When I was in seminary, I referred to Ash Wednesday as “Ashless Wednesday” since there was nary an ash to be found on campus. Apparently, the Roman Catholics imposed ashes, and cathedrals and larger city Anglican churches imposed ashes, but otherwise, the practice was unheard of. Not long after I joined the staff at UCU, I made it one of my missions to institute the imposition of ashes. Last year, the Chaplain relented and agreed that we could have ashes this year, something I periodically reminded her of lest she forget.
While it is customary to burn ashes from the previous Palm Sunday to obtain the ash for Ash Wednesday, we live in paradise surrounded by palm trees. The chaplaincy did retain some palm branches, but since February is the dry season, we had plenty of palms to choose from.
Another tree had the fronds nearly on the ground, so we used those to “top up” the retain palm branches.
This is how we burn the palms. It’s a bit unceremonious, but it gets the job done. I failed to take a picture of me mixing the oil into the ashes, but let me just say that I now appreciate Almy (or whomever sold us the burned and mixed ashes) immensely. And I want to obtain small containers to hold the ashes for next year, because all we could find to use was this salad plate. And the hand towel to wipe our thumbs after (below).
Since I knew that this was a foreign experience for the majority of our students, in my sermon I tied together Joel’s call to repentance in chapter 2 with the very biblical idea of repenting in sackcloth and ashes (Job 2:8; Job 42:6; Jeremiah 6:26; Daniel 9:3). The ashes are a sign of our mortality, and Lent is a time of self-examination, confession, and repentance, and remembrance that it is our sin that brought death.
The Chaplain had asked me to lead the imposition of the ashes, since I was familiar with the service; what she didn’t know is that I have received the imposition all my life, but had never done the imposition in a church service before. Two years ago, the Dennisons asked me to come to their house Ash Wednesday for a family imposition, which was a wonderfully creative solution to not having the imposition in a service.
The students giggled a bit when I invited them to receive the imposition, and understandably so; this was very new to them. I assured them that they were not required to do this, yet at the end of it all, at least 90% of them did come forward.
I am hoping that my students learn that the solemnity of Ash Wednesday, the call to observe a holy Lent, and the imposition of ashes are not just funny things that high church liturgists do, but rather that the liturgy actually enhances our presentation of the Gospel. It is only in confession and repentance that we can receive forgiveness, and it is only in death that we can have the Resurrection.
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