Ash Wednesday
February 6, 2008
Rev. Steven W. Plank
“Renewal”
Text: Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new
and right spirit within me.”
Scripture
Lessons: Psalm 51:1-17
Matthew 6:1-6,
16-21
Proposition: Lent is not just a time for solemnity. It is a time for “Renewal,” for finding those
areas of our lives that we would like God to refresh, restore, and renew in
Christ’s ways.
Prayer for Illumination: Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit,
that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your
will discover your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For
many of us, Ash Wednesday is a relatively new experience. When I was growing up, I don’t remember there
being an Ash Wednesday service at our church, and the only people I ever saw
running around on that day each year with “dirty foreheads” were my Roman
Catholic friends and neighbors. Wearing
the sign of ashes seemed foreign to me, and it even seemed a bit prideful…
being so visibly identified as a Christian.
Wasn’t it better to mark ourselves on the inside, where no one else
could see? Wasn’t it more closely
following Jesus to not make a “show” of my faith… you know, praying in secret,
and giving alms in secret, and fasting in secret, just as the Lord told us to
do in this evening’s Gospel lesson?
In
some ways, the answer to those questions most surely is “yes.” But in other ways… well, we Presbyterians
surprisingly seem to like to take the Bible literally only when it comes to passages like keeping signs of faith
secretive! Otherwise, we are most adept
at valuing an interpretive approach to the scriptures, looking for the layers
of meaning in a passage, decrying those who say they take the Bible literally
when we clearly see that as an unlikely thing to do! Funny how we pick and choose what we like to
emphasize, isn’t it?
But
the observance of Ash Wednesday, and the observance of Lent
and other seasons of the liturgical year, have sneaked up on us
Protestants. We have learned to value
signs and symbols from our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, just as in the
past few decades they have learned to value preaching and Bible study from us.
Ash
Wednesday begins the 40-day observance of the Church season of Lent. The colors in the sanctuary change to purple,
symbolizing the more somber and reflective emphasis of this period of
time. Traditionally, we don’t sing or say
“Alleluia” in any parts of our worship services during Lent… well, perhaps
except for the one I just spoke! The
customary spiritual disciplines of the season are prayer, fasting, and giving…
things that we might surely do other times of the year, but which we take on as
particularly important for us to do during Lent. This is a season that begins in penitence and
in the remembrance that we are fallible human beings who, despite our actions
and beliefs to the contrary, will not
live forever. I used to joke with
people, calling Lent “the officially-sanctioned Church season of depression”…
but depression is nothing to joke about, nor is depression what this time in
the Church’s life each year is about. Lent is about reflection. It is about “Renewal.” It is a time for finding those areas of our
lives that we would like God to refresh, restore, and renew in Christ’s ways,
and then opening ourselves to God’s work in our lives by spending more
conscious and intentional times in prayer, fasting, and giving to the Church
and to those in need.
I
invite you to listen to what some of our sisters and brothers in the Faith have
written about Lent, and spend a few moments reflecting upon how their words
might echo our own thoughts and prayers during this evening’s worship, this
season’s message.
Elizabeth-Anne
Vanek, from her book, Extraordinary Time, wrote:
“You thumbed grit
into my
furrowed brow,
marking me
with the
sign of mortality,
the dust of
last year’s palms.
The cross you traced
seared,
smudged skin,
and I
recalled
other
ashes
etched
into my
heart
by those
who loved too little
or not at
all.”
How do the ashes of our
mortality remind us of our own failures to love, or the failures of others to
share love with us when it was needed?
How does the grit of the branches from last year’s Palm Sunday remind us
of those we need to forgive, and those whose forgiveness we need? (A brief time for silence.)
Walt
Whitman wrote:
“Word over all, beautiful as the
sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds
of carnage
must in
time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death
and Night
incessantly,
softly,
wash again
and ever again
this soiled
world.”
What things in our lives need
to be washed and renewed, what soil needs to be flushed out of our hearts and
minds? What perspective might we gain in
this life and world to know that, in the end, war and carnage and violence will
be utterly lost within the embrace of God’s grace? (A brief time for silence.)
Priest
and monk, Thomas Merton, in his collection, Seasons
of Celebration, wrote:
“The cross, with which the ashes are traced upon us,
is the sign of Christ’s victory over death.
The words, ‘Remember that thou art dust and that to dust thou shall
return,’ are not to be taken as the quasi-form of a kind of ‘sacrament of
death’ (as if such a thing were possible).
It might be good stoicism to receive a mere reminder of our condemnation
to die, but it is not Christianity.”
When you see the cross, what
do you see? It is a sign of death, a reminder of Christ’s death for us. But the Church also has seen this as a sign
of victory, especially when the cross is empty, as it is in the Protestant
tradition. It is a sign that not even
death has the last word in life. That
last word in our lives, as the first word, belongs to God, and it is a word of
life and of love and of grace and of mercy.
What do you see when you look
at the cross? (A brief time for silence.)
As
we journey through the next weeks of Lent, let us make time to participate in
intentional spiritual disciplines… of prayer, of fasting, of giving, of acts of
compassion, of stands for justice, of whatever we might do to bring us closer
to God… let us do so not just with a sense of somberness, but with a spirit of
joy and gratitude, opening ourselves to God’s gifts of spiritual refreshment,
of restoration in our relationships with God and others, and of “Renewal” in
all areas of our lives.
AMEN!