Going Around With A Dirty Face
I am wearing the ashes as I write this: This is the first day of the season of Lent and we start Lent by having our foreheads or hands marked with ashes.
The ashes are created from burnt palm leaves. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem the people cheered him, waving palm leaves. A week later Jesus was crucified and the same people decided that because he was dead he could not be the savior that they had hoped for.
Palm leaves decorate the church on Palm Sunday. When lent starts those palm leaves are burnt and their ash mixed with oil. This is used to anoint the people who are beginning 40 days of preparation before they celebrate the triumph of the resurrection.
In all different parts of the world people are wearing the same sign as I am. They are members of different families of the same faith, but in reality we are all one; members of the family of God. Today I wear the ashes and am a sign of that unity.
The lights were dim in the church; we lined up silently to receive communion and the mark of the humiliation of Christ and of our repentance. All the people in front of me in the line were old like me, some of them frail. The piano played quietly in the background and I thought that none of us needed the ashes to remind us that one day someone will pronounce ‘Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.’ You can forget about that in your forties but it’s hard to avoid when you’re eighty.
Suddenly the people at the back of the line began to sing, strong voices that swelled out of the darkness at the back of the church. I turned and saw that there were younger people behind us.
It seemed to me that my generation is a mighty wave raised up and towering. We finally recognize ourselves and know that we have been influential; we have resisted evil together and gathered all manner of good as we swelled and increased. Now our mighty wave is about to crash and roll splintered on the sands of time. But the voices of the younger people behind represent another wave gathering strength, when we have receded this new wave will stand where we were and tower over all the forces that try to resist. Living water has sprung in the hearts of believers in many different places and streamed over the dry and dusty soil, uniting they have become a might ocean.
The ashes are created from burnt palm leaves. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem the people cheered him, waving palm leaves. A week later Jesus was crucified and the same people decided that because he was dead he could not be the savior that they had hoped for.
Palm leaves decorate the church on Palm Sunday. When lent starts those palm leaves are burnt and their ash mixed with oil. This is used to anoint the people who are beginning 40 days of preparation before they celebrate the triumph of the resurrection.
In all different parts of the world people are wearing the same sign as I am. They are members of different families of the same faith, but in reality we are all one; members of the family of God. Today I wear the ashes and am a sign of that unity.
The lights were dim in the church; we lined up silently to receive communion and the mark of the humiliation of Christ and of our repentance. All the people in front of me in the line were old like me, some of them frail. The piano played quietly in the background and I thought that none of us needed the ashes to remind us that one day someone will pronounce ‘Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.’ You can forget about that in your forties but it’s hard to avoid when you’re eighty.
Suddenly the people at the back of the line began to sing, strong voices that swelled out of the darkness at the back of the church. I turned and saw that there were younger people behind us.
It seemed to me that my generation is a mighty wave raised up and towering. We finally recognize ourselves and know that we have been influential; we have resisted evil together and gathered all manner of good as we swelled and increased. Now our mighty wave is about to crash and roll splintered on the sands of time. But the voices of the younger people behind represent another wave gathering strength, when we have receded this new wave will stand where we were and tower over all the forces that try to resist. Living water has sprung in the hearts of believers in many different places and streamed over the dry and dusty soil, uniting they have become a might ocean.
posted by Jessie Coates at 9:34 PM
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