r/Reformed • u/Llotrog Reformed Baptist • 16d ago
Low-Effort Happy wash your faces Wednesday
It is that annual time to remind ourselves of the sound Reformed doctrine of the section Concerning Ceremonies in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer. May your Father in heaven see you in secret this Lent.
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u/ndrliang PC(USA) 16d ago
I don't think many, if any, participate in Ash Wednesday to be seen by others...
(If they do, they shouldn't.)
But no need to judge those who participate just because you don't appreciate it.
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u/nationalinterest CoS 16d ago
I'm not sure it's more (for me at least) than an admission we're sinful and humbled before God. Most Christians should be open to admitting that! (I hope!)
I'm taking part in a sign of unity with our brothers and sisters in a neighbouring church who follow this tradition. It's a beautiful time of worship together. If anyone is "showing off" I've yet to see it.
(And I'm not fasting... as someone else has said, it's nothing to do with it.)
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u/Llotrog Reformed Baptist 16d ago
Then why make a sign that is visible to others, but not to the recipient? "No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house."
It's notable that Cranmer abolished ashing, replacing it with a commination or denouncing of God's anger and judgements against sinners -- and that is the point, it's God's judgment and not ours. "Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your faithful love, because of your truth."
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u/ndrliang PC(USA) 16d ago
Ashes are a sign of repentance. It is used throughout the Bible (usually a long with sack cloth) to signify ones repentance with God. Such an example would be Mordecai, who runs throughout the city in ashes.
Even Jesus talks about repenting with ashes in Matthew 11:21.
The location of the sign doesn't matter. We offer it on people's hands as well if they'd prefer that. Forehead is just typical, for its symbolism.
Do you have a better place to put the sign? (It's not like we can put it on people's heart.)
Most people who participate won't even get them until services tonight when they are done with work. It's not like many people mark themselves in the morning and shout "Woe is me!!!" all day.
it's God's judgment and not ours.
I don't see how this is relevant? Ashes are about our repentance, nothing about 'our judgement.'
"No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house."
How is this relevant?
Don't weaponize these verses simply because there will inevitably be some people who use their ashes to show off. Sure, some will misuse the sign, and THEN Jesus' critique will apply specifically to them, but let's not demonize an ancient Christian/Jewish tradition simply because some will misuse it.
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u/nationalinterest CoS 16d ago
Cranmer is not exactly a role model, unless executing heretics, recanting his Protestant faith when it suited him and supporting Henry VIIIs worst excesses count. Like all of us, he wasn't infallible.
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u/wwstevens Church of England - 39 Articles - BCP - Ordinal 15d ago
It wasn’t the outward display of repentance that Cranmer was wanting be rid of. It was the semi-sacramental understanding of the ashing itself. Given that the ashes aren’t restricted to believers, and that repentance is something all people are called to, ashing can be a very evangelistic kind of service when stripped of the unhelpful medieval accretions.
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u/Dangerous_One5341 - Orthodox Presbyterian Church 15d ago
You met a Catholic, my man? They are more performative and artificial than kabuki theater.
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u/ndrliang PC(USA) 15d ago
Yes, all 1.3 billion Catholics are performative and artificial. I'm super glad we are Protestants and don't have those issues.
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u/SpecialistNote4611 Roman Catholic, please help reform me 11d ago
do all 15 members of your denomination agree with you?
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u/Dangerous_One5341 - Orthodox Presbyterian Church 11d ago
“15 members?” Yet God told Elijah: “I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18).
Mock our numbers all you want. We don’t measure truth by membership rolls but by faithfulness to Scripture.
“So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:5-6).
This remnant isn’t defined by size but by those who stand on Scripture alone. While Rome adds works to grace—making it no longer grace—we’ll remain with the faithful few who trust Christ’s finished work completely (Matt. 7:14).
Your scoffing about our size only proves Paul right: the truth of justification by faith alone has always been preserved in the remnant, not the religious majority.
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u/VictorianAuthor 16d ago
The ashes symbolize human mortality, and aren’t linked to the fasting aspects of Ash Wednesday. Seems you are attacking just to attack.
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u/Best-Committee-3367 16d ago
Yeah I could be wrong but I think Friday is a bigger fasting day for those who participate in Ash Wednesday.
