Ash Wednesday
“Call a solemn assembly…”
Joel 2:15
When Joel issued the call for a “solemn assembly”, he did not issue that call to a bunch of Baptists! We are not very practiced at solemn assemblies. When we gather we love to talk with one another and our sanctuary is most often filled with lots of energized conversation and laughter. And that is not a bad thing!
But there comes a time in our shared spiritual journey for a solemn assembly.
The Lenten journey invites us to take a serious inventory of our relationship with God and one another, and Ash Wednesday is the solemn beginning to that journey. This service reminds us that confession, repentance, reconciliation, and resolve to live differently are vital to the Christian life. The tone of the service will be a somber one, for it is no less than a call to re-align our scattered lives with the unified life of God.
So we will call a solemn assembly. We will hold the laughter and casual conversation for another time. We will share communion together and receive the sign of the cross through the imposition of ashes, the reminder of our mortality. As we gather God will be waiting for us, probably in silence. For we share the journey, not only with one another, but with God. Let the journey begin.
-Pastor David