Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
February 25, 2009

ASH WEDNESDAY MEDITATION

UCC minister Bev Edwards talks about her time as pastor in Little Compton.  Around this time of year, old farmers would go around to the year-round residents to collect the ashes from their fireplaces.  These they would spread over their gardens and fields and till into the soil to sweeten it before they planted their crops.  And they would burn the stubble in the fields. 

Gardening books tell us to cut back old woody growth on our plants.  Kim and I have geraniums that we brought in from the yard last fall.  All winter they have sat on the floor where they catch the western sun with their leafy heads pressed to the glass.  It’s time now for us to cut back the old growth, to encourage the new, before we put them out when the weather turns warm.  And that’s hard to do when they are big with bright blossoms.

These are good metaphors for us for Ash Wednesday.  So we might ask ourselves these questions during Lent: 

• What weedy undergrowth of regrets in our lives do we need to burn away to make room for new plantings? 

• What old angers are poisoning us and need to be cut back to save our lives? 

• What old – or new – sorrows do we harbor that we might hollow out to make room for new love?

Last night after the pancake supper, we burned the palms from last year’s Palm Sunday for today’s imposition of ashes.  As we receive these ashes, let us think about how we might want to apply them:

• What new discipline might we want to establish in our lives?  Regular prayer or Bible study?  A time set aside each day for meditation?  We have 40 days in Lent to begin a new ritual that will sweeten the soil of our lives.  (Behavioral teachers tell us we only need 21 days to create a new habit.)

• What is that nurturing something that we have been meaning to do for ourselves all these years, something buried deep within our souls?  Perhaps Lent is the time to dig up and uncover that longing.

• What long lost friendship or relationship has been lying fallow too long in our lives over neglect or anger or misunderstanding?  Perhaps Lent is the time to write that letter, or make that call, or ask for forgiveness so that a garden of love can be planted where now there is only dry ground.

These are the questions I ask of you – and myself – this Ash Wednesday.  Let us reflect on them during Lent.  And may new life grow in your heart this Lenten season!