Ash Wednesday 2003.
Ash Wednesday: 5th March, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Today is a day of solemn observance. We start today on the forty days of Lenten preparation for the great events of Good Friday and Easter Day. This is a time to consider change. This is a time to consider turning around. This is a time to consider starting again, starting afresh, beginning with the basics.
So what is basic? The basic is God. What we are doing today on this Wednesday is stepping outside our normal routine to acknowledge that in some way a connection with this God is important to us, important for us.
So traditionally this has been a day of fasting and abstinence for all except the very old and the very young, or those who are ill. We are asked on this day and to a lesser extent on the succeeding Fridays of Lent to have a mind for what we eat and drink. Externals yes, but important points of recollection. We are asserting by this care in a simple matter of what might be eaten that this is a potential signpost towards something of more significance. If something like this can be of help, and that is the wisdom of the centuries, then it is worth a try.
Traditionally too this is a time of the year when we change the appearance of our churches. We are meant immediately to look around and to take notice. Firstly, things are simpler – the extras are reduced . The externals in the church are different. All the pictures and statues are veiled. All these friends will happily emerge again at Easter, but our visual pleasure in them is for a time put aside. We have changed the liturgical colours to those of this penitential season. The music is focused and simple.
Also traditionally today there is the imposition of the ashes. These are ashes which have come from the palm crosses that we have been offered the previous Palm Sunday. We may share in this very particular and striking action and everyone present may do this. It is not an act of despair, but rather one of clear-eyed hope. In this simple and humbling act of bowing our heads and having the cross marked upon our brows, we join across the many centuries in accepting the reminder of our mortality. Our ultimate reliance is on God, rather than any resources of our own.
The hope comes from the material used and the symbols invoked. In using the Palm Sunday fronds and marking that sign of the cross in the same way and the same place that is done at baptism, there remains a clear statement of hope and grace, despite all. In that context of ultimate hope, together we acknowledge that in so many ways we have as individuals and as a whole world managed to get things very wrong. Do we need reminders of this at this time in world affairs? For this we are sorry.
The yearly cycle gives us the chance each year to consider this in the context of a God who loves us and who has in Jesus Christ encouraged us into a new and much more fruitful relationship. As the traditional collect puts it clearly, just in case we should not get the message:
Nothing that God has made is hated, no matter how great the separation. The God of all mercy is offering new hearts and a complete setting aside of all those things for which we are sorry, and know full well that could be better.
We will leave the church with a mark in ash on our foreheads, with the traditional words "Remember that you are dust and unto dust you will return" still sounding in our ears. However, somehow in this context that has the potential to become an action that brings with it a quiet reassurance and a clear encouragement to have another go, to try again.
That is all what Ash Wednesday is about.
Take the opportunity to consider the connection with God again, according to your circumstances. Consider again the tradition patterns of following Jesus at this time. Consider again what we eat and drink and when. Consider again our response in generosity to the needs of others. And above all, work on that which we ourselves know will develop a prayerful connection between ourselves and God. And be thankful.
The Lord be with you.
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