Redeemer East Side Update

In the third stanza of his great poem, “Ash Wednesday,” T.S. Eliot wrote these simple lines of verse:

Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.

It is a beautiful rendering of the two central truths that we remember on Ash Wednesday. The first is that in our frailty and fallenness, we are unworthy of the presence of God, much less the furious love of God. Eliot repeats this line twice as if to capture both the pathos of that truth as well as its seeming finality. “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19) is the grim reminder of Ash Wednesday in a culture that often seems to be in denial of death. The repentance that Ash Wednesday calls us to can feel like a shattering thing.

Yet our unworthiness will not be the final word — far from it. Eliot lays a helpless request before God: “but speak the word only.” Though undeserved, there is a word that if God were to merely utter it, would change everything in an instant. For the truth of Ash Wednesday is not merely that we are dust, but that God “remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14) and in his unthinkable love, has spoken that word that brings life in Jesus Christ. We are now declared worthy not because of anything we’ve done, but because we are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

Tonight at 7 p.m., we will be having a very special joint Ash Wednesday service with all of the Redeemer Churches at the W83 Ministry Center. I hope you will join us (and bring a friend!) so that we can proclaim these crucial truths to our own hearts and then to the world.

Warmly,

Rev. Abraham Cho
East Side Senior Pastor

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Here's a short video of Senior Pastor Abe Cho sharing some of the things he's looking forward to in the life of our church this year. Please join us this Sunday at 1 p.m. for our annual Town Hall to learn more and ask questions.

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