The Jolt of Ash Wednesday

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Ash Wednesday throws on the brakes.  It jolts us out of whatever road we’ve been barreling down.

 

This year at Grace Church, the days before Lent are especially full.  We have our rescheduled Chili Bowl this Sunday, February 15.  Sooner after comes Shrove Tuesday, February 17, with its traditional pancake supper.  Between the two events, there will be a lot of laughter and probably a lot of calories.

 

And then comes Wednesday morning and the Ash Wednesday liturgies, as early as 7:00 a.m. for some.  Instead of laughter, we encounter silence.  Instead of a feast, we have a fast.  We are told in no uncertain terms that we are bound for dust and ashes.

 

The contrast can be jarring.  And yet being jolted is exactly what most of us need.

 

It is all too easy to make our way through life propelled merely by inertia.  It is all too easy to become numb.  It is all too easy to lead an unexamined life.

 

I invite you to do something strange, which is to lean into the discomfort of this day.  Let it feel awkward.  Allow yourself to be troubled.  You’re not doing something wrong if you feel these feelings.  You are probably doing something right.

 

My hope is that the jolt wakes us up.  Not to our own sinfulness—or, rather, not only to that.  The hope of Ash Wednesday is that it wakes us up to God’s love, a love which wants better for us than inertia and numbness.

 

I invite you to a holy Lent.  I hope you will begin it this week ahead.

 

Yours in Christ,

Anne+