www.dunwoodyumc.org
Today is Ash Wednesday.  This is the start of the Season of Lent in the church.   Lent is forty days the church sets aside to prepare ourselves for the joy and hope of Easter.   The ashes placed on many of our foreheads today were made from the palm branches used last year to celebrate the memory of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  We bring these ashes to remind us that when we try to force things to fit our way it will simply not work.  As the crowd on that first Palm Sunday was ready to make Jesus king, they saw the prayers of many years being answered; but it was not to be the way they thought.  There would be the mockery of a trial and the cross.  The crown would be one of thorns.

We receive the ashes as an act of repentance. But they are in themselves a sign of hope as well. For the opposite of what we would usually expect happens. Usually the fire comes first and then the ashes. However, with these ashes and our repenting, there will come the fire of God’s Holy Spirit as we move through Lent and then Easter to Pentecost.  The first step is admitting that we cannot do it alone.  Each of us is challenged to turn back and accept God’s forgiveness and guidance in our lives.

The Gospel for this coming Sunday, Matthew 4:1-11, is where Jesus is tempted to take control himself instead of trusting in God. The temptations would be what seemed instant power and fame.  However, Jesus showed a greater vision, the one he repeats at the end of his ministry, when he prayed, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” The theme of Ash Wednesday and this coming Sunday is: "There is no real way but God’s way."                               

May God bless you and yours,

WileySign03

 

February 6, 2008
© Dunwoody United Methodist Church
Dunwoody United Methodist Church © 2006