Mark Your Calendars! Ash Wednesday and Lent Coming March 1st!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - ASH WEDNESDAY, HOLY WEEK & EASTER

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday – our Sunday Services will focus on “the Lies We Buy.” For the times, we give in to fear or to the lies of approval, control and unworthiness, come worship and hear what God says abut those lies.
March 01 Ash Wednesday

Imposition of Ashes at Starbucks inside Target on Sawyer, 2580 Shearn St, Houston, Texas 77007 From 8:15 AM to 9:30 AM

Imposition of Ashes at the Hay Merchant 1100 Westheimer, 77006, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Worship Service at 7:00 PM in the Oikos Sanctuary with Imposition of Ashes

April 09 Palm Sunday, 10:00 AM in the Oikos Sanctuary Come sing “Hosanna!” as our children process in with palms.

April 13 Maundy Thursday Seder Meals will be held at each Missional Community home from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

April 14 Good Friday at 7:00 PM in the Oikos Sanctuary

April 16 Easter Sunday

Easter Egg Hunt on the Oikos Campus at 9:15 AM

Easter Worship at 10:00 AM

Easter Sunday Meal following Worship with 2nd Egg Hunt at the Schmidt’s Home.

**** Jason if you want to include the information on the History of Ash Wednesday, you can have them click to read further.

History of Ash Wednesday and The Imposition of Ashes...

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

For nearly a thousand years, these words have been spoken to young and old alike as the sign of the cross is traced on their foreheads with ashes—the Imposition of Ashes, as it has come to be known. During the last half of the 20th century, Lutherans have also begun to make use of this ancient rite. And so, as our catechism is prone to ask: “What does this mean?” Where did this rite come from, and how can it be used meaningfully in LCMS congregations today?

Ashes in the Bible

The Bible contains a number of references to ashes and dust (cf. Joshua 7:6; 1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2, 15:32; Job 2:12, 16:15; Jeremiah 25:34; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30; Jonah 3:6). In fact, the Lord's curse on Adam, “dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19) is echoed in the Imposition of Ashes formula. In the New Testament, Jesus declares: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21). Thus, in the Bible, ashes carry a two-fold meaning: as a sign of human mortality (Genesis 3:19) and as a sign of public repentance (Matthew 11:21).

Ashes in Church History

This understanding carried over into the early and medieval church. Tertullian (ca. 160-225) describes the use of sackcloth and ashes in the penance of an adulterer before his pastor. Originally, ashes were reserved only for public penitents—i.e., murderers, adulterers and others who had fallen away from the church because of grave public sin but desired reconciliation. Such reconciliation could occur at a variety of times during the year, but by the medieval period, the beginning of Lent became a primary season of the church year for that reconciliation to take place.

By the 12th century, ashes became specifically associated with the beginning of Lent, thus providing the first day of Lent with its name, Ash Wednesday. However, by this time, everybody—pastors and people alike—had ashes either sprinkled on their head or traced on their foreheads in the sign of the cross. By the time of the Reformation, the imposition of ashes was a regular mainstay of Lenten piety and practice.

Ashes Today?

A contemporary Lutheran appropriation of the Imposition of Ashes should begin with the two-fold biblical understanding of ashes: as a sign of our mortality and as a sign of our repentance. Likewise, the traditional formula, “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” is most appropriate, since it paraphrases the words of God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:19). By receiving the ashes, the worshipper acknowledges that God's judgment against our sin is right and just. But the ashes are also made in the sign of the cross—the very instrument by which our Lord took upon himself the punishment for our sin, in our place. Thus, the cross of ashes serves to remind us that we are sinners, and that Christ died for us sinners.

When ashes are administered, they are prepared from palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday. A little olive oil is usually added to improve the consistency of the ashes.

From: The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Commission on Worship