ASH WEDNESDAY
CULTURAL RESOURCES
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
William H. Wiggins, Jr., Lectionary Team Cultural Resource Commentator
I. Historical Background and Documents
Ash Wednesday is a day when members of the church, Christians who have
confessed their sins, received baptism, and had their names added to
church rolls, are asked to reflect inwardly on their Christian witness and
publicly acknowledge and give penance for the times during the past year when
they have “fallen short” or “back slid” in their Christian walk. Unlike the
sinners seated on the mourner’s bench during camp meetings and revivals who
wrestle with their sins, these saints occupy pews of distinction as they
agonize over their past shortcomings of faith. During this worship service,
they are reminded of the old African American proverb: “De people dat stir up
de mos’ rackit in de meetin’ house ain’t always de bes’ Kwis’chuns.”1
The symbolic use of ashes as “a display of extreme remorse or repentance or
grief” is deeply embedded within the Judeo-Christian tradition. For example,
the popular figure of speech “sackcloth and ashes” refers to the ancient
Hebrew custom of indicating humility before God by wearing a coarse cloth,
normally used to make sacks, and dusting oneself with ashes.” This phrase
appears in Matthew 11:21 “[T]hey [the cities of Tyre and Sidon] have repented
long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”2
The origin of the term “Ash Wednesday” can be traced to 1093. Ashes were given to
those Christians who wanted to make public penance for their sins. On this day,
they stood before the church barefoot and wearing sackcloth. A clergyman would
give each worshipper penitence for their respective sins. Then they were led into
the church where they recited penitential psalms, such as Psalm 51, whose opening
verse proclaims: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness:
according to thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” They were signed on
their foreheads with ashes, which traditionally were generated from the burning
of the past year’s Palm Sunday branches, as a symbol of their renewed commitment
to Jesus Christ. Finally, they were dressed in a hair shirt (a coarse garment
designed to bring discomfort) and expelled from their church for forty days.
During the next forty-day expulsion, they prayed; performed manual labor; did acts of charity;
went shoeless; slept on the ground; and did not bathe nor cut their hair.
This forty-day ritual is no longer widely observed.
However, the eleventh century tradition of accepting ashes as a symbolic act
of penance is observed today. For example, in 2007, the pastor of the United
Methodist Church in Speedway, Indiana left this Ash Wednesday invitation in
the church bulletin: “Join us for the Ash Wednesday Service… come and get your
forehead dirty as you let Christ clean up your heart!” And, in 1995, an
African American parishioner of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church of Washington,
D.C. concurred, saying of Ash Wednesday, “We all need reviving and we are in
[St. Augustine] to be revived.”3
Few African American Protestant churches apply ashes but many observe the Lenten Season.
II. Prose Excerpt
Ash Wednesday’s theme of penance is evident in this prayer uttered by a deacon at a 1928 camp meeting in Nashville, TN:
Almighty and all wise God our heavenly Father! ‘tis once more and again that a
few of your beloved children are gathered together to call upon your holy
name. We bow at your footstool, Master, to thank you for our spared lives.
We thank you that we were able to get up this morning clothed in our right
mind. For Master, since we met here, many have been snatched out of the land
of the living and hurled into eternity. But through your goodness and mercy,
we have been spared to assemble ourselves here once more to call upon a
Captain who has never lost a battle. Oh, throw round us your strong arms
of protection. Bind us together in love and union. Build us up where we
are torn down and strengthen us where we are weak. Oh, Lord, Oh, Lord! Take
the lead of our minds; place them on heaven and heavenly divine things. Oh,
God, our Captain and King! Search our hearts and if you find anything there
contrary to your divine will just move it from us Master, as far as the east
is from the west. Now Lord, you know our hearts, you know our heart’s
desire. You know our down setting and you know our up rising. Lord you
know all about us because you made us, Lord! Lord!4
III. Family Remembrance
“Love Feasts,” a ritual of my family’s Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME)
Church, are contemporary rituals within the African American Christian
community that are suited to assist Ash Wednesday worshippers in dealing with
their sense of grief. According to The CME Discipline: “Love feasts
shall be held quarterly or at such other times as the Preacher in Charge may
consider expedient, with closed doors, to which besides Church members, other
serious persons may be admitted…” The highlight of the service involves
the worshippers partaking of a communion consisting of water and bread.
