February 6, 2008
Ash Wednesday (Years A, B, and C)
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-14, (15-22); 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10;
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Lent – a time of Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving. That is what the Prayer Book teaches us; that is what the lessons we read each year on this day tell us; that is the tradition that Lent has become. And yet from reading the lessons it would seem that just doing these things is not enough. It matters how and why we do them.
Joel calls for the trumpet to be sounded. And his admonition is not for a single person full of sin, but for a people, a community, a nation, full of sin to repent, to begin the traditional contrition of repentance. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, he says, is a community event. It is not enough for one person to discipline him/herself, not enough for only one to accomplish these acts. Joel says, it is a community enterprise. We know that here, at Good Shepherd, here we are a community of people who together acknowledge our common failings with a common confession during our service each Sunday. In a few minutes we will confess all together. Likewise, we are a community who accepts and is grateful for our common absolution.
But the challenge for any community, not just ours here at Good Shepherd, or our nation, or the various communities in which we live and move, is to get outside what we call our “own mistakes, sins and acts of contrition on our own behalf,” and to be “reconciled” with those others, not just within our own community, however we name community (family, church, work, cousins, friends), but in those communities over there (wherever “over there” is: the next pew, South Boston, Africa, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan), all of God’s people. This makes it a bit tougher, at least it makes it tougher for me. We have no control over those others, whoever they are. And yet, if we are to be a witness of God’s love for all, then that is precisely what we are to be: reconciled not only with God – which we are, of course, whenever we seek and ask for such reconciliation, but, as Joel and Jesus say, we must also be reconciled with each other, and all those other “others.”
So it is not enough to pray, fast, and give alms in Lent (or the rest of the year for that matter). We have to pray even for those “others,” and we have to pray not that they will be like us, or think like us, or act like us, or change to do it our way, but we have to pray that they may see how fully they are God’s own, just as we are.
And what about fasting? We have to do it without telling everyone about it. “My diet” cannot cross my lips. And giving alms? Well, that too remains something we do, not to insure things go the way we would like them, not because we are earning gold stars for our heavenly crown, not because we have some left over at the end of the month. (Does anyone have anything left over at the end of the month?) We give alms because the truth of our very lives is that we have so much, and we give because God has given us so much. And we do it not to extol ourselves, but for the simple joy of giving to others, no strings attached, as God gives us, grace upon grace, forgiveness upon forgiveness, blessing upon blessing.
And if Joel is to be believed, we are to encourage each other in such giving, such praying, such fasting, until by our actions of prayer, not just our words, by our actions of giving, not just making a show of it, by our actions of fasting for the sake of something other than our own waistlines, and then, by means of forgiveness, to be reconciled to the community in which we live and move, as well as to all those other communities about which we really have very little knowledge or contact, until we are all reconciled and changed because of these action-packed prayers, fasts, giving, and forgiving. Then and only then will we be truly doing as Joel suggests.
Then there is Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. When Paul was writing that letter, things were amuck in the community. Some were mad at him; some were mad at each other. Already the words of Joel about repentance being a community event seem to be ringing from Paul’s mouth. He calls the people to be reconciled to God. How? By fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, active, faithful living, and the most important thing in such living is to be reconciled to each other. All the praying, fasting, and almsgiving in the world will be for naught if God’s beloved people are in a huff with each other.
The people were calling Paul’s leadership into question, his teaching about Jesus into question, and he, instead of defending himself, or lobbing insults and barbs back at them, recalled what Christ has done for all of them, those who were for him, and those who were against him. And he reminds them that they cannot be reconciled to God without being reconciled to each other.
Then we have the gospel, where each Ash Wednesday we are reminded not to let our practice of piety be public and draw attention to ourselves. But rather we are admonished that our practices should be in secret and for the service and good of others, not ourselves. Such actions and acts are not so that we can earn “points” in some imaginary column that will be tallied on Judgment Day, but because doing such practices faithfully, quietly, reverently, in secret, makes them true signs of our faith – which is after all between each person and God. It is where individual practice of piety comes in.
And if a nation, a community, even a whole church or a whole family were to be acting in such a selfless and pious and holy way, enacting such practices not for their own glory nor even for their own salvation or gain, but secretly in gratitude to God, well imagine that!
We can begin with ourselves, of course; and, of course, it is only ourselves we can control – any good counselor will tell you that. But it seems being a Christian who keeps a faithful Lent, being a person of faith, calls us to something more/other than merely doing right actions to benefit ourselves. It calls us into an accountability with one another that recognizes that we are all God’s own and what one of us does impacts all of us. It calls us to pray for and enable reconciliation. It calls us to turn the other cheek. It calls us to forgive. These actions of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, forgiveness, reconciliation, serving others, giving for the betterment of others, praying for others in our actions as well as our words, these are the “how” of keeping a faithful Lent, a Holy Lent. May it be for all of us.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd