To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go, to let it go.
- Mary Oliver “In Blackwater Woods”

You are probably starting to hear about the spring season we call Lent. And I wanted to clarify again that it has nothing to do with that stuff you remove from the dryer. (Although I do think I could turn that into a sermon metaphor if I worked at it.).

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season of Lent in the life of the church, which begins 40 days prior to Easter. (For those of you who are looking at your calendars and adding, Sundays are not included in the count). The 40 days of Lent mirror the 40 years that the Israelite people wandered in the wilderness and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. Does anyone resonate with wandering in the wilderness right now?

Ash Wednesday is a time when many followers of the Jesus Way prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, spiritual practice (such as “giving something up”) and repentance/evaluation. During traditional Ash Wednesday services, the minister or priest will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads or hands of worshipers as a reminder of our humanness and mortality. Ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday palms are traditionally burned and used. On Zoom, we have learned to be a little more creative.

The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent since it evolved later, But the practice of repentance is mentioned repeatedly in the scriptures. In the New Testament: metanoia: μετάνοια (Greek) and in the First Testament: shub שׁוּב (Hebrew) are translated as repentance. These words both carry the meaning of having a change of mind and heart, or of turning back, or around, and returning and retracing our steps.

As we repeatedly discuss at UCH, it is important activity on our spiritual journey to notice when it is time to turn around and retrace our steps. We all get out in the weeds from time to time.

And our Still-Speaking God has gifted us with spiritual practices of forgiveness, transformation, and repentance so we can get unstuck and find our way forward, home, out of the wilderness, or wherever we are headed on our journey.

This Year our UCH Ash Wednesday service, “Loving What Is Mortal: Holding On and Letting Go” (Based on Mary Oliver’s poem “Blackwater Woods”) will take place on February 18 at 7:00 PM Pacific on Zoom. Join us for a rich time of listening, poetry, and reflection. We will be participating in a creative visualization of the traditional imposition of ashes, and if you would like, you can impose ashes from a candle or palm leaves you have burned in your home on your forehead or hands. Or you can just come and be in community and out of chaos for this simple, quiet reflective service about the joys and challenges of holding on, letting go, and being human.

I look forward to being with you on Ash Wednesday evening as we begin our Lenten journey together. — Rev. Jeanne