Lent and Ash Wednesday
Reimagining the Season from a Pro-Human Lens
Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. This is a season of the Church Calendar that focuses on repentance and preparing for the celebration of Easter. Unfortunately, it’s also a day that is rife with anti-human theology. For those of us who have experienced a faith shift toward a theology that affirms the goodness of our humanity, days like this can be difficult to make sense of.
Last Sunday at GracePointe Church I offered a sermon that introduces Ash Wednesday and Lent—when they began, how they have been understood, etc.—and that seeks to reimagine them in a way that embraces their gifts but also employs a pro-human lens.
If you struggle with this day and this season, if you’ve wondered if there’s still any meaning to be found in it, and/or if you’d like to find a way to reimagine them so that they are not anti-human, then you just might find this sermon helpful. You will find the links to the sermon, as well as a previous Ash Wednesday post I shared here on Substack, below. I hope it’s helpful!
Sermon: An Introduction to Lent and Ash Wednesday
Article: Some Good News for Ash Wednesday
For me the thing to grasp hold of is not the anti humanness of the season but taking the time to celebrate our humanness. The season points to Easter and the reforming of our humanity through Jesus. Now we have the opportunity to live our created identity with the resurrected Jesus at our side. Dust to dust may be the echoing sound of Ash Wednesday but the bustle and joy of life lived with Jesus (true worship) is the journey of Lent. Not austerity and self deprivation but a journey toward life in all it fullness. A journey towards to becoming truly human.