Didn’t we just have Christmas? It seems like just yesterday (and truly, it was only a short month ago) when we were taking down Christmas lights and gathering Christmas decorations from around the house. I must admit: we still have a small tub of Christmas decorations sitting in a corner of our house because I haven’t felt like taking it up to the attic. The Christmas turnaround has been especially quick this year, not only because of a relatively early Easter, but also because, on a personal level, time has been warped with the arrival of our baby. As we still see the final holdover houses taking down their Christmas lights, we now gather together to put ashes on our foreheads. As an insurance commercial once said, “Life comes at you fast.”
The quick shift between the Advent/Christmas season and the Lent/Easter season is not as dichotomous as it sometimes may feel. In fact, both seasons share a primary liturgical color (purple) and purpose (preparation). In both, we prepare our hearts for the coming Christ. In both, we sit in hope-filled expectation for Christ to come and to come again. But in Lent, we prepare our hearts in repentance for how we have treated Christ. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of that reflection, as we are confronted with our sin and mortality.
It is completely counter-cultural. We do not like confronting our mortality because it is the direct opposite of society’s message that we are invincible. We do not reflect on sin because we would much rather think about what we have done right than what we have done wrong. We do not like preparing and waiting because we live in an impatient culture used to having everything immediately accessible. This preparation and reflection is crucial, though, because it is only through patient preparation and reflection that true resurrection hope can be understood. Push yourself out of your comfort zone this Ash Wednesday by waiting and pondering sin and mortality, but don’t end there. Ponder God’s love for you, as well.
We know the end of the story. The purpose of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season is not to pretend like Easter isn’t coming. It is because we have the hope of Easter that we can even begin to pray on Ash Wednesday, “Lord, forgive me, for I confess that I have sinned against You.” And because we have the hope of Easter, we know that the once and always-risen Jesus will answer, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
