What is Ash Wednesday? Is it really Presbyterian?
Although Ash Wednesday has not been very important for many Presbyterians until recent decades, its as Presbyterian as repentance, confession, and pardon. Presbyterians and others have begun to recover Ash Wednesday in recent years, discovering in it powerful symbols that have helped to lead us into the spiritual disciplines of Lent. Traditionally the palms that we waved on Palm Sunday are burned to ashes and brought out for use on Ash Wednesday. On that day, a minister, elder, or other marks our foreheads with a cross-shaped sign, saying, You are dust, and to dust you shall return, from Gen. 3:19. The ashes remind us of our mortality, the brevity of life, and our need for confession and pardon. At the same time, because the sign on our foreheads is cross-shaped, its meant to remind us of our baptism. We who have died to Christ will be raised with him. So the ultimate point of Ash Wednesday is to face up to some hard realities, buoyed by our confident hope in the One who raised Jesus f
