The ashes of Ash Wednesday mark our bodies with a deeply existential crisis: our death is unavoidable, even as we live. The ashes are dead matter smeared on our living bodies. They stir our imaginations of grieving prophets dressed in…
A Baptist who celebrates Lent
Huh? A Baptist who celebrates Ash Wednesday and Lent? That’s like an American celebrating Boxing Day. The two just don’t go together. Despite the misnomer, Baptists do celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lent, especially this Baptist. Two of the classic Baptist…
Baptists mark Ash Wednesday
By Jeff Brumley Baptists are increasingly observing Lent this year if Facebook is any indication, with news feeds filled with announcements of morning, afternoon and evening Ash Wednesday services today. Among the first were the folks at Park Avenue Baptist…
By way of ashes
I was 24 and living in Mill Valley, Calif., when I first encountered Ash Wednesday. The Christian liturgical calendar had figured not much at all in my Southern Baptist experience to that point. But one February morning in 1983, spurred…