Ash Wednesday

By the Rev. Martha Frances
Ash Wednesday - 25 February 2009 

Text:  Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21.
Other: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17; Psalm 103: 8-14; 2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6: 10 

      ". . .the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—a day of darkness & gloom, a day of clouds & thick darkness!  Like blackness spread upon the mountains, a great & powerful army comes. . . ."  The prophet Joel proclaims a foreboding time every bit as bleak as our news stations & talk radio foretells today, & neither President Obama in his speech before the joint session of Congress last night nor all the pundits who responded to it minimizes the present economic woes of our country & indeed the wider world for the foreseeable future.  My suspicion is that all of us have already experienced the effects of this recession & recognize that the near future will be grim for most folks.  Joel's prediction of doom & gloom rings true to us today, doesn't it?

      Joel doesn't stop there, however.  He does not leave us comfortless, & we can certainly take heart in Joel's admonition to us as we begin our Lenten journey today. 

      Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart,

      with fasting, with weeping, & with mourning; rend your hearts

            & not your clothing.

      Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious & merciful,

      slow to anger, & abounding in steadfast love, & relents from

            punishing.

And later

      Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;

      call a solemn assembly; gather the people.

Joel calls us, as do the Ash Wednesday collect & call to a Holy Lent, to turn to God with all our hearts, to be reconciled to God, as today's Epistle states, for now IS the acceptable time, now is a time for which none of us asked but during which we can choose to learn trust in God at a whole new level & can perhaps truly learn to store up treasures in heaven.  After all, most of us who have any treasures here on earth are seeing moth & rust consume our interest rates & in some cases thieves breaking in & stealing what we had considered secure.  Lent comes around once a year, & this year especially, we can benefit from some version of the centuries-old practices urged by the Church as we give ourselves over to accompanying Jesus on his journey to the cross which precedes resurrection.  The quality of our experience of resurrection will in large part be determined by the faithfulness with which we observe Lent.

      Matthew's admonishment to give alms, pray, & fast are the traditional Jewish disciplines for maintaining righteousness.  Matthew challenges his new Christian community & us also to continue these practices but not to do them in order that others may see how pious we are but rather to open ourselves to God's rule in our lives at a deeper level.  In such a way, we learn where it is our treasure lies.  In these times of economic hardship, we have the opportunity to do just that, it seems to me:  to learn just what is important in our lives. 

      We who have been Episcopalian for several years have faced Lent each year asking ourselves what we will give up for Lent, often dreading the 40 days ahead & grateful that Sundays are considered a feast day so that we have a break each week from the vigors of Lent.  It took many years for me to realize this "giving up" is a form of fasting, & that a modern fast is actually giving up something which we enjoy enough that it seems a sacrifice.  I choose to give up something during Lent, like sugar, which will make me more attentive to what I DO have, like nutritious food, but also which I might carry on beyond the Lenten season because it is just good for me.  In addition to food, it may be an activity which is not attractive or purposeful in my life anyway such as gossiping or being judgmental.  Even last Saturday's Chronicle listed certain possibilities for giving things up with examples from various religious leaders including our own Bishop Andy Doyle.

      The second traditional Lenten discipline is prayer.  Although I have a daily prayer time—or really 2 of them—I personally need the 40 days of Lent each year to recommit to setting aside that time DAILY & using it for quality prayer time, not just going through the motions.  Prayer can include many different forms including meditating on scripture such as Lectio Divina, sitting in God's presence in silent prayer such as Centering Prayer, writing our prayers in a journal, a commitment to a prayer group, & reading & discussing spiritual literature.  This Lent Hope is providing a structured form for such a discipline in our home study groups reading & discussing the novel The Shack.  If you have not signed up for a group, please do so in the parish hall today or by Sunday since the groups start next week.  We hope all adults & youth in the parish choose to join us in this wonderful opportunity for growth spiritually & in community.  This is also a great opportunity to invite a friend to participate with you.  Let me also remind you that starting this Friday & throughout Lent, we will be praying the Stations of the Cross at 6:30 in the evening here in the church.  It's a wonderful opportunity to journey with Jesus through his pilgrimage to Calvary.  Please come & participate in this meditative yet active form of prayer.

      Finally, we are admonished to give alms, especially during Lent.  Perhaps this year, it is tempting to say that our financial situation is too uncertain or our budget too tight to be giving away to others.  Sometimes we feel that WE are the less fortunate.  Although there is some truth to that sentiment in the present difficult economy, you & I all know that our quality of hard times is still more plentiful than that of most people in the world & many here in our own city.  The households at Hope have received a meditation booklet from me this Lent which I hope you will use for your own family devotions but which I hope also keeps us all conscious of the possibility of contributing to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals, if not through Episcopal Relief & Development, then through another contributing organization.  I hope you plan to keep a container in a prominent place in your home during these 40 days & encourage members of the family to drop in coins or even bills toward an Easter donation to ER-D or some other charity.  You'll be surprised how much your family might accumulate in 6½ weeks! 

      Of course, giving alms might include the discipline of making a pledge to the church & actually getting ahead on paying on it during Lent.  We are still about 20 pledges short of our pledges for last year, & the finance committee is currently deciding what to recommend to the vestry about how we can cut back on an already tight budget.  Remember that giving alms also includes giving of your time & talent to provide for the larger community just as we saw the youth & a whole bunch of adults do at last evening's Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper.  What a Mardi Gras party we had as we tried really hard to clean out our cupboards of all the fat before the Lenten fast! How many other ways can we provide elbow grease or other skills to the strengthening of Hope? 

      One of my meditation books calls Lenten disciplines "Holy Habits", these practices which help us to stay focused & attached to Christ during our 40 days before Easter.  Those practices which we choose become, in a very real way, markers for who we are, both individually & as a community.  Their suggestions of Holy Habits include worship, laughter, quiet times, music, listening to a friend, confession, play, & Bible reading.  My immediate additions include stargazing, dancing, enjoying grandchildren, & openness to serendipity.  What holy habits might you choose for your 40 days?