March 2 – “What’s that mean?”

Back out to the church again last night.  This time was to experience the mystery and wonder of an Ash Wednesday service.  Actually one of the goals of the service was to give an explanation of some of the mystery and a chance for some folks to actually experience what they might have heard about for many years.  It didn’t take place on the seawall like the Ashes To Go of a local Episcopalian church.  They gather tiny pockets of people together and do a miniaturized version of a service so the folks can be on their way quickly and wear their forehead ashes in humility for the rest of the day.  I certainly applaud their ingenuity and willingness to try something different.  But our purpose was kind of to the opposite extreme.  Instead of shortening everything, we added explanations that lengthened everything. 

We talked about the history of Lent in the early church and how it developed into the 40 days before Easter (minus Sundays) period we have today.  Why minus Sundays?  Because they had already been established from earliest times as a feast of the resurrection of Jesus celebration day.  And you can’t do a mourning-type fast on a feast day.  That’s why Lent begins on a Wednesday.  They had to add some weekdays to replace the Sundays so it would add up to 40 days.  We also looked at Mardi Gras.  That’s become quite the party time here in Galveston.  It looks nothing like it originally did in the early church, though.  They simply used the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday to use up all the fat in the house so they wouldn’t be tempted during the fast days ahead.  The whole experience was supposed to have a purely religious connotation.  But over the years we figured out a way to “culturize” it and turn it into a party time. 

We incorporated communion into our service, so we actually did three pretty significant church rituals.  After the teaching and communion, we did a Litany of preparation before receiving the ashes on our foreheads.  I can truly say “we” and “our” this year, because one of our church elders made sure to serve me communion and to put the ashes on my head.  I really appreciate being included as one of the Body.  Even more so in that it was Bob’s idea on his own.  My prayer is that some people who always wondered, “What’s that mean?” can now say “Oh, so that’s why.”

2 Thessalonians 1:3 says, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.”

Father, thank you for the many different ways to worship you.  Help us to appreciate them all.  Amen.