Ash Wednesday and Lent

The "kick-off" (or "lay-off") of the Lenten season is Ash Wednesday. This day gets its name from the ashes that are used to make an imprint of the cross on the foreheads of worshipers. And because of the traditional abstinence of items during Lent, the day before Ash Wednesday has come to be known as Fat Tuesday (also Shrove Tuesday, Carnival, Fasching, or Mardi Gras-take your pick, they all mean the same thing).

The imposition of ashes signifies our sorrow over our sins that made it necessary for Christ to suffer. Ashes were often a sign of penitence in the Old Testament (the residents of Nineveh in Jonah 3 are a prime example). The ashes also remind us that we are from dust and ashes and to dust and ashes we will return (Genesis 3:19).

I know of one Lutheran congregation that adds a twist to this tradition. After the worshipers receive the ashes, they wash them off with water from the baptismal font as they leave church. This signifies our sins washed away in our baptism into Christ (Romans 6).

Lent is that forty day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter-including Holy Week. If you were to count the actual days, you would find more than forty. Discrepancy? No. The early church believed that Sundays were a weekly celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord. Thus, the Sundays during Lent are considered "Sundays IN Lent" not "Sundays OF Lent." (The Eastern Church, which calls this season the Great Lent, skips over Saturdays and Sundays in calculating its length. Therefore the Great Lent always begins on Clean Monday, the eighth Monday before Easter-using, of course, the eastern date of Easter.)

Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.

During Lent, a cross may be placed in the sanctuary. At Salem, the cross is made from the Christmas tree used the previous Christmas, denoting the purpose Jesus came to earth.

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