Ash Wednesday: A Holy Beginning

On February 18th we will celebrate two Ash Wednesday Services in our historic traditional sanctuary. The first at Noon and the last at 6PM. Last year we moved our Ash Wednesday services to the sanctuary because we no longer fit in the chapel. We hope that you, your co-workers, classmates, family, and friends will join us for at least one of these powerful worship experiences. Our services will have children, youth, and adults in them as we truly experience God’s grace inter-generationally.

Ash Wednesday invites us into one of the most honest moments of the Christian year. It marks the beginning of Lent, a forty-day journey of reflection, repentance, and renewal that leads us toward the cross—and ultimately, the hope of resurrection. In a world that encourages us to rush past discomfort and avoid self-examination, Ash Wednesday gently asks us to slow down and face the truth about ourselves before God.

When ashes are placed on our foreheads, we hear ancient words: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” These words are not spoken to condemn us, but to ground us. They remind us that we are finite, fragile, and deeply dependent on God’s grace. We are not defined by our productivity, our success, or our failures. We are creatures formed by God and sustained by mercy.

The ashes themselves carry deep meaning. They are made from last year’s palms—symbols of praise and celebration—now reduced to dust. What once marked triumph now marks repentance. This powerful image reminds us that even our best moments, if not rooted in God, cannot sustain us. Yet the ashes are traced in the shape of a cross, declaring that our sin and mortality are met by Christ’s redeeming love.

Ash Wednesday calls us to repentance, not as an act of shame, but as an invitation to transformation. To repent is to turn—to reorient our lives toward God. It is an honest acknowledgment that something in us needs healing, reordering, or releasing. Lent gives us space to ask hard questions: What have I been holding onto that no longer gives life? Where have my habits, thoughts, or priorities drifted from God’s heart? In our services you will be invited to let go of those things that have separated you from God in a very special way.

This season is not about earning God’s favor or proving spiritual discipline. It is about making room for God to do renewing work within us. Practices like prayer, fasting, generosity, and self-examination are not ends in themselves; they are means of grace—pathways through which God shapes our hearts to look more like Christ.

As we begin Lent together, I invite you to approach Ash Wednesday not as a ritual to observe, but as a posture to carry. Come honestly. Come humbly. Come trusting that God meets us not when we have everything together, but when we admit our need.

May this holy season draw us closer to God, deepen our love for others, and prepare our hearts to fully receive the joy of Easter morning. Grace and peace to you as we begin this sacred journey together.