Discovering Liturgical Practice

Growing up in a non-mainline denomination, liturgy did not have much of a place. It wasn't until coming to seminary that I began to experience liturgy on a regular basis. Whitworth offered opportunities to experience some of the liturgical practices, especially Ash Wednesday, but I rarely took advantage. I have never gotten into the practice of Lent. This will be the first year that the Lenten season is set aside as something different for me. I have never seriously attempted to fast from anything (I did make a half-hearted effort to give up sweets until I remembered my birthday fell within Lent as always). It should come as no surprise then when I say that this is the first year that I have ever gone to an Ash Wednesday service and had ashes placed on my forehead. 

It has been an interesting experience thus far. Walking the mile to work today included receiving some interesting looks from folks. I received many a double-take as people walked past me. At first I wanted to respond with some sort of sarcastic comment along the lines of, "yes I do indeed know that there is something on my forehead." The looks made me a little uneasy. As I walked along, however, I became more comfortable with the looks and began to reflect on my initial discomfort. Why did I feel like I needed to defend myself? Why was I uncomfortable? As Christians, we are called to be different, to be in but not of the world. This means we should expect to receive funny looks from people, to stand out in some ways. How often, though, we want to hide and blend in. It usually is not much fun to stand out in a crowd.

As this Lenten season begins and moves on, I will continue to reflect on this experience and what it means to follow the God-man who walked to lonely road to Jerusalem to sacrifice his life for my sake.