This past Ash Wednesday (just over two weeks ago now) held a new series of firsts for me as a pastor. First time planning, leading, and preaching at an Ash Wednesday service. I had never been involved in one before from the non-congregation side. Nor did Unidos por Cristo have one last year; Ash Wednesday seems to be about where most Hispanic Protestants draw the line as one service that is still too Catholic. (I blogged about the Protestant/Catholic divide in Hispanic Christianity before: http://pastoraheather.blogspot.com/2011/01/great-divide-in-church.html ). In Nicaragua, my co-worker (who is Anglican) and I went to Mass in order to attend an Ash Wednesday service; there were no Protestant services.
At Orange for the past couple years, the responsibility of the Ash Wednesday service has fallen to the Associate Pastor. Since it was all brand-new to me, I began by looking up recent Ash Wednesday bulletins to see which Scripture lessons and hymns had been chosen in the past couple services. Between the bulletins and the suggestions in the United Methodist Book of Worship and the United Methodist Music and Worship Planner, I figured out which readings, hymns, and prayers I wanted to use. Starting about two weeks before Ash Wednesday I began spending time in the sanctuary and sacristy area seeing what items were available to put on the altar and what looked best. I found ashes from at least three different years plus last year’s palms (which I did not burn since there were plenty of ashes already)! And I found a beautiful three-piece candle set which I arranged around the bowl of ashes on the altar.
Another component was the schedule. I knew that before I became a pastor, both as a grad student and as a teacher, I had rarely been able to make my home church’s 7 p.m. Ash Wednesday service. There was often a conflict of some sort such that I had to find a church with an early morning service. So I suggested that we hold two services, one at 7 a.m. and one at 7 p.m. Folks liked my idea and the senior pastor just wanted to make sure I could do the 7 a.m. one by myself!
The last piece was the sermon. Last year’s bulletin had it listed simply as a “meditation” with no title and I repeated that for this year. However, I was stuck on what to say, whether to focus on sin or mortality or spiritual disciplines or repentance, etc. Inspiration (a.k.a, the Holy Spirit) struck when I taught Confirmation class the Sunday before. The topic was Epiphany and baptism and one student asked, “What about people who are baptized as babies or kids but who aren’t Christians as adults?” That excellent question became the starting point for my meditation about how John Wesley believed we can backslide and fall away from God. He did not believe “once saved, always saved.” Lent is a time when we’re intentional about turning back towards God and away from whatever is drawing us away from God. While the Gospel reading (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) talked about doing your pious works in secret, I explained that while we don’t boast about whatever we’re giving up or adding for Lent, we do live in community and sometimes we need that community to hold us accountable. So please ask someone next to you or one of your pastors if you’d like them to follow up with you during Lent to see how your spiritual discipline is going. We’re not in this alone.
Both services seemed to go well. I was at the church by 6:35 a.m. unlocking doors and turning on lights. 20 people came to the 7 a.m. service, including 7 under the age of 18. I promised we’d be done by 7:30 so folks could get on their to way to work or school and I was invited by a couple folks over to the coffee shop across the street because they knew I didn’t have anything I had to do at the church at 7:30 in the morning! I took a nap in the youth suite in the afternoon. 90 people came to the 7 p.m. service. Many people said that the meditation and the services were meaningful and holy. Two folks asked for accountability for their Lenten disciplines. I arrived home about 8:45 p.m. ready for bed!
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