Ash Wednesday

(Matthew 6:1-23)

            “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.  Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward.  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.  Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.  But whenever you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show that they are fasting.  Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 

               I remember my first Ash Wednesday in Ohio after our sojourn in California.  It was 1981, and my mother was in the Intensive Care unit at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.  It had been a tough couple of weeks, but the crisis with her health was beginning to turn around.

               Ash Wednesday had become a precious and sacred day in my life as I had made my way through the previous 5 years in seminary settings.  Mind you, in Bristolville, where I had grown up, one did not pay much attention to this day because it was perceived to be a Catholic thing, especially if you were running around with ashes on your forehead.  

In rural Protestant circles in towns like Bristolville you started Lent on that first Sunday, and that was all there was to it.  Each of the six Sunday nights in Lent we had to go to a different church in the area for the Lenten series, and, my experience as a kid was that I was bored out of my mind.  So, in discovering Ash Wednesday, I had found a whole new wonderful world of worship.

               So it was that Mother happened to be in the hospital on Ash Wednesday.  We family members had spent what seemed like forever staying in the hospital round the clock, care-taking, reassuring, supporting her and ourselves during those difficult weeks that had come before.  Through this time I had met and talked with the Catholic priest who was a part-time chaplain at the hospital.  I happened to see him on Ash Wednesday, and I asked if he would be willing to take ashes to my mother.  Of course he was.

               Well, that may have been what turned my dear mother’s health situation around.  She was so mad that the Catholics were trying to put ashes on her forehead that she waved him away angrily and promptly began to get better….

               Clearly, I was the one who wanted and needed the ashes on that day.  I had been away from the home I grew up in for long enough that I forgot or was oblivious to how that ritual would be received by my mom–because I had grown to love it.  I spent a few years feeling embarrassed about putting the priest in that situation.  Now I know that he must have understood much better than I did how things were and that, between us, we probably gave dear old mom 17 more years of life!

               What I needed at that time was the wonderful, sacred, purifying, clearing power of Ash Wednesday.  I needed what I think we all need on Ash Wednesday: the community gathering to support each other for a very humbling and private time in a person’s life.  I needed, and we may all need, a sign of the holy, a sign of love and acceptance, of forgiveness and belonging.

               So, that’s what we’re about here tonight—inviting God’s presence and power into this place and into our hearts.  There’s no hocus-pocus, no magic, necessarily, but there is much we will not understand, nor do we need to.  OUR part is to come to God with our burdens of wrong-doing, doubt, confusion, the burden of trying to take over for God by making ourselves into the ruler of our lives. 

              If we honestly and intentionally want to give these things to God, we can begin anew, allowing God to rebuild us.  It requires a humble heart, a clear intention to walk along the way with God and a belief that we cannot do it alone.  But with God and a strong faith community, we CAN do this.

             And so, there is no ONE way or ONLY right outward-and-visible manner in which to observe Ash Wednesday or Lent. In other words, you don’t have to fast, but, if you choose to, it could be a powerful spiritual experience. You don’t have to pray in one certain way, but Jesus DOES offer a prayer that really covers all or most of the bases.

You don’t have to give alms (that is, money or food given to poor people.  It also means compassion).  As is noted in the lesson, giving alms publicly with much fanfare is tacky, but giving alms is one way of practicing your devotion and living out your commitment to God and others.

              In the same way, you don’t HAVE to go to Ash Wednesday service and receive ashes, but I’m glad you’re here.  This can be a beautiful opportunity to be humble, to be clear about our very human limitations, to be open and honest with God and ourselves about how we’ve fallen short of the vision.  Tonight is a chance to truly repent, which means we have an honest intent to turn ourselves around, or, better put, to allow ourselves to be turned around.

            One of my spiritual guides says we should say when we impose the ashes, “From stardust we have come and to stardust we shall return.”  I like that a lot.  That makes it more about where in the world our spirits are after death, how they are present in the universe. 

             But the old language, “from dust you have come and dust you shall return,” requires that we deal honestly with our mortality, doesn’t it?  We also say, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”  That is a basic and fundamental takeaway from our Gospel message: that we struggle with our human weakness, that we do stuff that we shouldn’t and avoid doing what we should.

             For followers of Christ, believing in the Gospel means that we know God’s grace-filled forgiveness, and we believe that we are recipients of God’s grace, that unconditional acceptance, that Jesus has shown to us.

              Tonight is not meant to be a theological decision moment.  Rather, it’s simply a time in which we offer ourselves to God for transformation, the transformation of Lent and of life.  All we have to do is to appear at the altar with our open and honest selves. 

             …God be with you at this beginning of your Lenten journey.  Amen.