Trending
I do not know about you, but I am always anxious to wipe the carbon smear off my forehead after Ash Wednesday. A black smudge on the forehead has yet to make a fashion statement; instead it marks you as a church goer or a religious nut. Although Ash Wednesday is over and its carbon imprint washed away, we still can not get away from it because Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday are uniquely linked together.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent for many Christians. On this day, we hear the words, "From dust you come and to dust you return," as the pastor dips his or her fingers into ash and smudges bowed foreheads with the sign of the cross (See Genesis 3:19). With our foreheads smeared with ash, we are called upon to face our own mortality and failings. This is something most of us want to avoid thinking about. We like to pretend to be anything other than finite creatures of God whose days on earth are numbered.
Palm Sunday marks the last day of Lent and the first day of Holy Week. This celebration commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, mentioned in each of the four Gospels. Jesus entered the city and was greeted by palm-waving worshipers. In this intentional journey to Jerusalem, he would be tried and crucified, but he welcomed his fate to rise from the grave and save us from sin!
The palms raised in worship on Palm Sunday during the congregation's songs of praise become the source for Ash Wednesday's ashes. In many churches, the palms that are not shaped into crosses or taken home and laid as remembrances are kept and burned for next year's Ash Wednesday service. I asked several pastors this year who in their church took charge of the burning of the palms. Some burdened themselves with the job, while others gladly spoke of church members who loved to do it. Whoever does it, the burning of palms is an illustration of our Lenten journey.
When palms come in contact with fire, a series of complex chemical reactions are set off. The combustion of wood results in the release of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and various gaseous products, as well as the formation of black solid residues like charcoal and ash. There is a dramatic change; you could never guess what a palm branch looked like by looking at the ashes. Likewise, our Lenten journey can be a time of purification, repentance, and renewal. During Lent we release the gases of our false selves and embrace our authentic selves in relation to Christ.
On Palm Sunday, we end our Lenten journey, and we find hope in our mortality, that through the events of Holy Week, our sin and death are dealt with through Jesus' sacrificial death. On Palm Sunday, we see ourselves again as imperfect beings who through the grace of God have been given this life and who only through the grace of God are given the gift of eternal life. On Easter Sunday, we rejoice in the resurrection, and we no longer hear the words "from dust you came and to dust you return," but "'Death has been swallowed up in victory'" (1 Corinthians 15:54 NIV). The carbon imprint has been taken away.
Rev. Dr. David Mansfield, retired Disciples of Christ pastor