February 21, 2007 – Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58: 1-12
Is it because I am part of the Baby Boom – numbered in the majority these days? Or is it because society is getting crabby; feeling unrest, dis-ease, a lack of respect and immorality, that I continue to receive email editorials about “a simpler life,” “the good old days,” and “remember whens?” Perhaps our history gives us a sense that our early life was better than now – that somehow in our past we were happier, or wiser, or more faithful to God. In that truth we are eternally connected with the people of the prophet Isaiah’s time.
Isaiah’s people had never seen God’s work in their history and had begun to wonder whether it was worth serving God. Apathy and discouragement had dimmed their vision of the future.
- They had not experienced the time when the people were treated unjustly and cried out, and God had responded to their cries.
- They were not the ones who had been slaves and exiles and felt the “mighty hand and outstretched arm of God” as they tread on the dry sea floor with the Red Sea on all sides.
- They had never been hungry and thirsty in the wilderness and drank miraculous rock water or ate bread from heaven.
- They did not remember being homeless-wandering in the wilderness or exiled in Babylon-and receiving God’s freedom through Cyrus of Persia.
- They had not experienced all of these things in their own lives. And yet God had expected they would learn from all those experiences the Nature of the God whom they served. It was the nature of that God that defined who they were to be - as his people.
So these people found themselves merely going through the motions of religion - expecting God to reward their external piety, in this case, in fasting. Yet they no longer really believed that it made much difference - and therefore saw no connection with their daily behavior. And this is where Isaiah has something to say to us. To use a modern phrase, theirs was a "feel-good" religion. They were not really serving God at all, even though all the trappings of service to God were there.
You see, God’s choice of religious devotion is where we give up power, and humble ourselves to meet the needs of others. If we are to really hear this text for us today, we need to acknowledge that it clearly connects what we do in the world as God’s people and how we treat others in the name of God, with our own welfare. It is a sobering thought that somehow our actions in the world affect our own spiritual welfare.
Moments ago we confessed our individual sinful actions and our corporate sinful hearts; we asked God to accept our repentance, and for a moment we may have actually meant it. Then we came to this rail--a rail where we kneel week after week to receive forgiveness--but tonight the absolution will not be spoken – that must wait another 40 days. Instead, a cross of ashes was smeared across your forehead, and you were sent away with the admonition, “Remember that you are dust, and into dust you shall return.”
Never mind that the cross brings back the memory of our Baptism. Never mind that the sign itself represents overwhelming love. Never mind that the spirit within us is willing. The flesh is weak. The flesh is dust. And into dust it will return.
For many of us, Lent is a very individual journey, a confrontation with death, and the frustration that we are not living the way we would like to live. The prayer litany that we spoke earlier should cut us to the quick; embarrass us, convict us of those places in our lives where we have grieved the heart of God. And it is in this realization, (that our actions not only affect the world around us, but God himself,) that WE experience God in our own lives – in our own history. It attempts not to crush our spirits, but to challenge us to ask ourselves to do more for God, by doing less for ourselves.
The disciplines of Lent call us to empty ourselves before God: through repentance and prayer (emptying our hearts to be open to what God would plant there,) Bible study and fasting (emptying our minds and bodies to be filled with God’s word and God’s nourishment,) giving to the poor and needy and to serve others (emptying our pockets and purses and closets and storage sheds to give of what we do not need to those whose need is great.)
These are all ways to help us accomplish our spiritual work, which is the desired response from those whom God has chosen. But they are something else: they are all are ways to give up pieces of power that belong rightfully only to God.
And so we begin again our annual journey of Lent, our communal story with God in the ritual of ashes, repentance and humility. A 40-day prayer to answer the question: "in my life of faith...is God able to meet the needs of others – to act for the world through me?"
May your Lenten journey serve you well, as you serve the One who gave up his power - on a cross - so that you might truly live. Amen.
