Micro-Epistle Reprint: Ash Wednesday

"Why do I need ashes on my forehead?"  The truth is that we do not need to have ashes on our foreheads, but that we choose to place ashes on our foreheads on the Wednesday which begins the season of Lent, as a sign of our desire to be made right with God.  Lent is a time of repentance, in which we acknowledge our sins before our Heavenly Father, as we ask Him to show us compassion and mercy for the sake of His Son Jesus who died for us.  This sacred day in the life of the Church was originally called "dies cinerum," which is Latin for "Day of Ashes," and it was so named after the practice of placing ashes on the heads of worshippers, as a sign of repentance. The observance of this day, set aside for repentance and prayer, began at least as early as 1091 (the earliest official record that we have of its observance). The practice of placing the ashes on worshippers' foreheads is offered as an outward sign of inward contrition, taken from the ancient Jewish practice of placing ashes on one's head as a form of public penance. The ashes, made in the form of the cross, are a sign of the inward change that is taking place as Christians lay the sins that burden their consciences at the foot of the Cross of Christ, and pray to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God.

 

It is the Holy Spirit, speaking through God's Word, Who brings us to an awareness of our sins and our place under God's wrath. The same Spirit empowers us to repent and to be turned back to God, as the Father grants pardon and remission of our sins for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.  As we hear the Gospel and are granted grace to believe it, we are transformed by its power and restored to God.  The work of repentance is not actually a work of ours at all, but what God brings about in us through the Holy Spirit working in us by His Word.  The forgiveness that is granted to all who believe in Jesus comes to us not on the merit of our confession, but on the basis of Jesus' obedience to the Father. Just as the work of repentance and forgiveness is an activity done by God upon us - in like fashion, these crosses of ashes are an outward sign of what God has done to us and for us. The same ashes which symbolize our repentance and remind us that "we are dust and to dust we shall return," also signify that on the Cross, God has redeemed us from death through the death of His Son. 

    

In Christ Jesus,

Pastor Roser