I didn't know what to expect for last night's service. An Ash Wednesday service can be different within the same denomination. What I knew going into it was that 1) I wanted to be there because Ash Wednesday is one of those special days in the church calendar that I enjoy and 2) I have enjoyed many of the United Methodist Memes and other cartoons leading up to this day.
On the first point, I grew up in the Episcopal church. We celebrated Ash Wednesday. After graduate school, I taught my first year in a Lutheran school and attended a Methodist church on Long Island. We celebrated Ash Wednesday at both. I enjoyed the Lenten luncheons and devotions at church that year I was teaching at the school. I'm not sure every church I've been in since has focused on Ash Wednesday, but I'm glad for those that do.
On the second point, I've seen cartoons where they show a pastor with a stencil cut out of a formed cross in his hand to put over the person's forehead so that he can get his cross just right. ☺ Having had the opportunity and privilege to put the ashes on folks before, I get that. They can sometimes simply end up looking like smudges.
There were quite a few people last night. So many in fact, that the bread almost gave out during communion time. That's a decent problem to have. Because there were so many people, there was time and space for silence and reflection during the service-- both during the imposition of ashes and during communion. During communion, there was some background worshipful music played.
The bulletin contained explanation and the associate pastor (Rev. Amy Nutt) began with some explanation too. The pastor's (Rev. Rowland Buck) meditation ("Live Lent") on the passage from Joel was realistic in that, as he shared, you have to deal with where you are first. The two main points were: know your place and know God's heart.
Several things blessed me during this service.
- Psalm 51. That is always a powerful Psalm for me. It was on the bulletin and we recited it. I am always reminded of Keith Green's song, "Create in Me a Clean Heart" based on that Psalm.
- I was blessed to watch my daughter have the ashes imposed upon her by the pastor. All the youth were in the service. That was truly a blessing.
- I was blessed to watch each pastor impose the ashes on one another.
- I was blessed during the liturgy for communion. As is typical, the words between the asterisks on the pages in the hymnal were fitting for the occasion. As a visual learner, I would have liked to see them as well as hear them, but I did my best to enjoy simply listening to them.
- I was blessed to watch my daughter take communion from both our pastors.
- I was blessed to take communion from them as well. Usually they allow others to serve and are available for prayer, so it is a nice treat to have them serve. Don't hear me wrong; I appreciate that they allow laity to serve and involve them in this way-- this is a beautiful and wonderful thing. But, I also enjoy being served by them from time to time.
- I was blessed to watch the pastors serve each other communion. And, likely this was something that the pastor didn't even notice, but it caught my attention. The senior pastor had been standing up on one step. And, when the associate pastor was serving him, he stepped down. It may have been simply a move to get closer to the elements. But, I also saw it as a leveling out of things on a bigger playing field too. Whether it was intended to be or not, it gave me a message of intentional teamwork and that rang true in my spirit.
These are my thoughts/reflections from last night's Ash Wednesday service.
It was a blessing and a beautiful beginning to the Lenten Season!
Debra
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