After drinking the water, the bread is presented and consumed in this
manner: “The plain loaf of bread which the pastor breaks up into reasonably
small pieces is passed to each one. They take a reasonable amount into
their left hand then, under direction of the pastor the members pass and
shake hands with their fellow members. Before they shake hands, each person
takes a small part of the bread out of his left hand with his right hand
and puts this morsel in the left hand of his brother or sister. As they
shake hands, they give such salutation as: ‘May God Bless you,’ ‘Peace be
unto you,’ ‘I Greet you in the Name of Jesus,’ ‘Let Us Rejoice in the God of
Our Salvation,’ etc.” This ritual of breaking bread and fellowship
handshaking is followed by “short testimonies and singing of hymns.” In
my mind’s eye, I can envision my paternal grandfather, Reverend Nathaniel
Hawthorne Wiggins, leading his Pittsburgh congregation in the singing the
Negro Spiritual “Let Us Break Bread Together.”5
Perhaps, the best literary example of this theme is in “Part Two: The
Prayers of the Saints” of James Baldwin’s novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain.
Gabriel Grimes, the patriarch of the Grimes family and Assistant Pastor
of Temple of the Fire Baptized, the Grimes’s family church, is the
quintessential “holier-than-thou Christian” who is oblivious to his need
for penance. His life is based on the unshakeable faith that he is saved
and is not in need of forgiveness. Gabriel’s hubris is revealed in this
dialogue between Esther and Gabriel just prior to their yielding to the
lusts of the flesh in the empty house of their employers: “‘Reverend,’
she said, ‘I ain’t done nothing that I’m ashamed of, and I hope I don’t
do nothing I’m ashamed of, ever…’ ‘But I can’t help it,’ she said, after a
moment, maliciously teasing, ‘is you done things that you’s ashamed of,
Reverend?’”6
IV. Traditional Songs
These African American Spirituals embody Ash Wednesday’s spirit of penance, humility, and the thirst for salvation.
I Am Free
I am free
I am free, my Lord
I am free
I’m washed by the blood of the Lamb
You knock me down
I’ll rise again
I’m washed by the blood of the Lamb
I fight you with my sword and shield
I’m washed by the blood of the Lamb
Remember the day, I remember it well
My dungeon shook and my chain fell off
Jesus cleaned and made me white
Said go in peace and sin no more
Glory to God, let your faith be strong
Lord, it won’t be long before I’ll be gone.7
Live a Humble
Live a-humble, humble
Humble, yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Watch the sun, how steady he runs
Don’t let him catch you with your work undone
Live a-humble, humble
Humble, yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Ever see such a man as God?
He gave His Son for to come and die
Gave up His son for to come and die
Just to save my soul from a burning fire
Live a-humble, humble
Humble, yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
See God and you see God in the morning
He’ll come riding down the line of time
The fire ’ll be falling
He’ll be calling, ‘Come to judgment, come’”8
Lord, I Want To Be a Christian
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart.
In my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart, in my heart.
In my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more holy, in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more holy, in my heart, in my heart.
In my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be more holy, in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart.
In my heart, in my heart.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart.”9
V. Suggested Images for Bulletins/Orders of Worship And Screens
An urn of ashes
A sackcloth garment
A broken loaf of bread
Notes
- Brewer, John Mason. American Negro Folklore. Chicago, IL: Quadrangle Books, 1968.
- “Sackcloth.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Ed. Christine Ammer. 1997. Online location: www.answers.com/topic/sackcloth-and-ashes accessed 4 December 2007
- Edwards, Robin. “Old-fashioned revival rocks D.C. church.” (St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Washington, D.C. – includes related article on evangelical revival history) National Catholic Reporter. 3 March 1995. Online location: www.encyclopedia.com/ accessed 4 December 2007
- Bontemps, Arna Wendell, Langston Hughes, and Charles Harold Nichols. Arna Bontemps-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925-1967. New York: Paragon House, 1990. p. 256.
- Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Lucius Henry Holsey, and Herman C. Riley. A Manual of the Discipline of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Formerly Known As Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, in America. S.l: s.n.], 1984, pp. 98-99.
- Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Dell Publishing, 1952. p. 126.
- "I Am Free." Lyrics
- "Live a Humble." Lyrics online location: www.negrospirituals.com accessed 4 December 2007
- "Lord I Want To Be A Christian."
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