February 18, 2015 - Ash Wednesday

Ashes and Oil – Doorways to Love
 

Read: Joel 2:1-17, Mark 1:9-15, and Isaiah 61:1-6

I try to keep up with Bible study. In doing so I find in it that Biblical religion was steeped in symbolic substances and actions. Some were carried into the tradition of the Church but were dropped by Protestants at the time of the Reformation. The reasons for discounting their use were valid in the Sixteenth century, for the accretions of superstition and faulty theology had hidden the ancient meaning of the signs. 

 

But four and a half centuries of disuse have robbed us of some of the strongest symbols found in the Bible. We call this Ash Wednesday, but most of us have never had ashes on our heads. Therefore, we find it difficult to identify with the people of Nineveh or Old Testament penitents who used ashes as a symbol. We read in the Bible about "the oil of gladness". We sing about the unction of the Holy Spirit. But because we ourselves have never been anointed with fragrant oil, these are abstract experiences, unknown to us in fact. 

 

Recently Protestantism has been criticized as being too rationalistic, too verbal, too devoid of that which appeals to the feelings and affections. The recovery of the practices of the ancient church, which speak to all the senses, can assist us at this very level. The use of ashes and oil in many churches on Ash Wednesday is in that tradition. It employs the Biblical symbols of ashes, a sign of destruction and death; and oil, a sign of healing and richness. 

 

For me, attending an Ash Wednesday service which uses these signs has opened a new doorway through which the love of God has been made much more real. Ashes do bring an awareness of death, the need for repentance and trust in the life-giving grace of God. Likewise with having your head anointed with oil, there is a renewed awareness of the rich healing of the Holy Spirit who can bring forth in our lives fruits worthy of repentance. 

 

Worship today in a service at GPUMC which uses these symbols and discover in the liturgical actions a new doorway to God and the gospel message of love.

Prayer: O God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit brings life out of death, may the awareness of sin and death bring me to true repentance and trust in your eternal love. Through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.

Rev. Jack Eugene Giguere