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From Ash Wednesday to Easter
2025-3-4 | Kate Cogswell
It’s hard to believe that we are about to enter the Lenten season, but here we are! Lent starts with Ash Wednesday – tomorrow - on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Lent”?
What is Lent? And why do they call it Ash Wednesday? Maybe it’s new for you to think of Lent at all?
Maybe you think of it only as a time you have been asked to give up something you love for weeks – with no reason why?
Maybe you think of Lent as something only super-spiritual people practice? Or only certain religious groups?
What if you learned that Lent offers an invitation to everyone to draw closer to God? Closer to the God who loves you enough to sacrifice His son to be in relationship with you?
What if the purpose of observing the Lenten season is not to force a few formal obligations, but to soften our hearts, to be more open to God, and to experience deeper communion with Him? What if it's an invitation to turn – or return – to God with your whole heart?
Lent itself will last 40 days from the 5th, minus Sundays, which are seen as days of celebration and resurrection even in the midst of the Lenten season. The name “Ash Wednesday” gets its name because of the ashes customarily placed on the forehead of worshipers during the service.
The use of ashes in this way represents our mortality and repentance. In Job 42:4-5, Job has been confronted by God and says, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job sees God in the midst of his own sin and responds in repentance by sitting in ashes. We do not physically “sit in ashes” but we are invited to reflect, pray, and sit in repentance. Genesis 3:19 also uses the imagery of ashes when the Lord says to Adam and Eve, “For you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Ash Wednesday is an invitation to repent and to believe in the gospel of Jesus- that we have been cleansed of our own sin, purified by fire, and saved by the blood of Jesus. Amen and amen!
Repentance is such an important part of our spiritual journey, and calls us to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. On Ash Wednesday, we have that opportunity to look back with gratitude for what God has done for us through Jesus, and then to look forward in hope because God is still with us.
As we move from Ash Wednesday toward Easter, we can accept the invitation in Joel 2:12-13:
“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Lent is a season of transformation. A time in the church calendar when we are intentional to engage in practices that keep us connected to God’s purposes and connected with the life of Christ. When we do this, we are drawn closer to God. The Lent season, from Ash Wednesday through Easter, mirrors the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry where he fasted, prayed, and triumphed over the temptations of Satan. We are invited to remember and focus on Christ’s life, ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection during the season of Lent.
We who call The Grove Covenant Church home are on a journey. As a community of people who have come to know Jesus and desire to follow him, we are a people on the Way. Our prayer is that we are becoming more and more like Jesus—formed and shaped by his life, teaching, death, and resurrection—and that Jesus in and through us will speak to and transform our community and our world.
Together let’s gather to give thanks for our redemption in Christ and fix our eyes on Jesus.
Here are two ways you can observe Lent this year in community at The Grove:
Worship with us on March 5th for our Ash Wednesday service:
Weekly Prayer Resources:
This year during Lent, we are offering resources that align with our transformation initiative focus on prayer. Each week, we will send out two different practices via email to help us more intentionally engage with God in prayer. If you would like to receive these practices to explore, we invite you to sign up on our Lent page.