Lenten Reflections: Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:15-16
15Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
It is time now people, it is time.
Time to put on the dust -- the ashes -- and remember. It is time to remember that we all have sat in the ash heap of our lives at one time. And we will again.
Last year we wrote down all that stuff we just couldn't deal with and nailed it to the cross of forgiveness. The hurts we caused. The wounds we inflicted. Even when we couldn't forgive ourselves we knew the source of forgiveness and we left it there.
Those slips of guilt and anquish were burned. Now they are ashes. And today the reminder of forgiveness is written on us in the ashes of pain.
We weren't alone last Spring. The cross was full of our prayers for forgiveness. And, we shouldn't be alone these 40 days either. The prophet says to call everyone -- babies, children, newlyweds. We need to be together. To hold each other and hold each other up during this time. So that we remember we are dust-crusted and broken and totally and completely loved.
Joel 2:15-16
15Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
It is time now people, it is time.
Time to put on the dust -- the ashes -- and remember. It is time to remember that we all have sat in the ash heap of our lives at one time. And we will again.
Last year we wrote down all that stuff we just couldn't deal with and nailed it to the cross of forgiveness. The hurts we caused. The wounds we inflicted. Even when we couldn't forgive ourselves we knew the source of forgiveness and we left it there.
Those slips of guilt and anquish were burned. Now they are ashes. And today the reminder of forgiveness is written on us in the ashes of pain.
We weren't alone last Spring. The cross was full of our prayers for forgiveness. And, we shouldn't be alone these 40 days either. The prophet says to call everyone -- babies, children, newlyweds. We need to be together. To hold each other and hold each other up during this time. So that we remember we are dust-crusted and broken and totally and completely loved.
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