Author: WELS
Last saved by: rmattek
Company: Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Another Look at Worship on Ash Wednesday
by James Tiefel

Consider a way of observing Ash Wednesday that is somewhat different from the normal custom of most WELS congregations. 

Ash Wednesday has its roots in the early Church's careful efforts to receive those penitents who had lapsed from the faith and faithful living and had been excommunicated by the Church. The Proper that eventually developed for Ash Wednesday focused on contrition and faith, on absolution and renewal. In its lessons, prayers, and psalms, the Proper enabled penitents to confess their sins and to receive the Savior's absolution through the Church's called ministers. The repentance focus was not only obvious in the rite for confession/absolution, but in every part of the liturgy. 

Today, midweek devotional services have become the norm in Lutheran congregations, and the repentance theme of Ash Wednesday usually is replaced by a focus on the Savior's Passion, a focus at one time reserved for Holy Week alone. In popular practice, Ash Wednesday has become the first in a series of six services that include the reading of the Passion history and a review of one or another aspect of the Savior's suffering and death. Most of our Lenten sermon series as well as most of the worship resources produced in our circles have placed Ash Wednesday into the regular set of Lenten devotions. 

In recent years there has been renewed interest in returning to the confession/absolution focus of past Ash Wednesday worship. The resources that support the use of Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal have highlighted the distinctive Proper of the first day of the Lenten season. For example, Christian Worship suggests black, the color of sorrow and death, rather than purple as the preferred liturgical color for the day. The Verse of the Day, from Joel 2:13, pleads, "Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love." A few congregations in our Synod have reinstituted the practice of the imposition of ashes, a time-tested custom that recalls the wearing of sack cloth and ashes as a symbol of sorrow and repentance. Christian Worship: Occasional Services includes "Corporate Confession and Absolution," a rite that can be used on Ash Wednesday if the Sacrament is not included in the service.