It's a very un-Ash Wednesdayish day in southeast Texas. The sky is clear blue, the sun in shining and it's about 80 degrees. My air conditioning is on. On a beautiful day like this it's more difficult to get in the proper mood.The church we attend now offers a couple of Ash Wednesday services in its small chapel rather than the large sanctuary. Some of you remember my No Ashes Please post on this subject from 2006. El Jefe and I are not going to attend this year because the imposition of ashes is the point of the service, and there's no reason to attend if you aren't going to participate fully. In our previous church, I was expected to go every year because as a choir member we were needed in the service. Here the service doesn't include the choir.
El Jefe and I are observing Lent by taking on the leadership of a small group Lenten study. I think the discipline of preparing for those meetings will be a good one.
I pray that each of you who do attend an Ash Wednesday service today find it a meaningful way to begin the Lenten season and those of you who don't, like me and El Jefe, find your own observance of Lent equally meaningful.
I pray that each of you who do attend an Ash Wednesday service today find it a meaningful way to begin the Lenten season and those of you who don't, like me and El Jefe, find your own observance of Lent equally meaningful.
9 comments:
What will you and El Jefe be studying for your Lenten group?
I just re-read your original post, in which you longed for a "Lent Begins" service.
Tonight at our church, after a litany of confession and short message, we went through the first part of the communion liturgy, then there were three stations around the meeting house where people could receive ashes, partake of communion, and/or sit or kneel under a wooden cross in prayer--we had given out stones at the beginning of the service, the reflection dealt with the stone as a metaphor "cast the first stone", and people were invited to lay their stone at the foot of the cross as a symbol of something they needed to let go of.
People went to different stations as they felt called. I was worried it might be a zoo but it was very reflective, meditative and unhurried. Nobody would have noticed someone not going for ashes--the station was near the back, and people left in silence afterward. On the other hand, it was not traditional Presbyterian worship either. So that may not fit the bill either!
Just one church's experience! I hope you might find what you're looking for sometime.
I just went and read your previous post and the comments. So interesting to read the different takes on this.
Our Presby church does the imposition of ashes at an evening service, which I find a bit disconcerting since it seems almost like announcing, "We'll do this, but not so that anyone could see us."
I am feeling rather bereft tonight at not having been able to go (school) and at having decided not to attend the Methodist midday service, after concluding that showing up at work for the afternoon in a Jewish school with ashes on my forehead would be troubling and probably offensive to many of my colleagues. I still don't know if I was right, but a UCC colleague who was going to church for her ashes tonight agreed with me. And a rabbi colleague said he was genuinely sorry to hear that we felt that way.
I think I want the imposition of ashes in part because of my decidedly ecumenical upbringing and in part because as my faith becomes a more significant factor in my life, so does anything that approaches the sacramental. But I can see how a consistently Reformed backgroud would lead to an opposite sense of what is meaningful and what is not.
What an interesting post and comments. I share QG's reluctance about ashes, but I suspect this is mostly a Protestant sensibility - rather than any particular opinion on the practice.
Reverendmother: That sounds like a wonderful service.
Gannet Girl: I very much hope you were incorrect about the reaction. I won't say you were - but I just hope you were. I'd like to think when people sincerely follow their religious traditions that others would not be offended or troubled. (This should not be a reflection of agreement with or opposition to any religious tenet or belief - just a matter of respect for the traditions of others.)
What interesting comments! Thanks, everyone.
PresbyGal--the pastor is doing a Lenten series of sermons called Giving Life Together. The study is based on the scripture and outlines of those sermons. We'll see how that goes!
RM--what a creative service you had at your church! I really like the way you incorporated other ways of acknowledging the beginning of Lent along with the imposition of ashes. What feedback did you get from the congregation?
GG--I'm with Will and sad that you felt contstrained about displaying ashes at the school. On the other hand, Christ told us not to display our piety in public so getting ashes in the evening rather than wearing them throughout the day would fit in with that teaching, wouldn't it?
We had an Ash Wednesday service last night w/communion and imposition of ashes.
I personally like having the service in the evening as it is a quieter, more introspective time of day. Our pastor preached from Matthew where Jesus cleanses the temple. He spoke of temple imagery in the NT...especially as it relates to our own lives as individual temples of the Holy Spirit. Where, then, within me, is a 'table'of my own making that is contrary to the will of God in my life that needs to be overturned?
RevMother-Our church does Good Friday services in a similar style
to your Ash Wednesday service w/litany, corporate confession, message, then several experiential stations. Very powerful and moving!
Great comments!
PresbyG
Grace, I haven't talked to anyone about it yet--I'll let you know!
One logistical thing was I wish we had been more explicit that people were welcome to stay in their seat until they felt moved to go to the stations. Senior Pastor did say to go as people felt led, but lots of people stood up at the beginning so there were long lines. When it would have been fine to remain seated quietly and let the aisles clear out a little. Oh well, live and learn.
And actually the whole service took less than an hour so I don't think it was a big thing.
QG, you are right, of course, about the consistency of the teaching not to display our piety in public with doing ashes at nighttime. I guess I have always concluded that ashes displayed during the day are expressions of humility; people being willing to go out in public and mkae a clear statement that this is where their faith lies. Until I read posts and comments around the topic this week, I had never realized that soem people intentionally wash the ahes off immediately in keeping with the "don't display" teaching.
And now...the more I think of it, the more I like the display of ashes. We have so few opportunities to say who we are, and there is so little recognition, even within the church, that the big moment is Easter, not Christmas. To mark the onset of a time of preparation with a very personal statement of metanoia as opposed to the mass inundation of the malls that marks Advent seems significant and moving to me.
GG--
As always you bring such thoughtful comments to the conversation! Your point about recognition of who we are made me wonder. Christ made the statement about displaying piety in a very different place and time from our own. Would he say the same thing to us?
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