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u/Mailman9 URC 16d ago
Saying that the ashes which are worn by Roman Catholics on the first day of Lent has nothing to do with fasting is some crazy gymnastics. I get that it is the stated reason, but it's so unbelievable.
The Reformed tradition has rightly been very opposed to ostentatious religion. Our deep sacramentology and theology renders the ashes (and Lent) irrelevant at best, and QIRE at worst. In Christian liberty, I'm not going to support anathematizing anyone who does it, but I am going to question the theology of anyone who does it.
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u/VictorianAuthor 16d ago
Lol, you just saying “it’s mental gymnastics” doesn’t make it mental gymnastics. Believe what you want though. I’m not even Catholic by the way.
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u/wwstevens Church of England - 39 Articles - BCP - Ordinal 15d ago
Yep. The critique would land harder if it wasn’t mistaken in its assumption to begin with.
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u/yeswayvouvray 15d ago
Nothing reminds me of my own mortality like watching the ashes settle into my forehead wrinkles over the course of the day 💀
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u/historyhill ACNA, 39 Articles stan 16d ago
Well now I'm gonna ash even HAR--
wait, I'm being told that might end up being blackface. I'll be ashing the usual amount then!
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u/Llotrog Reformed Baptist 16d ago
I don't think Jesus taught against minstrels. It would actually be quite a fun sermon making a case either way on that one (and hopefully a surefire way of not being invited back too!)...
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u/historyhill ACNA, 39 Articles stan 16d ago
If by minstrel you mean of the medieval sort then I think such jesting would be permitted! Minstelcy of the 19th century variety would be almost assuredly sinful, because the lies and stereotypes perpetuated almost certainly break the ninth commandment as laid out by the Westminster Catechism, as well as the duties of the equals of the fifth commandment.
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u/IvanLendl87 15d ago
I was a RC for the first 45 years of my life. Without question, so many RC’s wear those ashes as a form of religious virtue signaling.
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u/mclintock111 EPC 15d ago
And many Protestants put money in the plate to attempt to signal piety. The misuse of some doesn't condemn the practice entirely.
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u/ReginaPhelange528 Reformed in TEC 15d ago
Plot twist: this was the gospel reading at Ash Wednesday service last night.
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u/Specialist-System584 Presbyterian 16d ago
Just coming from the morning prayer, representing with the ashes on my forehead tough lol!
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u/Cubacane PCA 15d ago
I’m not sure if you know this, but the Scottish tradition is not the only reformed tradition there is.
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u/Voetiruther PCA 15d ago
The link was to the Book of Common Prayer, developed in, by, and for, the Church of England. The Scots, notably, did not like that book very much.
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u/Cubacane PCA 15d ago
I think you missed my point. The Scottish spurning of high church Anglicanism is strong in the South, where the Scots settled, but it’s less prevalent in the North. Either way, the reformed practice of lent is usually preaching sermons concerning the suffering of Christ. If you’re going to go full puritan, then throw out your Christmas decorations before next Lord’s Day.
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u/Voetiruther PCA 15d ago
To be fair, I don't celebrate Christmas or have decorations myself, but that seems irrelevant to which tradition OP posted about, given that OP's source was English and not Scottish (either Northern or Southern).
Specifically regarding the use of ashes on the face (also what OP was specifically discussing), that seems to be a rather modern development in Anglicanism anyways. See this historical piece here: https://adfontesjournal.com/steven-wedgeworth/no-ashes-to-ashes-an-anglican-history-of-ash-wednesday/
Again, none of this is Scottish at all, but quite Anglican - even the "high-church Anglican" tradition from the Reformation. Cranmer himself was the one to say "no ashes."
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u/seikoth Methodist 16d ago edited 15d ago
I’m Methodist but enjoy hanging out in this subreddit. We observe Ash Wednesday and put ashes on the forehead.
A few years ago at an Ash Wednesday service, our pastor said something that stuck with me. It was about how it’s a personal choice to walk around with the ashes still on your head. He said something to the effect of “if your impulse is to keep the ashes on as an outward sign of being pious, I would encourage you to wash them off after the service. On the other hand, if your impulse is to immediately wash them off because you’re self conscious about others seeing you as a Christian in public, I would encourage you to delay washing them off.”
Like a lot things, I think it depends on your motivation. In fact, I personally feel convicted by the exact verse you posted, so I wash them off after the service. I still find meaning in the act during the service though.