lent. Perhaps this is traditional or customary to you to to give something, maybe you'll give up sweets or social media or alcohol or or fast food. Maybe you'll give up numbing habits like we talked about on Sunday. And fasting from any of those things is good. It can be an important part of our journey. But it's interesting that when we find ourselves here today at the beginning of this journey, the question that God asked, at least in this scripture, is not what will you give up?”

40s

#RealignIntoCommunity

“And I think that's an invitation for us. This day, we begin this new journey of seeking. And in our quest, we're met with a question from God, is this the fast that I choose? Let us receive the invitation to realign ourselves, to remind ourselves of of who we are. For all the beauty and the limitation, for the connection and the the the finite nature of who we are, let us remember that we're dust, but we're also called to be community. So notice where your feet are moving. Watch the lines as till the fog clears.”

34s

#PikesPeakLesson

“Several years ago, I climbed my first fourteener. It was Pikes Peak, which was a choice. But there was a specific lesson that I remember a few, but one specifically that I remember learning that day. We started very, very early in the morning long before the sun had come up, and we were climbing up the the back way of Pikes Peak. We were a couple of hours in, and the sun had had begun to rise, but it was still in a moment before I had quite found my rhythm or my pace or any oxygen whatsoever.”

36s

#DontLookUp

“So I remember we come around this curve though, and it was one of the first times that I could look up and see at least up near the peak of Pike's Peak where we were headed. And I thought to myself a few unpastoral words that summarize meant something like this. What the heck have I gotten myself into? Because Pikes Peak was did not look any closer than it had from the house that we were staying at, which was a forty minute drive away, and I could feel the hope slowly exiting my body as the oxygen already had as I continued to stare up at the sky shuffling my feet forward.”

37s

#KeepEyesOnFeet

“And I think I got stuck in that moment of uncertainty for a bit until I stepped on a branch or a rock or something under my foot that that slipped out from under me. I rolled my ankle, and I fell off the side of the trail. When I collected myself and got my bearings, one of my buddies who was climbing with me, came up and checked in on me, and he asked me what had happened, and I I told him. And he just stared at me right at right in the face with almost no sort of reaction and said, don't look up, and then walked away.”

25s

#NotAlwaysLookUp

“Now I stood there for a second because that's somewhat counterintuitive advice. We seem to talk about looking up a lot. Keep your head up. Keep an eye on the horizon. And maybe it was in the hiking manual that I did not read, might have talked me out of this adventure in the first place. But it's true that we're often encouraged to keep our eyes up, keep our head up, but there's times in life where that isn't helpful.”

41s

#Isaiah58Lessons

“Isaiah 58 emerges as an instructive text for a people who are in conflict. I know you'll find this hard to believe good religious people in conflict. Who'da thunk? But after a a deep challenge of exile, there is this reuniting as the Israelites come back home, but things are not quite the same. You see now they're under the occupation and the power of the Persian Empire, and the social fractures between groups and classes is deep and it's beginning to boil over. Even as they had certain triumphs like the restoration of the wall and and beginning reconstruction on the temple, there were these fissures that were becoming more and more clear in the community.”

40s

#BeyondVerticalWorship

“It's clear that the people or at least those to whom Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God are devout and devoted and that they're doing good things. They're the ones who show up for service on Wednesday night. As Isaiah says, they seek God daily. They delight in knowing God's ways. They fast. They bow their heads. And yet God says, you're missing the point. Why? Because they seem to be stuck looking up. All of their worship is about their devotion and their religiosity. It's all vertical. It's all towards God. It seems to have little impact on how they're living horizontally.”

45s

#UpwardToOutward

“And Isaiah says that what happens when we do that, when we align ourselves and perhaps adjust our our gaze, when we share our bread and loosen burdens and and see one another, when our upward looking informs our outward living, that then light breaks forth. This idea this evening of looking around instead of just up is inspired, by a painting by reverend t Denise Anderson. It's called Don't Look Up. It's a part of this series. And what she reflects on is, Isaiah's prophecy to the community that is prone to become preoccupied with religious observance that draws the gaze upward to God, but like many of us stops there.”

46s

#SeeTheNeglected

“That often these very same people are prone to neglect the people in the matters that are most important to God. And so Anderson commenting on her peace says that as people have exalted themselves above their kindred, they wonder why God has not responded to them. Meanwhile, God is shining a light on what they've neglected below. So in this painting, do we have that phoenix? In this painting, there is a a portrait with this deeply contrasting light and shadow from a direction just beyond the subject, and and they're seen fixing their gaze upon the source as an invitation for all of us to stop elevating one's worship and oneself above our siblings and our peers because it is often right here that God is most readily found.”

39s

#SeekBeyondSelf

“And by the way, even that title seeking, I think, is is important. It it it sort of raises an implicit question of Ash Wednesday. When we gather in this place, as we embark on this journey, what are we seeking? As we go through Lent, as we journey to the cross into the empty tomb, as we fast or give up something, as we take on a practice, as individuals, as a community, what is it that we're after? So we're being invited to think more broadly in the scripture, I think, to think horizontally as well as vertically as we begin lent, not only in our fast, but in all parts of our personal observation of the season and preparation.”

38s

#CommunalWisdom

“And it isn't about more content or more listening upward. I don't know if you ever feel like this, but sometimes it feels like this is very much a one way conversation. What we're hoping is that it's less about the vertical and more about the horizontal, more about the communal wisdom, more about working these things out together with others to to hear different voices and perspectives and to offer what each of you can uniquely offer to the community. It's a Lenten opportunity that embodies the practice to help us move and enact, these sort of ideas and questions, not not only horizontally here, but then out beyond these walls.”

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St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Lenexa, KS This sermon · AI assistant

What is the fast that God truly desires?

How should worship transform our neighborly actions?

When is looking down more faithful than looking up?

February 18th, 2026 - Ash Wednesday Service

Devotional

Day 1: The Fast God Desires: Moving Beyond Performative Worship

Day 2: Realigning Our Gaze: From Looking Up to Looking Around

Day 3: The Call to Congruent Living

Day 4: Embracing Our Finite Nature to Embrace Community

Day 5: Participating in Collective Seeking

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

February 18th, 2026 - Ash Wednesday Service

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