Ash Wednesday 2008
I was selfish yesterday.
Ash Wednesday is the only service that speaks louder than the scriptural texts it has at its core. Looking back at past sermons I have rarely preached on the texts themselves, and mostly on the numerous movies and pop culture references to the beginning of the penitential season. Not so much on the different texts. I realized last night, at our 7PM service, that my sermon touched the Isaiah and 2 Corinthians readings more than it did the Gospel, so the 7AM and 12N people must have been a little baffled about why I was saying what I was saying...
But back to being selfish, I decided to be the one to put the ash sing of the cross on everyones forehead. Sandy did my head, but I did everyone else's. And in my drive up to Grand Marais I really tried hard to figure out why I was so compelled to do that.
I really love Ash Wednesday, there is no other season of the liturgical year that marks itself at the beginning with such a powerful symbol. We usually just flow from one to the next, But Lent begins with Ashes, with dirt placed on our foreheads. As people lined up and came to receive the imposition of ashes I couldn't help but wonder why these people, many of whom I have only shook their hands, would allow me to wipe dirt on their heads. Some with smiles on their faces, others with eyes closed in fervent reflection, and still others not sure what to think about the whole process. It is an intimate experience for me, it brings me close to people, physically, and I suppose emotionally as well. I was overwhelmed with the graciousness people had in allowing me, and through me God, to mark them in an important and vital way.
I guess that might be it, more so than any other day of the year, I feel like a vessel, as Jim Snyder always talks about, I feel more than ever the conduit through which God flows. Maybe it is about power, I hope not. But it is a moment in the year where I feel more than ever that I am priest and my role is to be the person through which God is heard. Vulnerability, intimacy, honesty and openness. So many things, just as this service is full of so much symbolism and mystery we can only seem to engage it in parts.
I learned that Psalm 51 is supposed to be the psalm of David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. The words in that psalm are odd, when you think about it, Fleming Rutledge in a book she wrote talks about the phrase, "against you God only, have I sinned." What about Bathsheba's husband David had killed? What about Bathsheba herself? What about David's loved ones and family? I guess we are all in God's hands, and in God's hands, that is the relationship that is above all, our relationship with God, and the one relationship that suffers more so than anything else when we realize our jealousy and hatred and vice.
Ash Wednesday is an amazing service, I know there are ways to engage the symbolism more fully than we did last night, and I hope this lent we truly can live into what this Season of Lent says to us. There is so much there, and the best way to experience it is to listen, to others, to God, to the Spirit, to the Word, to isten and to hear rather than desire to be heard. May we all be receptive to what the world is saying to us these 40 days.
Be well,
A+
Ash Wednesday is the only service that speaks louder than the scriptural texts it has at its core. Looking back at past sermons I have rarely preached on the texts themselves, and mostly on the numerous movies and pop culture references to the beginning of the penitential season. Not so much on the different texts. I realized last night, at our 7PM service, that my sermon touched the Isaiah and 2 Corinthians readings more than it did the Gospel, so the 7AM and 12N people must have been a little baffled about why I was saying what I was saying...
But back to being selfish, I decided to be the one to put the ash sing of the cross on everyones forehead. Sandy did my head, but I did everyone else's. And in my drive up to Grand Marais I really tried hard to figure out why I was so compelled to do that.
I really love Ash Wednesday, there is no other season of the liturgical year that marks itself at the beginning with such a powerful symbol. We usually just flow from one to the next, But Lent begins with Ashes, with dirt placed on our foreheads. As people lined up and came to receive the imposition of ashes I couldn't help but wonder why these people, many of whom I have only shook their hands, would allow me to wipe dirt on their heads. Some with smiles on their faces, others with eyes closed in fervent reflection, and still others not sure what to think about the whole process. It is an intimate experience for me, it brings me close to people, physically, and I suppose emotionally as well. I was overwhelmed with the graciousness people had in allowing me, and through me God, to mark them in an important and vital way.
I guess that might be it, more so than any other day of the year, I feel like a vessel, as Jim Snyder always talks about, I feel more than ever the conduit through which God flows. Maybe it is about power, I hope not. But it is a moment in the year where I feel more than ever that I am priest and my role is to be the person through which God is heard. Vulnerability, intimacy, honesty and openness. So many things, just as this service is full of so much symbolism and mystery we can only seem to engage it in parts.
I learned that Psalm 51 is supposed to be the psalm of David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. The words in that psalm are odd, when you think about it, Fleming Rutledge in a book she wrote talks about the phrase, "against you God only, have I sinned." What about Bathsheba's husband David had killed? What about Bathsheba herself? What about David's loved ones and family? I guess we are all in God's hands, and in God's hands, that is the relationship that is above all, our relationship with God, and the one relationship that suffers more so than anything else when we realize our jealousy and hatred and vice.
Ash Wednesday is an amazing service, I know there are ways to engage the symbolism more fully than we did last night, and I hope this lent we truly can live into what this Season of Lent says to us. There is so much there, and the best way to experience it is to listen, to others, to God, to the Spirit, to the Word, to isten and to hear rather than desire to be heard. May we all be receptive to what the world is saying to us these 40 days.
Be well,
A+
Comments
I've been wanting to comment here that I think this post is a particularly strong, compelling, engaging one. I think the reason is how much your own spirituality shows through.
If we can listen as you advocate at the end of the post, and when we talk, take the risk to be open, vulnerable and honest (words mentioned in your post & I think some of them in my post on Lent), this will keep developing our relationships with God and the people that make up the communities of which we are parts.
As you may have discerned, it was from your sermon & participation in the Ash Wed service flowed parts of my posts "Ashes" and "Do You Hate Lent"
Thank you.