Pastoral Guidance on Ash Wednesday, Fasting, and Lent

By Travis Scott, February 22, 2023.

[The following is the content of two separate pastoral emails I send to our congregation annually. The guidance and advice of the letter is particular to our congregational context and not expected to be the best guidance for every congregation. Rather, it is offered as one example of how to guide a congregation in considering these matters.]

Ash Wednesday  

[Today] we begin the liturgical season of Lent. This is a season that gets mixed reactions within Protestant and Presbyterian circles. Lent, like anything (including Christmas or Easter) can be abused and misused; but historically the season simply focuses on repentance and renewal in the lead up to celebrating Holy Week and Easter. The beginning of Lent is traditionally marked by the observance of Ash Wednesday. 

What is Ash Wednesday? 
From The Worship Sourcebook, “The aim of Ash Wednesday worship is threefold: to meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior; to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin.”  Mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior show how this day serves the ongoing theme of repentance in Lent as we look forward to the joy of the resurrection on each Lord's Day Sunday and the particular celebration of Christ's work on our behalf on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  

My friend Tim LeCroy has written succinctly and compellingly on the origins and rationale for Ash Wednesday and Lent and why even Presbyterians should consider observing them. He answers at length many of the questions people often have so I will just briefly address a few more below. 

What's up with the ashes in an Ash Wednesday service? 
Ash Wednesday is so named because the traditional worship of that day includes what's known as the "imposition", or rubbing of ashes on the foreheads of worshippers. Ashes are symbolically and biblically connected to the humility of repentance and the concept of mortality and death brought about by sin (i.e. dust to dust, etc. See the article linked above). 

Why should we do an Ash Wednesday service?  
There are two main reasons I think we should do an Ash Wednesday service. The first is simply that it helps us grow in a liturgical approach to our calendar in general. The truth is that the Liturgical Calendar is a brutal master if it's used as something you "must do." Used as a mere tool though, it can be both instructive and useful. As busy people living busy lives in a totally secularized culture - the Liturgical Calendar can help us reorient our lives around the claims and rhythms of the Christian story. The reality is that many of us unquestioningly accept some of the high Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas. At Grace & Peace we also incorporate other parts of the Liturgical Year like Advent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday 

The second reason I think Ash Wednesday can be helpful to us is because it specifically focuses on a biblical reality and theme most of us tend to avoid - our own mortality and death. Ash Wednesday allows us to intentionally consider these difficult and unpleasant topics in the light of the Gospel and the hope of the resurrection. Simple as that. 

What about Lent in general? Should I be fasting? 
Maybe, maybe, not. Stay tuned for next week's email or check out the article about Lent linked above. 

Isn't all this just... like... super Catholic?   
Again, maybe or maybe not. A lot of how I answer that question probably depends on what you mean by it. There are some people who've had a very negative experience with the Roman Catholic Church and therefore it can be hard to associate anything positive with it. I understand that. However, we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater here. There are Catholic liturgical practices we have to wholeheartedly reject for biblical and theological reasons (veneration of Mary, prayer to the Saints, use of icons). There are also some practices which may look very similar to ours but which are done for very different reasons (infant baptism for example). Ash Wednesday and some aspects of the church calendar may fall into this latter calendar. At the end of the day, our ultimate question is not, "Is this something Catholics (or Baptists, or Pentecostals, or Anglicans, or whoever) do?" but, "Is this something we have a biblical rationale or calling to do?" 

Fasting and Lent  

The question of fasting and Lent are tied together since the spiritual practice is a traditional part of how Christians have observed this season throughout history.  However, fasting is a biblical spiritual practice that goes beyond any liturgical season.    
With this in mind, some questions to consider: 

Should we fast? 
The Bible seems to indicate that fasting should be some part of the Christian life. While Jesus corrected the misuse and abuse of this spiritual practice he seemed to expect it to be some part of his followers practice (Matthew 6:17-18; Mark 2:20); and we see that it was practiced in the earliest days of the church (Acts 9:9; 13:2; 14:23). We also know this has been a discipline practiced by Christians in the Church throughout the world and throughout history. All that being said though, there is no specific command in Scripture for how often, or how much, or from what we are to fast. Which means there is freedom in how we observe this discipline.

What's the purpose of fasting? 
Like any discipline of the Christian life fasting should be done in the awareness that God's love comes to us through the grace of Christ, we don't need to earn it in any way. Fasting does not make us more loved, nor does it make us more "holy" in the sense of being spiritually superior or more fit than anyone else. Nor does it get God's attention or somehow make him notice us more. However, like all spiritual disciplines, God does use fasting for our good and to grow us in Christ. In his classic work "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" Donald Whitney describes at least ten different ways the Bible describes fasting as an aid to believers including - to strengthen prayer, to express repentance and the return to God, and to humble oneself before God. These three have particular connection to the use of fasting in the Lenten season.  

In his helpful work on prayer, Jerram Barrs summarizes the ultimate purpose of fasting this way: "The fundamental meaning of... fasting is the recognition that our greatest need of all (even greater than our need for regular meals) is the wisdom, strength, support, comfort, and encouragement of our heavenly Father." 

So why should I consider fasting during Lent? 
The first thing to say is that I'm not overly concerned with whether you fast during Lent or not. The rhythm of Lent provides liturgical structure to help us look to the sufficiency of Christ in daily dependence. For me that's less about getting you to take things out of your life (what most people think of Lenten fasting) and more about adding healthy things to your life (Ash Wednesday service, daily liturgical rhythms, etc.); if fasting from something during the period of Lent helps you to do that - great! If not, then do it some other way. But I'd still encourage you to answer the question, "How am I growing in daily dependence on Christ in this season?" That's that the purpose of Lent - growing in my experience of my union and identification with Christ and his suffering on my behalf as I take up my cross and follow him. If fasting doesn't help you to that end, no worries. But you need to wrestle with the question of what will. 

Finally, some people mistakenly think that fasting during the Lenten season is decidedly un-Reformed or un-Presbyterian. If you wrestle with that, or know of folks who do, I'd direct to the teaching on worship from our confessional standards. In section 21:5, the Westminster Confession, after listing all the ordinary (weekly) parts of regular worship of God, lists additional practices of worship and specifically states that "solemn fasting, and thanksgivings upon special occasions, which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner." Fasting during Lent is certainly not a biblical requirement, but neither is it unbiblical. For those Presbyterian and Reformed folks who are seriously opposed to Lenten Fasting, I get it. The misuse and abuse of this practice in history may be hard for you to look past. But then the question is, what ARE the times and seasons in which we might practice solemn fasting? 

There are obviously lots of other questions on this subject: Big questions, and little ones; theoretical, and very practical ones. If this is something you are interested in talking or learning more about please email or call me and we can talk more. I can try to answer your questions and give you some direction or at least give you some suggested further reading on the subject. 

In the meantime I share this Lenten prayer with you in closing: 
Lord God, heavenly Father,
you know that we are set in the midst of so many and great dangers,
that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright:
Grant us such strength and protection, to support us in all danger,
and carry us through all temptations;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(From the German Litany, Martin Luther) 

In Christ, 
Travis