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Minute for Mission: The Synod of the Trinity
“Aschermittwoch,” Carl Spitzweg, 1808–1885
Carl Spitzweg was a German painter in the 1800s. One of Spitzweg’s more arresting works is called Ash Wednesday. In it, a man in colorful clown clothes sits on a bench in a stone cellar. His shoulders slump and his arms are folded as he gazes downward. A light from the window above offers some cheer, but also falls on a sad man. The carnival is over.
It is Ash Wednesday.
Our mission as Christians is to reconcile the world to God through Christ, because we have been separated from God due to our foolish choices resulting in sin. On Ash Wednesday, we acknowledge that this mission of reconciliation must begin with repentance. In biblical times, people would repent by discarding their nice clothes and sitting in ashes to symbolize their remorse over sin.
Ash Wednesday’s focus on repentance is communal, but it ultimately requires solitude. We go to an Ash Wednesday service with others. But once there, we must each go alone before God. There I admit who I am, really; and how I’ve lived, honestly. And like Spitzweg’s painting, that stark portrait of the real me is not pretty.
As Christians, we often want to rush to the part of our mission to reconcile the world to God that deals with forgiveness and recovery. But Ash Wednesday stresses the potency of remaining for a while in silence before God, sitting in the dust acknowledging that all else is vanity, taking a painfully frank look at the picture of who God is and I am not, and imploring, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
—Rev. Dr. Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission, General Assembly Council
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Judith Coons, GAC
Debra Cooper, BOP
Bonnie Cormican, OGA
Most merciful God, I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart; I have not loved my neighbor as myself. I am truly sorry, and I humbly repent. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and forgive me, that I may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Ps. 5, 147:1–11 Ps. 27, 51
Jon. 3:1–4:11
Heb. 12:1–14; Luke 18:9–14
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