There are many christian faiths that are starting the season of Lent on Wednesday...Ash Wednesday. Lent is the forty day period of repentance, fasting, prayer and spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter. We join with Jesus as he went into the wilderness for forty days of fasting, meditation and reflection before beginning his ministry. The season is "about being born again, it is about following the path of death and resurrection, and about participating in Jesus' final journey". Ash Wednesday begins our journey.
On Ash Wednesday, the pastor uses ashes, ideally ashes from the burning of palm fronds from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration, to mark the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the faithful. As the sign of the cross is marked on our foreheads the words "Dust thou art and dust thou wilt return", are spoken over us. It is a very vivid reminder of our own mortality and reminds us not only of our death but that we are marked for death and that path of death is about transformation.
We must take a hard look at ourselves. We must die to the sin that is holding us back from a fuller relationship with our Father. It might be an attitude, a behavior, a relationship. It could be a self-preoccupation or even a "deadness in our lives (you can die to deadness)". Ash Wednesday starts that journey of meditating of what needs to "die" in our lives, of repenting for that sin and then of praying and fasting. Of course, we should be doing this all year but this season gives us the oppportunity to participate and focus intensly on the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem...from death and resurrrection...from mortality to transformation.
Just as Jesus had to die to be resurrected, so must we die to the sinfulness of our human nature so that we may be born again. We know that it is only by God's grace and the sacrifice of his son, for us, that we can be born again but isn't that what we as christians continually yearn for!? Don't we all want a fuller, closer, more intimate relationship with the Father!? Isn't transformation at the center of Christian life!?
The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent, but the practice of repentence and mourning in ashes is found in scripture. Here are some:
Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went. 2 Samuel 13:19
When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. Esther 4:1
Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. Job 2:8
I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel 9:3
"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. Matthew 11:21
I am eagerly awaiting my ashes this Ash Wednesday. I want to weep in repentence for my sins. I want to fall on my face and beg my Father's forgiveness for "what I have done and what I have failed to do". I want the physical reminder that my human body will turn to dust but my soul will return to God, my creator and maker. I know that I will not be on Earth forever, but I also know that my soul will never die and that what I do now, in this life, matters. I want my ashes on Wednesday, I want to die to sin, I want forty days of praying, of fasting, of journeying with Christ.....I want to be transformed...to be born again and again and again. I want to continue to bring my relationship with God deeper and deeper and deeper. Won't you spend the next forty days with me and Jesus!?
"Even now", declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blesssing - gain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Joel 2:12-14
3 comments:
We took communion at my church yesterday. It is always a reminder to me of the love that Jesus showed on Calvery.
I'm looking forward to Lent this year, also. Usually, it's an after-thought. But, this year, we're makin' plans, gettin' ready ... looking forward to a meaningful season of repentence and introspection.
Trish
I printed out your post to peruse it carefully. I haven't ever had the experience of participating in an Ash Wednesday. Although, the kids and I usually begin a study on Jesus final days on earth leading up to His crucifixion.
I'm thinking this would be a great activity to try with my kids. We all need to examine ourselves and repent of sin that can so easily latch on to us and cling. Sometimes we can become so nonchalant about our sinfulness.It's easy to call our sin by names that make it seem okay - mistakes, accidents, etc.
Thank-you for sharing what Ash Wednesday means to you. I shall join you in the next forty days of preparation through prayer and meditation.
Post a Comment