the moment of surrender (reflections on Ash Wednesday)

I walked into the wilderness this morning.  I went with Tom Davis, Pete O'lean, and 2 of Tom's kids, Hayden and Grace, to the 7am Eucharist and imposition of ashes service at Grace Church & St. Stephen's, an Anglican church in downtown Colorado Springs.  I'll go again this evening to worship with my own community, Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

This season of Lent can be a rich and nourishing experience of spiritual growth as we fast and pray for 40 days before Easter.  And it's not just for Catholics (as Q102.7 in Colorado Springs seems to think).  Many Christians of many denominations, including Orthodox, Anglicans, Episcopals, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Methodist, and even some nondenominational evangelical churches, recognize this sacred holiday.

As I woke this morning, ready to enter the Lenten season, I was thinking about the things I would 'give up.'  A lot of Christians choose 1 thing to give up for the 40 days, maybe chocolate, maybe TV, maybe coffee.  The Orthodox generally have a wine, oil, meat, dairy, and egg fast on the weekdays, with allowance made for fish and wine on the weekends.  These are important practices, indeed.  But another point is to take certain things on, not just casting other things off.  Regular prayer, Scripture reading, and contemplation are important practices in this time.  All of this allows us to go with Jesus into the wilderness and surrender to the good and perfect things that God (not the world!) offers us.

I woke up, too, with these lyrics in my head from 'Moment of Surrender' off of U2's forthcoming album, No Line on the Horizon:

I was speeding off the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down till the pain will stop

At the moment of surrender
A vision of a visibility
I did not notice the passers by
And they did not notice me

The point is not to speed through life.  The point is not to build our own platforms, to work for our own visibility.  The point is to live with a vision of the stations of the cross.  This is the moment of surrender.  Yet again taking our lead form the Orthodox, this 'moment' is ongoing.  The Orthodox refer to repentance with the Greek word metanoia.  It is not a one-time, aisle-walking, repeated-prayer.  It is a daily turning to God.  This is the moment that Lent leads us into.

If the church calendar, liturgical traditions, and specifically the practice of Lent are new but interesting to you, click here for more resources.

Comments

[John McCollum]

A fair number of Vineyard people celebrate it too.

[Chris Ridgeway]

Ash Wednesday is something I'm way new to since hitting seminary. Last year was the first service I had ever participated in: first time I had been "ashed" or what have you.

This year, I made it point to attend.

I'm still uncertain what I think about certain Lenten practices... but the theme of Ash Wednesday--dust to dust--I find essential and comforting.

I realized that in my own way in the last 10 years, I've made this a part of my own spiritual formation, and then passed it on the church. My "practice" had been to go semi-regularly to a cemetary, walk the rows of headstones, and pray. I found it a remarkably comforting and confronting time... remembering that this is where I will end up: in the ground. Having God present with me, it really resets my view of him, and of my priorities.

It became central enough to me that I'd take other friends or mentorees with me occasionally to experience the same thing. And originally, it was passed to me from a long-ago mentor.

So in some way we had been passing along the same formational plank that Ash Wednesday carries.

I'm still in the process of evaluating the more liturgical/church calendar/"high church" events that I had not been familiar before. Some I will learn from, but still am not inclined to bring into the life of the church. But Ash Wednesday I like.

[Charles P. Squanto]

the lyrics go:

At the moment of surrender
Of vision over visibility
...