Something Different
Day one hundred seventy-three/365. It's not part of the customs with which I grew up. But, last year I did it for the first time: placing ashes on the foreheads or hands of people who come to the altar rail. The idea, according to tradition, is to remember that human beings have a tendency to rebel against God, to make a train wreck of our relationships. That's part of our human condition. In response, we need to repent -- to change direction.
Baby boomers and Gen-X people are having trouble with an emphasis on sin. It tends to make more sense to them that God heals our brokenness, our illness.
I don't know if the "imposition of ashes" will outlast the older generations. But, in an area populated by many Roman Catholics, Ash Wednesday is meaningful to folks at my church.
So, I've learned a new custom. "Repent and believe the Gospel."
Something Different
Day one hundred seventy-three/365. It's not part of the customs with which I grew up. But, last year I did it for the first time: placing ashes on the foreheads or hands of people who come to the altar rail. The idea, according to tradition, is to remember that human beings have a tendency to rebel against God, to make a train wreck of our relationships. That's part of our human condition. In response, we need to repent -- to change direction.
Baby boomers and Gen-X people are having trouble with an emphasis on sin. It tends to make more sense to them that God heals our brokenness, our illness.
I don't know if the "imposition of ashes" will outlast the older generations. But, in an area populated by many Roman Catholics, Ash Wednesday is meaningful to folks at my church.
So, I've learned a new custom. "Repent and believe the Gospel."