Ash Wednesday is an ancient tradition that actually preceded Christianity. In 325 A.D. the Council of Nicaea incorporated the tradition of application of ashes to commence a 40 day fast into Christian practice to encourage pagan converts. In 601, Pope Gregory shifted the 40 day fast to a 46 day fast that included 6 feast days that began on the Wednesday that we now know of as Ash Wednesday.
Today while Roman Catholics most notably celebrate Ash Wednesday (after fat Tuesday) Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, Presbyterians and some Baptists also use the day to prepare for the 40 day fast of Lent. Palms from last year's Palm Sunday are burned to form the ash that the priest or pastor mark the forehead of participants with a cross. This year's blessing at our church was the traditional "Repent and Believe".
I find Ash Wednesday very compelling because I did not grow up celebrating it. It was something that I came to as an adult and in many ways it is still fresh to me.
The fasting that follows has been more challenging to wrap my head around, mainly because I grew up always longing to be more self-disciplined and Lent seemed like the best training workout for my will, but then sadly Lent would be about ME.
Many years ago now a friend, Betty K., shared a chapter about fasting with our Community Bible Study servant's team. Marjorie Thompson's book, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life has been the most helpful resource to re-imagine Lent and fasting (as well as other Spiritual Disciplines).
"We trivialize spiritual disciplines when we lose sight of their real purpose. Lent is not a six-week inconvenience in an otherwise abundant year, during which we somehow please God with voluntary if minor suffering. Lent is not the testing ground for the true grit of our will power. It is certainly not a "spiritual" rationale for losing 10 pounds before venturing to the beach in a swimsuit. Do you see how easy it is to twist a practice like fasting into a means to accomplish our own ends? The question we need to ask with any spiritual discipline is, What does God want to accomplish in me through this practice?"
"For the Early church, Lent was just the opposite of a dreary season of restriction and self-torture. It was understood as an opportunity to return to normal human life- the life of natural communion with God that was lost to us in the Fall."
I left church on Ash Wednesday, marked for with a reminder of my need to repent and live my life out of my belief in Jesus Christ. I was then promptly swept into the dizzying current of real life. Disclaimer: There is a large, I mean GIANT retail chain that I am loathe to shop at because I find their business practices to be problematic, they do not pay their workers living wages, and their presence has been harmful to other small businesses, that said sometimes we end up in their store. After church Wednesday was one of those days. I went in with my daughter to buy a dowel rod for a school project. It was 8:30pm, I was exhausted, I hate shopping (these are my excuses for what happens next) as Tess looks for someone to help her find the dowel rod, I head to the video department to get a movie that she and I had talked about watching this weekend together, a sweet mother/daughter surprise.
This particular store beyond the issues I have mentioned has a large collection of DVDs that are displayed in the most random way imaginable, you either find what you want by luck or you ask and they tell you, "Yes, we have it but we aren't sure where". But this night, "Matt" the clerk and only human being in the department is on the phone, for a long time and does not make eye contact with me or anything, so I begin to wander hoping to find the disc. As I wander another gentleman walks by and begins to look at tv stands. I am getting desperate, I see Matt is off the phone so I go towards him to ask, he looks past me turns and heads to guy looking at TV stands, and strikes up a conversation, "Can I help you?" with the GUY!
I am caught off guard, what is the deal? I wander back between the aisles but no luck. I return to "Matt"and the guy,
"Matt" - "Well, these are all the stands we have."
Guy- "Yeah, and that one will do what I want, but I don't want to pay that much."
"Matt"- "I hear you, but really that is the only one that will work for you that we have."
Guy- "What else do you have, maybe they might work"
You get the picture, this is going to be a long conversation, and "Matt" is trying to be a good sales person, but is diligently ignoring me this whole time. Now I have forgotten that I have a large very dark ash cross on my forehead ( In retrospect I am pretty sure this may be why "Matt" was ignoring me, if you don't do Ash Wednesday then, "What in the world!?" psycho? murderer? cult member?) It is getting late I can hear Tess calling me, and I give up, I storm out of the video section sweep past Tess and head for the front of the store saying not very kind, Christian things about "Matt". It is a good thing these stores are so big, by the time I found a manager I had simmered down a bit and stated they needed to make sure clerks acknowledged people and didn't ignore them. But alas, I had blown my top in front of my daughter who kindly reminded of the big ashy significant mark on my forehead. "Repent and Believe and Repent Again."