Dear Church Family and Friends,
I confess that Ash Wednesday is a day on the church calendar with which I have often had trouble coming to terms. While many of us have found deep personal meaning in having a cross placed upon our foreheads with ashes, my mind often stumbles over some of the history of this rite. An early reference to Ash Wednesday tells us that the inspiration for using ashes came from a public act of penitence in ancient times whereby those who wanted to repent their sins “bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth.” I personally have a hard time believing that a loving God would want any of us to publicly humiliate ourselves in this way.
So why do so many of us still find this day meaningful? For me, Ash Wednesday is meaningful as the first day of Lent, the first day in which we begin to consciously turn ourselves toward God. I like to think of Ash Wednesday as a homecoming, a day on which we return home to God. It’s not that God’s love has ever left us. It is that sometimes our minds and spirits stray away from that which is truly meaningful in life. It is in those moments that we need to be called back to that place where we feel and experience the embrace of God.
“Returning Home” is the theme of our Ash Wednesday service this year. To lift up this theme, the service will feature three special parts: singing by our choir, a dramatic reading of the prodigal son parable by Kristina Martin, and a reflection on returning home written by the acclaimed author Anne Lamott. All of you are warmly invited to join us for this special service on February 25th at 6:30 pm.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks