Looking Toward Ash Wednesday

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1, NRSVue)

Some people make a big fuss over Groundhog Day and its role in predicting when winter will end. It’s a fun distraction when the colder temperatures get us down, and we’re hoping for warmer weather. You might have seen a similar celebration from Sand Mountain for Groundhog Day, where Sam, the weather possum, contradicted Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast of six more weeks of winter by predicting that spring will arrive early. I guess this is weather forecasting’s Super Bowl, where we’ll have to wait and see who the winner is in six weeks!

In two weeks, we’ll observe Ash Wednesday with a lot less fanfare. That’s by design. Jesus tells us not to practice our righteousness for show, but to let our devotion be genuine and inward, seen only by God. Yet on Ash Wednesday, we receive a very visible mark — a cross of ashes on our foreheads — as a sign of repentance and our shared mortality. The irony is intentional. The ashes don’t say, “Look at how holy I am,” but rather, “Remember that we all need God’s grace.” They remind us that faith is more than appearances; it’s about transformation.

So, as the season of Lent begins, we don’t wear the ashes as badges of pride. We wear them as signs of humility, a quiet confession that we belong to a merciful God who can bring life even from the dust. Unlike Sam the possum or Phil the groundhog, we’re not predicting the end of winter; we’re preparing our hearts for resurrection.

I hope you can join us for a Service of the Ashes on Wednesday, February 18th, at 6:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. This service will mark the beginning of the sacred observance of Lent—a season the Church has long set aside for prayer, repentance, fasting, and generosity. For forty days (excluding Sundays), we walk with Jesus on the road to the cross, examining our own hearts and asking God to make us new.

Lent is an honest season. It encourages us to set aside what distracts us from God’s grace and to adopt practices that bring us closer to Christ. Some give up habits or comforts, not to prove their holiness, but to create space for the Spirit’s renewing work. Others add something—a daily prayer, a small act of kindness, a moment of stillness—to become more aware of God’s presence in everyday life.

No matter how we choose to observe this season, we do so together, remembering that from dust we came and to dust we shall return. But through Christ, we are promised new life. May these weeks of Lent be a time for all of us to rediscover the depth of God’s love and prepare our hearts for the joy of Easter morning.