Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

I was a part of a strange experience last week. There were a lot of Baptists around me asking for ashes on their forehead.

It was Ash Wednesday, so seemingly you would think this was commonplace. But, as I serve in a church which is very cautious not to seem too "Catholic" in its practices, observance of Ash Wednesday is not the expected norm.

When the other pastors and I planned this service, we were cautious to include enough elements within so that the traditional Baptists felt at home. In between prayers of confession and scriptures, we sang verses of the great evangelistic crusade song: "Just As I Am." We didn't bless the ashes with a prayer of thanksgiving as many traditional liturgies call for the pastors to do. But, we took the risk and offered not only mediation over the ashes, but the ashes themselves. And it worked!

When one of the other pastors called for the congregation to come to the table to receive ashes, almost everyone there came! I wasn't planning on helping impose the ashes, but with the long line waiting at the table, I had to get involved. And as I placed the sign of the cross on the foreheads of congregants, I was moved in awe.

Here we were, a bunch of traditional Baptists, saying to each other "From ashes you came and to ashes you will return. Repent and believe the gospel." It was a beautiful sight to behold. I was reminded once again what the Lenten season is about after all: more than just confession, but confession in the context of a loving community of faith, people who surround our lives with hope as we wait in expectation of Easter's joys, people who listen to us, people who care about the state of our souls.

As my fingers were in the bowl of ashes, I couldn't help but think about the pastor who first taught me about this occasion on the Christian calendar, Carl. Carl was the pastor of the United Methodist Church were I served as a pastoral intern for two years in seminary.

Without trying to sound too ignorant, I remember asking Carl to explain to me my part in the first Ash Wednesday Service I had ever attended or led. (Growing up in the Southern Baptist Church, we never observed Lent or Ash Wednesday.)

"I do what to the ashes? . . . I stand where? . . . I say what?" were among my many questions to Carl on that cold February night in North Carolina. In my questions, I learned a lot from Carl about how meaningful such a service could be as I saw how carefully he attended to the ashes and the program of the service. (For a funny story on how I didn't do this last year, see an old post).

So, as I placed ashes on the faces of my people this year in a service that unashamedly celebrated Ash Wednesday for the first time in a while, I thought of Carl-- his strong voice saying, "Repent and believe the gospel."

The traditions of the church go on from generations to generations of its ministers. How good it was last week to help a congregation live into the fullness of what it means to be in the season of Lent! And also to think of Carl and my friends in NC who first showed me the way.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

Happy Lent to all of you!