the rix mix

I was rather surprised when a quick Google search turned up a number of United Methodist churches holding "Ash Wednesday" services, including one featuring an "Imposition of Ashes," whatever that means - it has a negative tone to it, as if ashes were being flung at congregants against their will. Growing up as a Methodist, I considered Ash Wednesday very much a Roman Catholic thing, for only Catholics, including my grandmother, went out & about with a cross smudged in ash on their foreheads. If my Methodist Church had a special service for the day after Fat Tuesday, I don't recall it. I wouldn't have gone anyway. Lent wasn't a big deal. The forty days leading to Easter determined a series of Biblical passages & lessons for the Sunday services & school, but that was about it. My future-minister brother may have given up something for Lent, perhaps peanut butter or hot cherry peppers, but it was neither a Methodist tradition nor an effort one was expected to make in my family. Lenten " sacrifice" for most Methodists still means volunteering for something or writing a check for a Christian social service "campaign' - this year I'm sure tsunami relief is getting the big push for an extra collection.

I never liked when Methodism steered too closely to its Anglican origins - there were "high" & "low" liturgical varieties, with affluent churches more likely to embrace the former. I've always preferred an uncomplicated service, with familiar forms & hymns & an intelligent sermon with some modest originality (a rare thing) lasting no more than 20 minutes. For fancier theater, I'd go to church on occasion with one of the Catholic girls I always seemed to be dating. I even licked the ashes off Karen.

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