Home Pastors Page   Christian Education Youth Groups Wednesday All-Stars   Committies / Staff Organizations   Opportunities For Service Opportunities For Worship Activities   Church History Food Pantry Church Calendar		(back) Peace Lutheran Church Newsletter Item Ash Wednesday services with the imposition of Ashes will be held on Wednesday, February 17 at 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Why do we use ashes on Ash Wednesday? What does it mean? During the early centuries of the Church, Lent developed as a joyful time of teaching and preparation for Easter, much as Advent eagerly anticipated Christmas. On Easter--especially the Easter Vigil--Baptism, first Communion and Confirmation were a part of the joyful celebration of our Lord's Resurrection. Repentance was an important part of the Lenten preparation, but not all of it. As time went by, repentance came to be understood as something people must do to earn God's forgiveness. Christians tried to show how guilty and penitent they were. Fasting became a rule, as did other acts in order to earn God's forgiveness. People dressed is sack cloth when they came to worship on the first day of Lent, and when they left the service they poured ashes on their heads--so the name, Ash Wednesday. All of Lent took on the flavor of dread and guilt instead of joyful forgiveness and freedom. Lent became more a preparation for Good Friday than an anticipation of Easter. Later on, ashes as a sign of our repentance and mortality were no longer dumped over worshippers' heads, but were place on their foreheads. For many, it became just a ritual because they had forgotten that certain other time when they were marked on their forehead--at their baptism. Ever since your Baptism, you have a mark on your forehead, the sign of belonging to God's family, the Body of Christ--the Church. It is the sign of the CROSS of Jesus, who died to free you from the guilt of sin and the curse of death and who rose again to life to grant you life eternal. When Christians use ashes on Ash Wednesday, it is not to show how miserable we can make ourselves look, but to remind us that our repentance and forgiveness is based on our Baptism--as is our resurrection from the dead! Therefore, when we are marked with ashes on Ash Wednesday the ashes are made in the sign of the cross. This makes the invisible sign of the cross traced on our foreheads at Baptism visible! We remind ourselves and others that our repentance is acceptable to God, not because we feel so guilty or have repented so fervently, but because Jesus Christ died on the cross for us! Then Lent--which corresponds to the season of Spring--regains its proper meaning of renewal and anticipation of Easter--our Lord's Resurrection, and ours!