February 17 2010 will be a special day in the life of SMMC. On that day we will celebrate our first Ash Wednesday service. Ash Wednesday, while perhaps unfamiliar to those of us who grew up in Mennonite and evangelical Protestant churches, is a special day of repentance that begins the season of Lent in the Christian Year. Mark Roberts gives a good description of it's history in the church. Ash Wednesday...

has been honored by Christians for well over ten centuries at the beginning of Lent, a six-week season of preparation for Easter. In the earliest centuries, Christians who had fallen into persistent sin had ashes sprinkled on their bodies as a sign of repentance, even as Job repented "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Around the tenth century, all believers began to signify their need for repentance by having ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. Notice: even this sign of sinfulness hinted at the good news yet to come through its shape. Ash Wednesday is not some dour, depressing holy day because it symbolically anticipates Good Friday and Easter. (http://bit.ly/bmIZ9W)

On this evening we will participate in some worship practices that invite us to be very real with ourselves in the presence of God. It is a time of humility and of repentance, but also a time of anticipation. We will be invited to come forward during the service, to receive ashes on our hand or forehead, while hearing the words from Genesis 3, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return". As Mark Roberts writes, "This is the bad news of our sinfulness that prepares us to receive the good news of forgiveness in Christ." Thinking about the bad news can help us to be open to the gracious reality of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

For more information on Ash Wednesday from a Mennonite/Anabaptist perspective please see Pastor Brian Miller's excellent reflections here.

We hope you will join us as we come together for this special time of worship.

Details: February 17, 7pm at the SMMC Meetinghouse. As this will be a time of reflection and meditation, we are asking that all who attend enter the sanctuary in silence this evening. Our worship time will include silent reflection, confession, listening to scripture stories, singing, and the imposition of ashes.