Five days ago was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent is a time for the Church to repent and prepare for Holy Week, forty days (excluding Sundays) of penitence before Resurrection Sunday.
This Ash Wednesday was the first one I ever observed. The staff and elders of our church have decided to follow more intentionally the Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time). I have acquired a deep love for the Church Calendar over the past couple of years, especially due to my revolutionary encounter with the Book of Common Prayer. But to be honest, I was a bit leery of Ash Wednesday because of my interaction with it, albeit small, in the past. All I can remember is a bunch of my Catholic friends coming to school on a certain day with a black mark on their foreheads, complaining about having to eat fish until Easters. This year, however, I decided to give it a chance.
Not blindly, of course. I looked into the history of Ash Wednesday and discovered its roots in Jewish tradition, ashes for repentance and mourning, and the Christian church's adoption of applying ashes to the foreheads of believers as a symbol of repentance from sin and turning to Christ. Not to mention we are a marked people, set apart for the faith and work of Christ. Ashes remind us that we came from dust, and we will return to dust.
And so we did it. We used the Ash Wednesday Liturgy in the BOCP as a template, added a few songs and visuals, and worshiped our humble King, ashes and all. Lay people read the Old Testament and Gospel, and the elders applied ashes to the foreheads of everyone who wished to participate. As they applied the ashes they spoke these words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It was an amazing time of focusing on our mortality and our hope in the resurrection.
Despite the beauty of this fifty minute interactive worship service, more important is the call to a holy Lent. We have encouraged our church to participate in the Divine Hours, well, three times daily (7:30, Noon, and 5:30), to simply stop what we're doing at those times, and to refocus on the things of God. I can tell you first hand that this is nearly impossible for me to do. I am so busy and preoccupied with ministry stuff like putting together Ash Wednesday services, that I forget over and over again. Now I have an alarm on my cell phone set for each of those three times, and I literally have to peel myself away from what I am doing to pray.
Funny story, I was actually mixing the ashes with olive oil in the kitchen of the church before the service, and my pastor walked by the kitchen right at 5:30 and asked if I was coming to pray. (For anyone who is at the church during those times, they are encouraged to pray together in the lobby.) I said to him, "No, I'm scrambling to get everything prepared for the service." Then I stopped myself and realized the whole point of this. Tensing my muscles, spoon shaking, I dropped what I was doing and forced myself to go to the lobby. It's hard. Really hard, but I am finding this to be an absolutely essential practice in my life, not only for this Lenten season.
5 comments
Comment by Dan on February 12, 2008 at 5:17 PM
That last paragraph reminds me of a Shane Barnard lyric: "'til my serving you replaced me knowing you."
Doing the work of God is easier than being with God, always.
May we all remember what's better. Me included.
Comment by Ceci on February 13, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Just a question... I've never heard of any chuch mixing oil and ashes together.. does it have any particular meaning for you guys?
Cecilia White
Comment by Ryan on February 13, 2008 at 6:02 PM
No extra meaning to the oil. It just makes the process less messy. We do, however, use olive oil on a regular basis for anointing people when they come up for prayer.
Comment by jonathan sprang on April 23, 2008 at 10:37 PM
sup man
just met sean this past week and he told me about this blog.
just wondered if you utilize the lectionary in your church?
we are a new church plant out here in texas and are going to be following the lectionary. we are actually trying to follow the lectionary in a unique and creative way.
love to know how you guys use the lectionary.
peace
Comment by Ryan on April 24, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Jonathan,
Although I use the Book of Common Prayer personally and corporately in many ways, I do not use the Lectionary in worship. I don't have anything against it, but I just haven't found much use in it. I would be grateful to hear of how you have creatively implemented it into your worship.
What we do is stick to the Church Calendar and try to plan our sermon series around the Seasons. For example, we are about to begin a series on the book of Acts. The first weekend of the series, May 4th, will be on the Ascension, and as you know, Ascension Day is just a few days before that weekend. The next weekend, Mother's Day and Pentecost Sunday, the sermon will be an exposition of the verses surrounding the Pentecost.
Again, Jonathan, I'd love to hear how you guys use the Lectionary. We do have it in our heart to use more Scripture readings in our Celebrations.
Ryan
Thanks for joining us and sharing your thoughts.