Ash Wednesday
7 Feb 2008
We celebrated Ash Wednesday last night in our church community. We’ve invited each other to journey through Lent as a community with 40 days of prayers with Sacred Space.
It was a moving time, and as I thought about why here were some of the ingredients for me at least:
1. Death: Being marked with the burnt palm crosses from last year by my Wife, reminded by her that I was from dust and that I would return to dust was sobering.
That no matter how much I love her, we will be separated by death, but the faith we have in Jesus is bigger than our own deaths and our separation when that day comes.
2. Connection: To my church community gathered to administer this signing of the cross to each other. To Jesus and his Body. To the Church in history.
Using the words of a 9th century Ash Wednesday prayer, I had the sense of standing in the tradition, the story of the church, doing something to connect to a story much bigger and eternal than the madness of the other stories unfolding around me in the news and daily life at present.
3. Icon: Leaving with the cross marked on my forehead, with my church family moving to leave with the cross showing on our bodies was powerful.
There are so many symbols, that jostle for our attention, value and money in consumer culture. It was liberating to be marked with the cross, the sign of our saviour.
In a world where everything can be bought and sold, I found the peace that comes from being a slave to Jesus, and the desire to enter into that identity more than ever.
Tagged: Lent
6 comments
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Comment by Jason Reid
9.46 am on 7 Feb 2008
Are reformed missional church planters allowed to give up booze for lent?
My mother-in-law last week asked if we ‘do’ lent, I snorted back ‘no of course not.’ But here we are a week later, the kids have packed away their chocolate and I’m giving up my precious red wine (when not socialising in a missional focused way – funny how the diary is filling up pretty quickly). They came back from their catholic school all foreheads smeared with the blessed ashes and we all thought it would be good to remember that Jesus is more important to us than something special. Please don’t tel my friends…
Comment by billski
2.34 pm on 7 Feb 2008
The Catholic church said that some non-Catholics are also doing that ceremony.
Comment by Paul
10.22 pm on 7 Feb 2008
Great thoughts Jason.
I wrote after the service:
“I attended a Lent service tonight and was signed with the cross in oil and ash on my forehead by another person. It reminded me that there is so much of practicing my faith that i can not do alone at my own convenience! It also challenged me to begin to think how else i could identify myself and orientate my life around Jesus?”
http://paulmayers.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/02/lentern-orienta.html
Comment by margaret
10.25 am on 9 Feb 2008
we did the signing with ashes in the middle of a large school courtyard in the cold and in the dark. it turned out to be a sobering reminder of the reality of our commitment to the wider community. and of course…….the people who found it the most moving and challenging were those who had no traditional church background….. a bit more deep stuff I guess.
Comment by James Prescott
9.48 am on 12 Feb 2008
Sounds really amazing. I only wish I could have been there to share that experience with you and the church. Very powerful to remember that we came from ash and to ash we will return. Being marked with the cross as well is a very powerful symbol and declaration of what we beleive. Good reminder that being a Christian isn’t just going to church, its a way of life. Challenges us to think, “What are my life, my opinions, my attitudes and actions shaped by?”
Its easy to say that it should be Jesus, but actually doing that in the rich consumer culture we live in, which seems to have no sense of responsibility, where feelings and emotions are more important than character, is a big challenge.
Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Beth
2.16 pm on 14 Feb 2008
“. . .I found the peace that comes from being a slave to Jesus, and the desire to enter into that identity more than ever.”
Slave to Jesus. Three powerful words that would enrage or disgust one in the dark to Jesus’ love and grace. Thank you for arresting my heart with your arrangement of words about our lovely position with Him.
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