A little late into the week I want to explain something that happened at Ash Wednesday Service. In fact I haven't blogged about that particular night in detail at all. And there is an important part of my fast that originated that very night.
Heather and I were very excited to get to Newport for mass, and knew that we would need to give ourselves about a half an hour to get there. Unfortunately we were running a little late and so we would be getting there right on time and not early. It was 6:57 as we were coming into town and we saw the big sign: Ash Wednesday Service 8:30am, 10:30 am & 7pm! Heather turned in and parked as quickly as legally possible and we ran inside.
But as we were coming in I felt like I had seen the Catholic church and it wasn't this soon in town. It should have been up a road a bit more I thought. I looked everywhere for something with the name of the church we standing in but couldn't find anything. People were still coming in and there was a man handing out bulletins while we came and little dusty looking, sparkley white stones. I grabbed one of each and while I waited for Heather to grab hers thumbed through the hand out to look for the church's name. I still couldn't find it. It wasn't until we were sitting, and the pastor had made his way to the front of the church and opened his notes for his sermon that I finally saw it: Atonement Lutheran Church.
I knew it! I showed Heather. We laughed... very quietly. She asked if I wanted to leave but I
didn't really think we needed to. I asked her the same and she shrugged. We were at an Ash Wednesday service, already late if we left to go to the other place... and I am a believer in divine intervention. Why did we miss looking at the name of the church coming in? Why were we late leaving the house and just right on time for the service to begin? God is with all of His people, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran... Plus I what was this shiny white rock in my hand?!
God can be anywhere that He is welcome, and I felt His presence in the church when we came in. We both did. So we stayed.
The pastor began the service... I don't know if you have ever been to a Lutheran church and a Catholic church, but I can tell you they closely resemble each other in many ways. We sang a hymn and he read the readings. The main reading for the service was in Genesis when Moses goes up on the mountain to talk with God where He gives Moses the 10 Commandments and establishes His covenant with the Israelites. When Moses comes down he hears the people shouting and excited and finds them worshiping a golden calf. He throws down the stone tablets he is carrying and they shatter to pieces on the ground.
The pastor explained how the shattered stones of the tablets Moses was carrying, some pieces with visible writing of God Himself still visible on them, were a representation of the covenant God had established with the Israelites. And when Moses came down the mountain to find that they were already in the act of breaking the agreements of that covenant he threw them down. They shattered on the ground just as the covenant shattered. He invited us to imagine the Israelites holding those pieces of the covenant in their hand. What grief and loss for the things that could have been they must have felt.
He held up the little white sparkley stone he held in his hand. We are sinners. We too have
shattered that covenant with our actions. But God sent His only living son, Jesus Christ into the world to save it... to save us! He said, what will you do with your stone every Wednesday of this Lenten season? It was then that I got a Holy Spirit idea... before the pastor continued and I realized where he was headed with his sermon. I thought... what if I used that stone to write about redemption every week. There is a sea wall by the beach I used to play on as a kid. Across the street from my Nan's old apartment. Or I could write it in the streets. It didn't matter. One word about redemption. About what I was learning in this season of reflection.
The pastor went on to invite us to take our stone and lay it at the foot of the cross as we came up to receive our ashes. An invitation I couldn't refuse to take. But I intended to ask for another stone after the service and explain my reasoning. Which is just what I did.
It was a powerful service. And we sang a powerful hymn about growing out of the ashes, and God struck me with the realization of His sacrifice and His Love for me... for the world.
Heather and I spent an hour at least talking to people after the service and they are wonderful Spirit-filled people. And when we left we had new friends, new opportunities to serve in the community and a shiny, sparkling white rock!
In the parking lot I heard God. Connection. Connection was the word for week one. With redemption through Christ comes connection. I was excited to see what that fully meant! I still am!
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