A Word from Mitch-Ash Wednesday
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, a time when we remember our mortality. The words "you were formed of the Earth and to Earth, you will return" are used. We remember that we are dust.
Normally on Ash Wednesday, my heart is filled with a sort of heaviness. While that heaviness is still there, this Ash Wednesday is different for me because in it I am finding comfort. First the heaviness. Ash Wednesday usually is a day when I spend a lot of time in prayer, both contemplating my mortality and remembering the funerals I have done and the loved ones I have lost. This year that will still happen. The sudden loss of a relative just a month ago still causes me moments of pause and grief. On top of that, the weight and amount of the funerals I have done this year underneath the restrictions of social distancing are things that I still need to process. I am sure many of you are also processing. The magnitude of loss and things lost because of COVID are much larger than can be described here. The sadness many in our church have felt these past 12 months is as varying as it is real. In midst of this sadness, however, I find hope.
I find hope in the words from our funeral service and in the midst of our Ash Wednesday liturgy. Right after "You were formed of the Earth and to Earth you will return," we find these words: "Yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia." We make this our song because even at the grave, God is present. God is present in the great gatherings on our Point. God is present in our online worship. God is present in songs and in the children singing. God is present in our resilience, in our new programming, in our ministry, and especially in our grief. God is present, so even at the grave, we can make our song, "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia."
During COVID, we have all had to, at some point, access our levels of risk tolerance. In that assessment, we have all, from the most conservative among us to the most fearless, had to think about our mortality. In some ways, we have experienced through this risk assessment a 12-month season of Lent. This year as more and more people are being vaccinated, as plans for a return to in-person inside services are being created, as percent positives go down, I am looking to the "Alleluias" of both our funeral service and our Easter service for hope. It is a hope that I expect to find. I expect to find it because the "Alleluias" in both liturgies are exactly the same.
In Christ,
Mitch+
