Taking ashes to the street
Kate Sprutta Elliott
Feb 11, 2013 
8 CommentsWhere I live, February can be a harsh month: snow mixed with freezing rain and raw wind. Winter drags on even as the days get longer. It seems like spring will never get here. After months of dirty snow and bare branches, I long for the green of leaves and grass again. On top of that, this week is the beginning of the season of Lent, a somber time.
Then I read the newspaper these days and see how many people are desperate for peace for themselves, their neighborhoods, and the world, but it seems impossible to attain. There is violence in our communities and across the oceans–armed conflict in so many places, including the city where I live. I long for a word of hope and I think many people do. As communities of faith, can we offer a sign of something transcendent, of God’s love and forgiveness?
Over the last few years, some congregations here in the Chicago area have taken to distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday in public locations–outdoors at train stations and in parks. In the cold slush on crowded city streets, you can see pastors and lay ministers in stoles and sometimes cassocks or albs (depending on the Christian franchise) offering passers-by the marking of their foreheads with ashes. Some offer to say a prayer with them.
It’s a very public display of our faith and a reminder of the season of Lent. Some folks are surprised (and maybe a little appalled—that sort of thing belongs in a church building!) but it amazes me how many folks are open to it. Some are lapsed Catholics (there’s a lot of that demographic here in Chicago) and some people only vaguely know what ashes mean. In some cases, it leads to conversation or an invitation to stop by for worship.
What do you think? Would you think it was weird if someone you didn’t know asked you if you wanted ashes? Would you be offended? Can this be a way of bringing Jesus out of the church building and into the communities where people live and work? Or is this the latest liturgical fad? What will you do this Lent to express your faith?
Kate Elliott is editor of Gather magazine.
Comments (8)
What a great idea to share a blessing with strangers. Ashes on the forehead are not only for the recipient but also for everyone who sees them.
Think it is great to bring a faith observance out of a church building. Also this could be done on the hand if someone did not want on their forehead, I think.
While I was working on this blog, my colleague Terri Lackey sent me this website: http://ashestogo.org/ Check out the photos from around the country!
I will not have ashes put on my forehead. I do not think this is necessary to express my faith. I express my faith by the way I live and how I help others.
Some folks have wondered why we do ashes at the beginning of Lent. The ELCA worship team has a nice explanation here: http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Learning-Center/FAQs/Imposition-of-Ashes.aspx
Three observations. Many understand the ashes as an outward sign of their sinfulness and a witness to their need of repentance. Coming in the form of the cross, the same cross that is marked on our foreheads at baptism (and again as we are laid into the ground at death), the ashen cross can be quite powerful in reminding us of our every day opportunity to live anew in the promises of our baptism.
I was especially moved one Ash Wednesday when I observed our pastor, a woman, mark the forehead of her young daughter and say those familiar words, remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. To say those words to your child, a child you gave birth to …. it was so poignant. Even the love of a mother cannot stop the inevitable, yet because of our mothering God, new life will be ours.
And one final observation. I especially appreciate the rhythm of making ashes from the palm branches used the year before on Passion Sunday. What was celebratory and full of praise is made humble.
LINDA, excellent observations, all! At our church we recently began a new Ash Wednesday practice, that of washing off the ashes with water immediately after receiving them. They say it’s supposed to represent baptism washing away your sins/sinful nature, but I really feel it defeats the whole purpose of reminding us that we are in need of saving in the first place. PLUS since its in the evening, then you aren’t witnessing all day by having the cross on your forehead. When I was a kid everyone got their ashes in the morning, and then all day you had the opportunity to see other people identified as Christians (Catholics, Lutherans, whatever) at school, work, the grocery store, the fast-food place, gas station, etc. It was both humbling and a good reminder that all those people (the guy who cut you off in traffic, the lady taking too long in line, the kid who screwed up your dinner order, etc.) were ALSO Christians. It gave you a reminder of the big picture and what was really important. It made everyone treat everyone else nicer, even if only temporarily. Also it was a GREAT conversation starter/witnessing tool for non-Christians who’d say “Do you know you have something on your forehead?” and then you could explain what it is and why you have it. Having the ashes immediately washed from your forehead seems too much like, “Wow that’s a distressing thought… MOVING ON!…” to hurry and be done with it. I have a similiar complaint with the Confession & Forgiveness in our church… the bulletin says, “pause for quiet reflection” and you’re supposed to be thinking of your particular sins and asking God’s forgiveness… our Pastor (a hurried sort) does not pause more than 3 seconds ~ seriously, I’ve counted. I can never get past “Father God, please… ” before he goes on to the next part. WHY? If I have to remember my sins in order to ask for them to be forgiven, this is certainly not being accomplished in Pastor’s desire to keep things “on schedule” with “no awkward pauses” or “empty places” in the service. I thought that’s where God did most of His work!! Does anyone else share this experience?
Silence in worship … some seem quite afraid of it! I was once a member of a large congregation that had three pastors, each with a different approach to that portion of the Confession that invites worshipers into silent reflection. One would barely pause at all. Another (the only woman among the three) would wait until all became silent … and then wait a good time beyond that. I always appreciated that! I sometimes think that we are frightened to be silent, because if we are silent, we might actually hear God talking to us and then it’s not so easy to ignore God and do what we want instead. I’ve not heard of the practice of washing away the ashes immediately. It does seem to defeat the purpose, doesn’t it?