Ash Wednesday & Lent: Hit the reset button
Do you like the reset button? I certainly do. Whenever my mac freezes or my entertainment center decides to entertain itself instead of me by acting possessed, I hit the reset button and things begin to move back into place. My mac comes back on and gives me that little chime sound. My entertainment system comes back to life and it is under my control, or at least the control of my remote and things are as they are meant to be again. Wouldn’t it be amazing if life were like that? Actually, I bet Jamie would love it if she could hit a reset button on me sometimes.
In a similar way, Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent are a bit of a reset button experience spiritually. It is a season where we can take stock of our emotions, lives, and our practices and ask the question, “Is this life I a living actually living or am I a slave to it?” Sometimes, daily habits and the regular grind of things become so much in our face that it is all we see. Lent is a season where the church pauses in a very special way, to consider the tragedy of sin and trajectory of the Kingdom.
Sin is truly tragic. It devastates whatever it touches. It distorts and mangles people, their relationships, their hearts and minds. We read in the Scriptures that sin can best be described as death. It is a life-draining, life-sapping, life-extingushing force and it is present in all of us. But thankfully, that isn’t all this season is about. It is also a season about what God intends to do with sin. Namely, to bring the Kingdom of God.
The trajectory of the Kingdom is lovely. It takes what sin has attached itself to and obliterates it’s grip. My dad used to have this bottle full of liquid nitrogen that we could spray on gum that was caught in the carpet. It would freeze the gum and we could chip it away, leaving the the carpet fresh and new but without this gum that had been only moments ago clinging to it. Sin is something that, without the power of God’s love intervening, there is no getting rid of it. But with God’s love, the devistating effects of sin are not only removed but life is put in it’s place. Though Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, Easter concludes it and that conclusion is the resurrection. Resurrection for the Son of God but also resurrection for all those whose hope is in him. Resurrection for our physical bodies one day but resurrection for our spirits today.
The season of Lent is an opportunity to go on a pilgrimage with others. A pilgrimage where we honestly assess our ugliness and where Christ lavishly covers us with the grace of His resurrection. It is a season for sober self-reflection as well as a season of feasting because after all, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! I encourage you to take seriously this season of Lent. If you haven’t been to church in a year, 5 years, or ever, come this Sunday. Come this Sunday, knowing that you are gathering with a bunch of people who also are looking to God for His love and trying to reflect that love toward one another. This isn’t a season for your condemnation or shame, but rather it is a season where we remember that Christ was condemned and shamed for us.
Here are some helpful thoughts as we approach Ash Wednesday:
1. Plan on attending an Ash Wednesday service.
2. Plan on attending a worship service each Sunday during Lent through Easter.
3. Consider giving something up for the season of Lent AND prepare to indulge in it on each Sunday. Sunday’s are feast days! So feast!!!
4. Take home our worship bulletin and use it for reflection and meditation during the week.
For more on the season of lent, check out this document. I pray you are both challenged by the tragedy of sin but that you are caught up with the trajectory of the coming Kingdom of God.
Peace,
Brad
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