Thoughts for Lent
ASH WEDNESDAY
AM Psalm 95* & 32, 143 • PM Psalm 102, 130
Jonah 3:1-4:11 • Heb. 12:1-14 • Luke 18:9-14
* for the Invitatory
I can find no mention of Ash Wednesday in my Bible. But I found there has been a tradition of imposing ashes as a sign of penitence that predates Jesus. In the Old Testament, Job repents “in dust and ashes,” and there are other associations of ashes and repentance in Esther, Samuel, Isaiah and Jeremia.
By tradition, the ashes that are used for Ash Wednesday are obtained by burning the palms left over from the Palm Sunday celebration of the year before.
The readings for Ash Wednesday 2021 offer us a variety of perspectives to consider for Lent. We read Luke’s telling of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector — “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, he encourages them, as we should also consider, to renew their spiritual vitality — “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.”
Our reading from Jonah is not about his experience with the whale, when he attempted to elude the order of the Lord to take a warning to Nineveh. Here we learn about his mission to Assyria and the great city of Nineveh on the Tigris (today’s Mosul). Jonah delivers the Lord’s warning to Nineveh to repent from its wickedness or to be destroyed. We learn, “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” Jonah becomes angry because the Lord forgives Nineveh and learns, as we should, that it is His call to forgive those who repent.
After a difficult and confusing 2020, this Ash Wednesday can mark for each of us a new focus. We anticipate Spring, light and hope. There is Covid vaccine, social issues and the economy seem to be on the mend. It is a time to be humble, to repent and to renew our spiritual vitality.
Written by Walt Eilers
...who is hopeful to return to in-person church, soon.