Ash Wednesday

Intro & Guidance (You’ll only find this here once)

Lent is a brief season when we must take time, seriously, so we can realize the value of our souls to God.

When we consider the trauma experienced multiple times each day to everyone from the individual to whole continents, we may wonder if we have any value to God. The trauma of the last days of Lent, experienced by Jesus, can elicit the same concern., In light of our own experiences, or the brutality laid upon Jesus, a question that might rise up within us may be… “How could God allow this?” These devotions will look at this issue slowly, in a patterned manner, walking us into a consideration of the worth of our souls by looking at how God works.

These devotions move from Wednesday to Wednesday, with a separate set for the last three days before Resurrection Sunday.  You’ll find a poem, a reading to consider, a prayer you may use and then a set of five Scriptures.  You should read all five each Wednesday.  Then read them one at a time on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, each one three times during the day.  Take a break on Sunday.

You’re welcome to use this series as you do your own preparation. If you have a chance, feel free to let me know what you think, any questions or reactions you may have. And be blessed. That’s my hope.

By Grace, Geoff

Ash Wednesday

Ashes… Ashes...GSKohlerIt all turned to ash back in the gardenWhen the rose was stolenBeauty’s withered truth made it an objectAnd the beginners began the awful taskOf living without peace but with demandFor controlAnd control was the lie within the questionThat connived to separate them from LoveControl that was offered and offeredAnd offered again and receivedReceivedUntil, after forty days’ fast the offerWas refusedAnd Love entered againTo dig the earth, to water, to feedTo plant the rose again

March 6

     Why would God allow allthis?  When we look at the heartache all around us – our trauma fillednews feeds daily piling on crisis and dilemma and another and another. But, then as we enter Lent we can look at the story of Jesus and the cruelty ofthe cross and ask even about that, why would God allow this?     We begin with humility.  Humility is the fear of theLord, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge ofGod, and knowing God and the one whom he sent is eternal life.  So, webegin with humility.     Humility is found in the ashes that attach us to ourlimitations, our lack of complete understanding, and our creatureliness. We start with ashes that remind us that we are dust and to dust we shallreturn.  And, that is the truth of our nature, our part in the world thatis as created as we are.  We are only this and not much more except “alittle lower than the angels.”  We have this special gift ofcommunication.     The word “angel” is really a corruption of an old word thatsimply meant messenger. We are a little lower than the messengers of God Wehave this gift of communicating with each other and with God.  And that isthe key to our salvation.  In the beginning God said…  reality, a newthing, that included us. And everything related to each other, but we also wereable to communicate with God.     We communicated until we did not want to hear God, we didnot want to be seen by God, we did not want to answer God.  The questionof the snake in the garden is the question that included an offer ofcontrol.  “You’ll be like God.”  And humanity received the offer andmade the choice to walk away from God’s love in order to feel some control. Our history is centuries of an ache for control, individuals seeking control,countries warring for control, people laying our souls into the hands ofaddictions for control, some sense of control.     But then the Word of God spoke again, a new ancient thing,and Love became sovereign because control was refused.  At the end of hisfast, Jesus was offered control and he turned it down.  With that hecreated and opened the new ancient way of communicating with God, withouttrusting control or expecting a controlling God. That made no sense to people,but some heard, received this new ancient thing and they became children ofGod.     We have come in Lent to hear and to speak.  We’ve cometo ask, why would you allow this? And so we begin with the ashes of humility sowe can admit, again, our limits so we can communicate well.  We remindourselves we have limits and how important it is to communicate with one whodoesn’t seek to control, but to love.

Prayer:Living Lord, heal my soul with the ointment of your grace.  I want to hear you deeply, in the part that resounds when it recognizes truth.  I want that truth to ring like a floating bell leading me on into what you do and how you do it.  I want to learn what it is like to give up control, needing all the answers, to lean into the mystery of your understanding and to follow.  Amen

Read all these Scriptures today. Then read one a day for three times during that day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. And on Sunday, give yourself a break and share a meal with others.

Proverbs22:4     Proverbs 9:10     John17:3     Genesis 3:1-5John 1:1, 12-13