March 9, 2011 - Ash Wednesday

Beginnings

Read Genesis 3: 19; Joel 2: 1-2, 12-18; Psalm 51: 1-17

Every journey has a beginning. There is always that moment when we leave behind the known and familiar and start into the new and unknown. Even if we know the end point…the destination…we aren’t always sure what we will encounter along the way, what new insights or experiences might present themselves.

As Christians setting off on the journey to the cross, on the Wednesday six and a half weeks before Easter, the body of Christ begins its Lenten journey. While we know that the cross, and ultimately resurrection are our destination, we don’t know what experiences and insights will meet us on our journey. Throughout the Gospels Jesus reminds us repeatedly how important it is to prepare and take stock of who we are and of what we are capable.

We begin our Lenten journey this year on March 9th in a service of worship that includes marking our foreheads with ashes. Dust and ashes are signs of our humanity. God created us out of the earth, and throughout the scriptures, dust and ashes also serve as signs of mourning and grief. When Joshua grieved for the people who had been killed, he tore his clothing and put dust on his head (Joshua 7:6). Job, mourning the death of his children, sat on the ash heap (Job 2: 12). Job’s friends, coming to comfort him, threw dust in the air and on their heads when they saw his condition.

Ashes were also outward and visible signs of confession. Nehemiah and the people of Israel fasted, dressed in sackcloth, and put earth on their heads as they sought to atone for their sins before God (Nehemiah 9:1). And Job declared, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). 

“You are dust, and to dust you will return.” This ancient formula will be heard by millions of Christians all over the world this Ash Wednesday as the sign of the cross is made with the ashes of burned palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. This symbolic act is both a solemn reminder of our broken relationship with God and an invitation to renewal as we repent and seek reconciliation that is made available through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord.

Won’t you join the journey through Lent from the beginning as we worship together at 7:30 P.M. on March 6th?

Judy May

Prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10-12).