Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day in the 40-day Lenten Season leading up to Holy Week and Easter. Today many of us will take on ashes as signs of our willing contrition and desire for personal and societal change.
The ashes are one sign of many, including fasting, the tearing of clothes, and the shaving or plucking of beards, which the Israelites used to express sorrow and regret at sin and blasphemy (the Contemporary English Study Bible).
The ashes seem especially fitting this year for the world-wide Church. With all the horrific stories of abuse we have learned of within both the Southern Baptist and Catholic bodies in recent past months, coupled with the United Methodist Church’s decision to continue its policy of LGBTQ exclusion in recent days, there is deep sadness and sorrow for the things we as the broader Christian Church have done and left undone. We have excluded those we ought to have included and harmed those we ought to have protected. For these things, the whole worldwide Church is diminished. And for these things, many of us are deeply sorry.
Ash Wednesday is a day to ritually express our penitence; and the Lenten season of reflection is the path we walk towards renewing our commitments to protect the vulnerable and defend the rights of the oppressed.
“Repent and believe in the Gospel.” These are the words often spoken by the pastor or priest as they mark the sign of the cross upon the head on Ash Wednesday. We repent of all our prejudices and practices not worthy of Christ’s Church. And we believe in the Gospel -- the good news that there is a path which can lead us to reformation and renewal.
That path is called Lent; and it is now upon us . . .
PS — This reflection is a part of the Broadway Baptist Church Lenten reflection series. To sign up to receive other reflections throughout Lent click Here.
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