I'm sure there is a way to attach PDF files to this blog, but I have yet to figure it out, so here is my Ash Wednesday sermon, which pretty well sums up my ideas about the day and Lent.
Every year that I participate in an Ash Wednesday service I am always struck by the irony of the passage from Matthew that is used. It just doesn’t seem to match. Jesus tells us in Matthew that when we fast, and when we give and when we pray, that we should do this secretly. We shouldn’t do anything to announce the fact that we are undertaking these things. And then shortly after we have heard these words then we all stand up and process forward in order to have a visible mark made on our foreheads which announces to the world the beginning of our Lenten journey. Now don’t get me wrong, I like this passage and I think it’s a very important passage, but it never seems to work for me for what today is supposed to symbolize. I think there are much more appropriate passages, such as the prophet Joel who says “return to [the Lord] with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning,” that seems like an appropriate piece of scripture to read, but then Joel continues “rend your hearts and not your clothing.” And so we end up with the same problem, for it seems that when talking about spiritual disciplines in the scripture, a point is made about not having a public display and so I’m always puzzled about Ash Wednesday activities.
So what are we doing here? Well the obvious thing is that today begins our Lent. Now the word lent has no special religious meaning. In fact it comes from an Old English word that simply means springtime. The history of Lenten practices are also unclear because there is no pure scriptural basis for it or for Ash Wednesday. What is clear is that the church has combined several different practices into one. During the Protestant Reformation the practices were discarded by many Protestants because they didn’t have a true scriptural basis, but with the liturgical renewal movement many Protestant churches have reclaimed some of the things that in the past were discarded. But in our search for meaning and purpose to this time, we have taken on the theology of the season which is heavily rooted in medieval theology, not exactly the high point of the church’s existence. Now if you’ve been attending here for a little while you are probably aware that Pastor Joel and I have differing opinions on Lenten disciplines. While I certainly promote the idea of fasting, Wesley required his ministers to fast twice a week, I personally reject the idea that we take it on for 40 days and then are relieved when we can go back to our normal lives. That, to me is the wrong way to take on a spiritual practice and also to take them on for the wrong reason.
Notice that Jesus assumes that people are practicing the activities he is talking about, and there is not the assumption that these were time limited. They were practiced year round, not just for forty days as a penitential activity, so that we can suffer some in order to remember Christ’s suffering for us. Again, that is rooted in medieval theology. Now in the past I have advocated that instead of giving something up for Lent that we take on a spiritual discipline. That is add something to our lives. I advocate that position with the knowledge that it takes at least 28 days to establish a habit and so I have the hope that the spiritual discipline that we take on will be something that we carry forward with us. If it’s important enough to do for forty days then I would hope it would be important enough to do all the time, and that includes fasting. I hear stories of things people are giving up and great reasons why, but then I always wonder why do you want to stop? Why not keep going? Aren’t the reasons just as good the day after Easter as they are the day before? The social justice commission is asking us to participate in a carbon fast during Lent, which is great and important thing. But why end it? Isn’t God’s creation important enough to keep going in protecting it and limiting our damage to the environment? What Lent should be about is returning ourselves to right relation with God, and if giving something up or taking something on helps us to do that then that is important work, but if the activities are taken on for other reasons then I think we are deluding ourselves and practicing these things for all the wrong reasons, which is what Jesus has just warned us about.
Perhaps the words we should hear at the beginning of lent are a little simpler and more to the point. They are the words that begin Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel according to Mark, “repent for the kingdom of God has come near.” Now repent is also one of those loaded words, but it simply means “turn around.” But in order to be able to turn around we must first recognize that we are going in the wrong direction. Repentance in this context usually refers to sin, and that’s not something we deal with very well, especially in the mainline churches. It is certainly not something I talk about directly. It is certainly something we discuss, but the word “sin” is not used, and there are negative consequences for this. Joel Osteen was once asked why he doesn’t talk about sin, and he said it was because people know they are sinners and so he doesn’t have to address what is already known. But it’s just not that easy. In the church where I did my internship, I had a member come up to me and say that he didn’t like saying the prayer of confession before communion because he thought he was a good person and didn’t think he had done any of the things that he was having to confess to. Now this prayer of confession, which we will say in a few minutes, is extremely broad and so for him to say he had not transgressed against God in these ways would be to claim that he had, in good Wesleyan terminology, been sanctified or perfected in Grace. And, while not judging him, I can honestly say I knew that was not the case.
Sin means a broken relationship with God. Whenever we do something that is not God’s will for us or for the world then we have sinned. It’s really that simple, and while I can’t speak for the rest of you, I know that I sin all the time. I know that my life is not in total alignment with God, no matter how hard I try, and some days are worse then others. That is why we as Methodists claim that we are moving on to perfection, and we don’t say that we are perfected, because to be perfected is to be in total alignment with God. What Lenten practices, when done correctly, seek to do is to help us recognize that we are mortal beings who simply make mistakes, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, but all of our actions have consequences. Lent gives us the opportunity to slow down and be intentional about our relationship with God, with our families and with each other. It is a time to turn-around from our normal lives, to repent, and to go in a different direction. But that direction shouldn’t end at Easter. It should continue for the rest of our lives, otherwise we just end up repenting of our repentance and start going the same way again.
Hopefully what lent allows us to do is to become better aligned with God’s will and purpose for us, to put us into a place and location in which we can better hear and listen to what God is saying and asking of us, and giving us a vehicle through which we can try and put God first in our lives, and then carry that through to the rest of our lives. Don’t make this just forty days of reflection, repentance and spiritual practice; instead make it the beginning of the rest of your life in seeking to live in right relation with God. Seek to make this the start of a new way of being in the world. Seek to make it foundation for your life as a disciple of Christ. Seek to make it the introduction to your new way of being Christian. View Lent as an invitation by God to come into a better relationship with God, a relationship which will forever change you forever.
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