Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday was last week. Baptists typically don’t observe Ash Wednesday citing that it is “too Catholic.” Our church is one of the few but growing numbers of Baptist churches that do observe the day. It is my privilege each year to retrieve the dried palms that were used in last year’s Palm Sunday processional and burn them. It will be those ashes that are used to mark the foreheads of those who choose to have ashes imposed upon them in worship. It is a sacred task.

During the imposition, the worshipper comes forward to have the sign of the cross placed on their forehead. I plunge my thumb into the bowl of ashes and say, “From dust you came, to dust you shall return.” I then smear the black remnants of palms upon the forehead. It is a holy moment, each one. The act is to remind us that life is transient and all too short. We don’t have time to dawdle. There is too much to do, too much sin to deal with, too many injustices to make right, too many excesses to curtail, too many failures to overcome. Too many . . .

So with the mark upon our foreheads we enter into the season of Lent. It is a time of deep reflection as we ponder our relationship with God and with others. Some will practice the discipline of deprivation, giving up chocolate, or soft drinks, or some other craving. Others will give up time, volunteering somewhere or simply giving God the early morning hour for prayer. The 40 days, excluding Sundays, of “giving up” will allow us to be reminded daily that life is fleeting, that we are sinners saved by grace, that there is a day of great celebration that we are leaning toward. Let it also remind us daily that Christ gave up far more than we ever can. It was Christ who left the Presence and came to dwell among us, as one of us, and eventually bore a cross. A cross not of ash, but of death, for us.