My wife and I enjoyed pancakes and a good time with friends at our church last night, but we will not be attending the Ash Wednesday Service tonight. We do observe Lent and part of that of course is remembering our sins and our mortality. That is what is behind the use of ashes- we were created from the earth. When we are buried we return to the earth. Clergy say "Ashes to ashes" and sprinkle dirt on our caskets at the grave. Remembering that, ashes are smudged on the foreheads of worshipers during the Ash Wednesday Services. This is the symbolic beginning of a period of Lent which includes fasting, self denial and spiritual discipline in preparation for Good Friday. All of that is beneficial (it is like Advent before Christmas). The ritual is not a Sacrament or Ordinance. It dates back to maybe the 8th Century. The use of ashes as a sign of sorrow or repentance, however, is found in Scripture.
Isaiah 58:4-6 (New International Version)
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Receiving ashes is a tradition in Catholic type churches. We have known innumerable Roman Catholics who go to get their ashes sometime during the day and then wear them at work. To us, this has always seemed like a ritual done by people as, at best, just something that they do out of religious custom or obligation. Knowing these co-workers, the act never seemed to be evidence of contrition or repentance of sin or awareness of mortality, let alone the beginning of a period of self-denial. Of course, I could be quite mistaken about that. I'm sure there must be exceptions. But it is enough to dissuade me from participating. But the clincher is the fact that the Gospel reading for the Service every year includes these words of Jesus-
16 ‘whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matt 6:16-18
What matters is what is in the heart and mind of the worshiper, not what is on the forehead. The latter can never be a substitute for the former.
