Kara Slade: I like to say that Ash Wednesday is one of
the realest days of the church year. It's a time when we can name clearly the powers
of sin and death in our lives, and also hear the good news of how Jesus Christ defeats
sin and death in his cross.
Brian Jemmott: It's a reminder of our mortality, where we
also are reminded about whose we are.
Ben Maddisson: Ash Wednesday, it's a day of solemn commemoration.
It's one of the few times in the year where we stop and we think about what it means to
be mortal, what it means to have a life that has a beginning and an end. We spend a lot
of time not thinking about the end. So Ash Wednesday's a good day to stop, to contemplate
that, and to mark it as a solemn occasion, a solemn fast day.
Martin Oguike: The church celebrates Ash Wednesday as a day
of penitence and the beginning of Lent, which will last for 40 days. So on Ash Wednesday,
the ash is made from the palms that were dissolved from Palm Sunday the previous year, turned
into ashes, and used to dab on the forehead of people.
Brian Jemmott: It's kind of like the same gesture that is
done at baptism, the making of the sign of the cross on the forehead. So that was also
a chance for us to be reminded that we belong to Christ.
Kara Slade: One of the things that you'll hear on Ash
Wednesday, one of the first things that you'll hear is what they call an invitation to a
Holy Lent. And the priest will say, "I invite you in the name of the church the observance
of a Holy Lent, by self examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial, and by
reading and meditating on God's Holy Word." So Ash Wednesday is also a kickoff, or a beginning,
to the season of Lent. But we do so in the context of naming those powers of sin and
death.
Emily Mellott: So when you go to a church that's celebrating
Ash Wednesday, getting ashes on your forehead is usually part of a larger worship service.
There's prayer and Scripture in an Episcopal church, usually Communion as well.
Terry Jonathan: My first experience at an Ash Wednesday service
was actually last year at a joint service put on by the church I was working at for
my field placement through the seminary. What for me was perhaps the second most physical
sacramental experience that I've had in the church, after the Eucharist, a way of showing
the Lord's grace to people through the physical touch of receiving the ashes on their forehead,
saying to them, "From dust you are and from dust you will return."
Emily Mellott: Remember that you are dust and to dust you
shall return.
Brian Jemmott: Dust you are and to dust you shall return.
Martin Oguike: To dust you shall return because you have
come from the dust.
Kara Slade: Remember that you are dust and to dust you
shall return.
Ben Maddisson: Remember that you are dust and to dust you'll
return. And we say that not because we're being morbid. It is very metal. But because
we name the reality of life, that it has a beginning and an end. And one of the things
is that when we do it together, when we name that reality as a community, that it also
speaks to the reality that maybe death isn't the end. That it might be the end of now,
but it won't be the end of forever. It's a good way to start Lent, with our mortality,
because it's going to give Jesus something to beat on Easter.
Brian Jemmott: So Ash Wednesday for me really took on a very
serious significance in terms of the practice of piety and the observance of a holy time
of penitence. And reminding ourselves that we need to do some self examination for a
significant period, 40 days being that time, to give us an opportunity to recommit, reconsecrate
ourselves to who we are as children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ.
Terry Jonathan: I can say that with that, the Eucharist and
the confirmation that I received last year, those three in my mind constitute a very physical
form of God's grace in the church.
Martin Oguike: No matter how sinful we are, we are acceptable
to God. God welcomes us. If we repent, he will forgive us our sins.
Kara Slade: And this is a reminder of our mortality and
the fact that we are flawed, we are fragile. We are in this world as people who need a
Savior. And so Ash Wednesday is really one of my favorite days of the year, because we
also hear that great passage from St. Paul. "For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God." This is really at the heart of what
we're doing on Ash Wednesday, that we remember that we are sinners, and yet that Jesus Christ
has taken on our sin so that we may be made righteous.
Emily Mellott: And when ashes are imposed, which is a fancy
Latin derived word for somebody putting them on you, they are blessed to be something that
helps us remember that God has created us from dust, from essentially nothing, and that
we return to that. And then our whole lives are embraced in that creative power of God,
from nothing to nothing, and all that we are is embraced in that, in God's creation and
love.
Emily Mellott: Sometimes you won't feel the ashes on your
forehead. Sometimes you'll get a little tickle and trickle of the ashes, which I always find
a little entertaining when it happens to me, because I feel fully embraced in the symbol
when that happens to me.
Emily Mellott: You can wear the ashes as long as they'll
stay on your forehead or you can wash them off right away. One of the interesting things
about receiving the ashes is, at least in the Episcopal church, we actually read the
Gospel in which Jesus tells his followers not to show off that they're repenting. But
instead, to reconcile themselves with God, to get right with God privately, not as a
way of gaining public acclaim. So I tell people that if you are feeling really proud to have
those ashes on your forehead because it shows that you went to church, that's probably an
indication that you should wash them off. If you are maybe a little uncomfortable about
them, try wearing them for a little while, see what happens. It's a way, because the
ashes are really there to help us remember. To help us remember that our messiest selves
are welcomed and embraced by God, and that God is there to turn our messiest selves into
all of God's goodness when we turn to God and ask for that help.
Emily Mellott: On Ash Wednesday, I will often forget I have
them on my face. And I'll happen to glance into a mirror when I'm washing my hands or
rub my forehead for something, and I will remember. I'll remember that I had that moment
when someone reached out to me and said in God's love, "You are dust, to dust you will
return." No failure is too great for God. No mess is beyond what God can create life
out of.
Emily Mellott: I personally love Ash Wednesday because it
invites me to say nothing that's wrong with me is something that I can't bring to God
and say, "I want this to change." And Ash Wednesday is the gateway into the six weeks
or so of Lent, in which we really get to focus on the opportunity to change, to come closer
to God, to be healed by God. All of those things that are too painful for us to handle
on our own. We bring our failures, our flaws, the ways we feel we don't measure up to ourselves,
to God, to one another. We bring those to God for six weeks, and it's a place where
all of those things can be held and forgiven and released, making us free to celebrate
the love of God and the new gift of life that comes at Easter.