NOTES FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

February 2012

 

NOTES FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK

  

"Mardi Gras." Most of us are familiar with the aforementioned term, Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. Some of us have even attended the Mardi Gras that takes place in the city of New Orleans, LA that culminates on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It refers to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. For many, Mardi Gras is a time of raucous debauch, partying and all forms of sinful pleasure before the season of Lent begins. To be sure, it s a rather interesting and ironic practice.

 

 

Perhaps what many of us don't know is that, in its history, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is also known as "Shrove Tuesday." Its special observance takes us back to the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, people were encouraged to go to church before the beginning of Lent to confess their sins and "be shriven." Shriven is an Old English word meaning "freed from guilt." Hardly Mardi Gras. Consequently, the day before Lent begins became known as Shrove Tuesday.

 

  

The first day of the Lenten season is, as you know, Ash Wednesday, so called because of the medieval ceremony of blessing and distributing ashes on this day. The ashes used were the charred remains of the previous year's Palm Sunday branches. During the Middle Ages this custom spread throughout the church and continues in churches to this day. In worship services, including ours, on Ash Wednesday, those attending worship will have a cross marked with ashes on their foreheads to help them remember Jesus' suffering, death and own mortality on our account.

 

  

Ash Wednesday, in a deep and profound way, calls attention to our slavery to sin and our need for God's grace. As we acknowledge our dependence on God, we are able to move forward through this Lenten period of spiritual rebirth and renewal.

 

 

This year, ASH WEDNESDAY is FEBRUARY 22, 2012. In our midweek Lenten worship services I will be leading us under the theme: NOT OUR PLAN.  HIS PLAN. The special sermon series I'll be preaching is based upon Matthew 26:1-28. As together we hear and read anew Matthew's account of the Passion of Christ, we will come to see that "our plans" and "His plan" are bridged by bitter irony.

 

I invite you to read the account on your own in personal preparation for this sacred season. Find a quiet place where you live and bring nothing else with you but your Bible. Read slowly. Give the Holy Spirit a place and space to touch your heart with His Word. And then, when it is time...the day after Mardi Gras; the day after Shrove Tuesday, make your way to the house of the Lord for repose, repentance, renewal, and praise. Please come, not only on Ash Wednesday, but on all the Wednesdays of Lent. You will be blessed in so doing. Bring a relative or friend. Remember, it is "not our plan. It is His plan...of salvation for us." Worship time: 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday during the season of Lent.

 

 

 

Until next month,

Pastor TK