Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent is the 40 days before Easter. If you count forward you will notice there are more than 40 days between today and Easter, that is because Sunday's don't count and you don't fast on the Sundays! Because every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection, all Sundays are considered to be another Easter. Tonight we will have a service at our church that will include the imposition of ashes, the pastor makes a cross from ash on your forehead and says "From ashes you came and to ashes you shall return" or something close to that. At our church the ashes are made from palms brought back to the church by the members who saved them from Palm Sunday last year, they are burned and mixed with some oil for the imposition. This is a season of repentance. From the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's web site:
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Q. What is the significance of Lent? A. Early in the Church's history, the major events in Christ's life were observed with special observances, such as His birth, baptism, death, resurrection and ascension. As these observances developed, a period of time was set aside prior to the major events of Jesus' birth and resurrection as a time of preparation. During Lent, the Church's worship assumes a more penitential character. The color for the season is purple, a color often associated with penitence. The "Hymn of Praise" is omitted from the liturgy. The word "Alleluia" is usually omitted as well. By not using the alleluia--a joyful expression meaning "Praise the Lord"--until Easter, the Lenten season is clearly set apart as a distinct time from the rest of the year. Additionally, it forms a powerful contrast with the festive celebration of Jesus' resurrection when our alleluias ring loud and clear. Finally, the penitential character of Lent is not its sole purpose. In the ancient Church, the weeks leading up to Easter were a time of intensive preparation of the candidates who were to be baptized at the Easter vigil on Holy Saturday. This time in the Church's calendar was seen as an especially appropriate time for Baptism because of the relationship between Christ's death and resurrection and our own in Holy Baptism (see Romans 6:1-11). This focus would suggest that the season of Lent serves not only as a time to meditate on the suffering that Christ endured on our behalf but also as an opportunity to reflect upon our own Baptism and what it means to live as a child of God.

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There is a tradition of "giving up things" for Lent that I normally do something with. This year Serenity and I talked about it a little bit and as a result I'm giving up playing a computer game called Civilization while she is going to be cutting out most if not all sugar from her diet. I'm also going to be doing some other things to recall Christ and his work throughout the day during the next 40 days of Lent. The main one is that I'm going to try and follow the custom of fasting during daylight hours, basically skipping lunch and praying and reading devotions and the Word of God during the time when I would normally eat lunch.

Another thing I'm going to "give up for Lent" is political thinking. I mean I will endeavor during this time to ignore the political scene. So, here is my very last political comment for the next 40 days: The corporate American choice for POTUS (President of the United States) is McClinton (McCain for the Republicans and Clinton for the Democrats). Even though both are loathed by most Americans they will "win" the primary elections and one of them will be "elected" POTUS in November. This will have virtually nothing to do with the number of people who vote for them since in America votes are actually done by software fraud these days. So look out for McClinton, it will bring massive death, torture, murder, theft and other great things your way for the next four years. Me, I'm planning on burning my ballot if McClinton is on it. And that is the end of my political commentary until after Easter when I will resume ranting and raving about the death of the republic and the rise of the American Police State.