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Ash Wednesday, Year
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Isaiah 58:1-12
“Is not
this the fast that I choose: Today -- Ash Wednesday -- we are told to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. In other words, we are made out of mud, and someday we will die. The Psalmist tells us to number our days and so apply our hearts to wisdom. Lent is the time to prepare our souls for the inevitable. If we are willing to walk through Lent, Easter will be that much more glorious. If we skip straight to Easter without going through Lent, we will have cheapened the experience of God’s grace. If you are taking on a Lenten discipline – if you are fasting in any way -- ask yourself what you would have to change or give up in order to make room for God. What would you have to do to cooperate with God in letting the oppressed go free? If you decide on a discipline, it is to be kept for the next forty week-days up through and including Holy Saturday, April seventh. As you know, you get a break from your Lenten discipline on Sundays during Lent, because every Sunday is a “little Easter.” This forty-day time period looks like Jesus’ time in the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan River. Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus fasted during that time. The Gospels assume that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, will also fast from time to time. Note that our text says “when” you fast; not “if” you fast. Our text also assumes that we will pray and give alms. The Church corporately has its own ways of fasting. We use penitential language in our Eucharistic services, and we use cut greenery as we fast from using flowers at the altar. The Church does not provide wedding ceremonies during Lent except in extreme circumstances, because we refrain from such festivities. This in itself is a fast. Our Prayer Book calls for two days of fasting in the Church year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Between these two days, we are on a special pilgrimage with God. Ash Wednesday begins the time when we are very intentional about cleaning out the cluttered places of our hearts and making more room for God’s love. It is the time to think particularly about sin, forgiveness, and the role of ongoing repentance. It is the time to form new habits of the heart that we have known we needed, but just couldn’t make time to think about. It might be a good time to make an appointment with your priest for the rite of Reconciliation of a Penitent. Such ongoing repentance gives us a fresh sense of responsibility for our own actions, and a sense that we need to be forgiven. It also supplies us with a sense that others need forgiveness, whether or not they ask for it. This keeps us from getting stagnated or defensive about our sins. Repentance allows the Holy Spirit to flow through our lives by keeping us reconciled to God and to each other. I’m glad that Lent coincides with the coming of spring. This gives us a chance to open the windows of our hearts and let the fresh air of God’s forgiveness and love flow through. With new eyes we might see how to let the oppressed go free. I wish you peace and a holy Lent. Amen.
On the grounds of Honey Creek
The Rev. Linda McCloud, Pastor |
