Thursday after Ash Wednesday Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY...

...It was the organist’s night off. His deputy, fresh from college and looking even younger than he actually was, took charge of the choir. The singers – a good-hearted lot, but choirs will be choirs – were, almost instinctively, pushing the boundaries
to see what would happen. Trivial things: a note fluffed here, a lead missed there. And – the most trivial of all, but a telltale sign of implicit rebellion – some were wearing brown shoes, not the regulation black.

I watched as they processed back after the service. The young man didn’t bat an eyelid. Very quietly, but with deadly accuracy, he alerted them to the mistakes. ‘And, gentlemen,’ he added, ‘black shoes, please.’ He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. He was in charge, and they knew it. Point made. It was good to see....

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright