Ash Wednesday
March 5 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Ash Wednesday Services
Begin the season of Lent at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. We gather for worship, Holy Communion and the distribution of ashes to remember the grace of Jesus Christ.
On Ash Wednesday, Lent begins with a solemn call to repentance as we begin our journey to the baptismal waters of Easter. Now is the acceptable time to return to the Lord.
During Lent the people of God are given a time to reflect on the meaning of their baptism in Christ’s death and resurrection. The sign of ashes suggests our human mortality and frailty. What seems like an ending is really an invitation to make each day a new beginning, in which we are washed in God’s mercy and forgiveness. With the cross on our brow, we long for the spiritual renewal that flows from the springtime Easter feast to come.
The Administration of Ashes The association of ashes with repentance goes back over 3000 years and is mentioned frequently in Scripture (Joshua 7:6, Samuel 4:12, 2 Samuel 1:2 & 15:32, Job 2:12 and 16:15, Jeremiah 25:34, Lamentations 2:10, Ezekiel 27:30, Jonah 3:6, etc.). The Christian practice of administering ashes as a symbol of repentance is first mentioned 110 AD, making it one of the oldest-known customs in all of Christianity. The Church Season of Lent is a season of repentance and so understandably, the association with ashes became especially strong during Lent. By the 12th Century, the first day of Lent always included the imposition of ashes – made in the Sign of the Cross to remind us that those sins are forgiven in the Cross of Christ and to remind us of our Baptism, where we also received forgiveness and the Sign of the Cross was also made on our forehead. This custom of administering ashes on this day was so foundational that by the late middle ages, the day became universally known as “Ash Wednesday.” The ancient custom has two important meanings: We are sinful, unclean, and worthy of death (“to ashes you shall return”, Genesis 3:19), but we have forgiveness of sins in the precious Cross of Christ (the imposition is made in that Sign, also reminding us of our Baptism when the Sign of the Cross was also made on our forehead, assuring us of forgiveness that is ours in Christ). It is thus a symbol of both repentance and faith, of contrition and absolution, of the death we deserve and the life we received and continue to receive by grace.
