The Lenten Journey Begins

Today, the Lenten Journey begins.

Lent is the 40 days (not including Sundays) before Easter. Why 40? Well in biblical terms, 40 means fullness and this is seen in the story of Noah, the days Nineveh was given to repent, and the years in the reigns of Kings Saul, David and Solomon. (Calendar:Christ's Time for the Church, Lawrence Stookey) Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert as his preparatipm for his minitry. During this time he was tempted by the devil and resisted such temptation. According to Delia Halverson, "The number fourty indicated an amount of time essential for accomplishemtn of what needed to be done" (Teaching and Celebrating the Christian Seasons). In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for baptism.

Today, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. We celebrate today by attending special worship services where ashes are imposed in the shape of a cross on the forehead. Why do we use ashes?

Delia Halverson in Teaching and Celebrating the Christian Seasons says,
"The ashes are placed on the forehead, representing our mortality. But they are placed in the sign of the cross reminding us that as Christians we die in Christ. As we move through the season, we move from despair to hope, as Good Friday offers redemption with Christ's death"

Laurence Hull Stookey in Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church says,
"Ashes, the sign of death, are put on teh forehaed not in some random pattern but in the shape of a cross. This alters the starkeness of the message, which becomes 'You will die. You cannot change that. But you can die in Christ, whose death transforms your own demise. Meanwhile, live in Christ and discover Christ's new life which conquers death'."

Joseph P. Russell in The New Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education says,
"Ashes symbolize our mortality and sorrow for our sins. The people of the Hebrew scriptures put ashes on their forheads as a sign of penitence. Job (Job 42:6) and the king fo Nineveh (Jonah 3:6) repented in ashes, wearing sackcloth."

Essentially, we use ashes because it shows that we KNOW we are mortal creatures, but that mortality takes a "back seat" to the future we have in God and Christ. So while Ash Wednesday is somber and sobering, it is also "Good News" because we know God has conquered death through Christ.

For more of Becca's views on Lent and the tradition of "giving up" things in preparation for Easter, please read her Ash Wednesday Sermon from 2003.

Join us tonight at CSUMC for our Ash Wednesday Taize worship service at 7:00 in the Chapel. This service is in the Taize tradition of meditative prayer and will include the imposition of ashes.