Ash Wednesday

By the Rev. Martha Frances

Ash Wednesday

6 February 2008

Text:  Matthew 1-6, 16-21

Others: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17; Psalm 103: 8-14; 2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6: 10 

      Lent begins very early this year so, despite the chill of the day, we enter into spring, for that is what Lent meant in Old English.  Yesterday's temperature was 80 degrees, & today I had to find a jacket to wear.  Spring is always a time of shifting & change—unsettling & restless as new life gathers its strength down in the soil & pushes up to glorious growth & color.  So Lent is a season of quiet, underground germination moving us forward to the new life that will blossom forth on Easter morning.

      Originally, Lent's dual purpose was to prepare new Christians for baptism at the Vigil on Easter Eve & to allow those who had been estranged because of flagrant sins to be purified so as to return to their Christian family, intending to lead a new life.  Neither new Christians nor those who are separated by sin journey alone, so the whole Christian community walks with them to prepare for renewal & rededication at Easter Eve & then for Resurrection glory at Easter.

      All our scriptures today call us to return to God with our whole hearts, turning our will & our lives over to God's care anew this year.  The psalm is comforting to someone like me who has a hard time trusting anyone else.  It tells us the God to whom we give our lives is full of compassion & mercy, slow to anger & of great kindness.  Thank God, God has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.  God cares for those who fear him—which means those who recognize that God is God & we're not—that God cares for us just as fathers & mothers care for their children.

      Then the psalm says God remembers how we are made—that we are but dust.  What does this mean?  We look back to Christmas when God gave us Jesus, incarnated—with flesh on—so Jesus, the man, could fully embody being human, & we as humans can recognize what it means to be made in God's image & likeness.  So we come forward on Ash Wednesday & have smeared on our heads, if we so choose, a cross of ashes.  Ashes which symbolize our humanity in the form of a cross, the cross on which Jesus died so each of us can be resurrected with him.  Does this make any sense logically?  Not really, but there is something very meaningful about having these ashes placed on my forehead every year because it reminds me I was created human—one whom God says are very good—& I will return to earth when I die.  Meanwhile, I have the responsibility to live the life God has given me as faithfully as Jesus lived the life he God the loving parent gave him.

      Which brings us to Matthew's gospel reading today:  Jesus reminds us this living faithfully is not just for show.  Whatever our Lenten disciplines are to be this year, they're not meant to show others, especially God, how holy we are.  No, rather they are to help us establish habits of faithfulness to carry us throughout our lives. Matthew mentions the 3 traditional Jewish disciplines, also the deep roots of Christian piety also:  almsgiving, praying, & fasting.

      First, giving alms.  Simply stated, we are to share with others the first-fruits of the resources we've been given.  In addition to our tithing to our church community, we have an obligation to alleviate suffering wherever we encounter it.  And we're to look for it; not try to avoid or ignore those in need but to actually to pray that God show us those places where we can make a difference.  Sometimes we do that by lending our time, our talent, our prayers.  Mostly, it means we are to have generous, giving hearts, ready to share what we have.  This Lent we will be exploring avenues where we can be instruments for God's healing the world in our Wednesday evening programs.  Please come at 6:00 to participate in soup & study & prayer.

      Secondly, praying.  Sometimes, we Christians talk more about prayer than we actually pray.  Often, people are concerned that they don't know how to pray correctly, so they avoid it altogether except in structured prayer settings.  Jean Gill says, "Pray as you can; not as you can't."  Our Prayer Book gives models of excellent prayer services & individual prayers that keep our prayers adequately broad & inclusive. The next 40 days plus Sundays is an excellent opportunity to explore new ways of praying & could also be an excellent time to try out a new prayer discipline.  I'll help you explore some of them if you want. The point is, DO IT!  Give thanks & praise to God, pray for this parish & your priest, pray for ways to be open to God's will for you & the courage to carry that will out, pray for God to give you the desire to pray & then put feet to your prayers.  Bask in receptive prayer when you silently wait upon God to speak to you, & don't be surprised if God speaks in new & amazing ways just because you give God space & time to do so.

      Third, Jesus recommends fasting as a spiritual discipline.  You may choose during Lent to eat more sparingly or to avoid some foods.  Some people give up certain foods during Lent or refrain from food one day a week & give that $10-20 they save to feeding those who are truly hungry.  Fasting is about self-discipline, especially in what we eat or drink, but in today's world, it is also about the judicious consumption of the world's goods of which we Westerners use much more than our share.  This isn't about just what we buy at the mall, but how we use the world's resources—water, the air around us, what we throw away, & how large a carbon footprint we leave.  How we use the blessings of creation has a vast relationship to how our neighbors near & far can or cannot also enjoy those blessings. 

      Several years ago, a non-Episcopal woman joined the staff of an Episcopal church in this diocese.  As the priest was preparing for Lent with the staff her 2^nd year with them, she exclaimed, amazed, "You mean we're gonna do Lent again this year?"  We "do Lent" each year, my friends, because each year we need anew to walk the way of Jesus' last days, to give space in our lives for Christ's death & resurrection to guide our own Christian growth, much of it under the surface, so that we may renew our baptismal vows at Easter, once again springing forth in Easter blossoms, resurrected with Christ.