{"id":2393,"date":"2023-02-22T07:24:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T12:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2393"},"modified":"2023-02-22T07:24:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T12:24:33","slug":"ash-wednesday-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/22\/ash-wednesday-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Ash Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
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If you\u2019ve been a Morning Reflections reader for a few years, you know that on Ash Wednesday we typically use a Q&A format to address some of the questions associated with this first day of Lent.\u00a0 What\u2019s different this year?\u00a0 Check out the section that deals with the special topic we\u2019ll be pursuing between now and Easter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
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What exactly is Lent?<\/strong><\/em>
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The word comes from the Old English term for \u201clengthen.\u201d\u00a0 As Easter approaches, the amount of daylight grows longer.\u00a0

More than a thousand years ago, followers of Jesus began to set aside the 40 days before Easter as a kind of annual spiritual journey \u2013 an opportunity to reconnect with God in specific ways.\u00a0

This year Easter Sunday is April 9.\u00a0 If you do the math, you\u2019ll discover there are actually 46 days between February 22 and April 9.\u00a0 The six \u201cextra\u201d days represent the six Sundays during Lent.\u00a0 Some Christians treat these Sundays as \u201clittle Easters\u201d \u2013 they are like rest stops on the journey in which some folks choose step back, for 24 hours, from their Lenten commitments.\u00a0
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By Lenten commitment, do you mean giving something up?<\/strong><\/em>
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Yes, a number of people choose to give up something for Lent.\u00a0 Think of taking something out of your backpack before beginning a 40-day hike.\u00a0 \u201cI choose not to carry this around with me for the next six weeks.\u201d\u00a0

As we noted yesterday, during the Middle Ages it was common for Christians to give up meat, fish, eggs, and butter throughout Lent.\u00a0 Nowadays it\u2019s more typical for Westerners to surrender one of those things that can so easily become addictive \u2013 perhaps soda, coffee, chocolate, cigarettes, television, social media, or video games.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take much for us to realize that these are probably things we could and should surrender for far longer than 40 days.\u00a0
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Can Lent also be a time to \u201ctake on\u201d a new habit or practice?<\/strong><\/em>
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Absolutely.\u00a0 The balance, in fact, is quite healthy.\u00a0 Just as we leave something behind on this spiritual journey, we also pick up a new perspective or behavior or commitment.\u00a0

For you that might be an accelerated pattern of personal prayer or Bible reading.\u00a0 It could mean writing a daily thank-you note to 40 different people or choosing to offer a special word of encouragement to someone every day, especially concerning the \u201creopening\u201d of our lives after several years of pandemic restrictions.\u00a0 It might mean pursuing a specific plan to serve the poor.\u00a0 The options are endless.
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Will the Morning Reflections have a special Lenten focus this year?<\/strong><\/em>
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Yes.\u00a0 Beginning tomorrow and going through Good Friday, each day we\u2019ll spotlight one of the Bible\u2019s \u201c3:16\u201d verses.\u00a0 That means we\u2019ll zero in on 32 of the Old or New Testament texts that happen to fall on the 16th<\/sup> verse of the third chapter.
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I readily admit this approach has a number of potential pitfalls.\u00a0 First, there\u2019s nothing mystical about the designation \u201c3:16.\u201d\u00a0 Chapters and verses weren\u2019t part of any of the original biblical documents.\u00a0 They were first added by Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton in A.D. 1227 to make it easier to locate particular texts.\u00a0 Thus it\u2019s entirely arbitrary that \u201cfor God so loved the world he gave his only Son\u201d turned out to be John 3:16.\u00a0
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Since that verse has been widely revered as a capsule summary of the Good News, and since it\u2019s been displayed on placards at countless sporting events (not to mention on the face paint of players like Tim Tebow), \u201c3:16\u201d has almost become a Christian symbol.\u00a0 Interestingly \u2013 and no, I don\u2019t put any stock in so-called Bible Numerology \u2013 a number of other \u201c3:16\u201d texts also happen to make significant theological statements.\u00a0 Therefore, we\u2019ll use those seemingly arbitrary numbers to direct us into some worthy Lenten discussions.\u00a0 No matter what, it will be easier than usual to remember the biblical addresses of those texts.\u00a0 They’re all 3:16s.\u00a0\u00a0
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Of course, \u201cgood Bible study\u201d isn\u2019t done one verse at a time.\u00a0 It\u2019s never wise or appropriate to tear a single statement away from its original setting.\u00a0 As the old saying goes, \u201cA text without a context is a pretext.\u201d Therefore we will also do our best to acknowledge the paragraph, chapter, and entire book that surrounds each \u201c3:16.\u201d\u00a0
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With those safeguards in mind, it will be a joy to pursue this Lenten journey with you.
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But isn\u2019t Lent just for Catholics?<\/strong><\/em>
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In truth, these special days are celebrated across the entire Christian spectrum.\u00a0 But since they got traction during the Middle Ages, their association with Catholicism has been particularly long and strong.
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What do the ashes mean?<\/strong><\/em>

Many followers of Jesus smear ashes on their foreheads in the shape of the cross on this first day of Lent.\u00a0 This tradition reflects a number of images from Scripture.\u00a0

There we learn that life is fragile (“ashes to ashes and dust to dust”).\u00a0 We recall the ashes of incinerated sacrifices: our surrender of something we count valuable in order to gain something even more valuable – a heart that is turned toward God.\u00a0 And we remember that people in Bible times, in order to express extreme anguish over the condition of their souls, would sometimes sit in sackcloth and ashes.
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One poignant Catholic tradition is to incinerate the palm leaves used in the prior year’s Palm Sunday service, and to keep them for use on Ash Wednesday.\u00a0

This day is essentially a time to remember not only that life can be hard, but that it\u2019s really <\/em>hard to try living apart from a relationship with God.
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What if I completely blow my Lenten commitments?<\/strong><\/em>
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You won\u2019t be the first person.\u00a0 Or the last.\u00a0

Always remember:\u00a0 God won\u2019t love you more if you think you \u201csucceed\u201d in following him.\u00a0 And God won\u2019t love you less if you fall flat on your face.\u00a0

What comes, after all, at the end of the season of Lent?\u00a0 We arrive at the cross, where Jesus died for our sins and failures.\u00a0

And then comes Easter with its assurance that the worst thing that ever happened to the best Person who ever lived will ultimately bring about the best things that can ever happen to us<\/em>.

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To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0If you\u2019ve been a Morning Reflections reader for a few years, you know that on Ash Wednesday we typically use a Q&A format to address some of the questions associated with this first day of Lent.\u00a0 What\u2019s different this year?\u00a0 Check out the section that deals with the special topic we\u2019ll be… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,411],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-316-verses","tag-ash-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}