In many Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant churches, an Ash Wednesday worship service marks the beginning of the Lenten season. It is a solemn, penitential liturgy that launches worshipers on a reflective journey toward the climactic events of Holy Week. Several traditional rituals frame the meaning of the service. The most visible and widespread of these rituals is the marking of the forehead with ash in the sign of the cross. Usually applied with the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” the ashes suggest a posture of penitence, and they remind us of our mortality and our humble place before God.
Perhaps the second most familiar practice of a typical Ash Wednesday service is the communal recitation of Psalm 51. The words of the Psalm are heartrending. Expressing clear humility and contrition, the psalmist acknowledges his transgressions and pleads for God’s mercy. Indeed, King David’s sins seem to haunt him and he allows that he deserves whatever consequences come his way. His urgent prayer is for God’s forgiveness and salvation, that God might withhold just punishment and instead wash him clean and purify his soul. For his part, David knows that simple platitudes are not sufficient as he petitions for mercy; he offers God the sacrifice of a broken heart and promises to praise God continuously and to teach others the ways of God.
Have you ever wondered why the early church started this annual seasonal time of Lent six weeks before the most holy week in the life of the Church? Let me list several for you:
- The church knew that people need a second chance for a new start in life. And you can not have a second chance unless you receive God’s mercy and grace. We all need a second change, perhaps even a third and a fourth and more. However, the church wanted us to know that our God is gracious and merciful, and Lent reminds us that we can have a new start if we are truly remorseful and repentive of our self-destructive ways
- The church knew that sin is not a surface wound but a penetrating sickness. Sin is similar to cancer in that it eats away at the core of our very being. Overcoming such an invasive disease requires a dramatic and divine intervention – nothing else but a heart transplant. The heart transplant is the only way for a restored relationship and a path for healing and wholeness.
- The church knew that healing and restoration takes time and is best done in community. Like the 40 days of Jesus’ wilderness journey in preparation for his public ministry, we must come into Holy Week preparing ourselves for the public declaration and demonstration of our faith, visibly seen in the Resurrected life. Sin is as social as it is individual. Healing of sin must be social and it must be individual for genuine transformation to take place.
Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. (March 9, 2011), The Way Christian Fellowship will gather at the Datron multi-purpose room as a community where everyone will take individual responsibility for their actions of self-destructive thoughts, words, and deeds. We will ask for God’s mercy and grace and we will begin our journey of reconciliation, restoration, and resurrection so that Christ can fully live in us. I hope you will be there.
In His mercy and grace,
Fr. Tony Baron, Senior Pastor