Ash Wednesday A’26
18 February 2015
Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone
O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, we pray, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days. – From The Book of Common Prayer p. 504
Each year churches all over the Anglican Communion engage in a counter-cultural practice known as Lent. Lent comes from the old English word “lencten” which means “to lengthen” and points toward the days getting longer as we move toward Easter. Lent lasts for 40 days and our prayer book rather than trying to define what the season is, spells out what Lent looks like ‘on the ground’ by listing categories of religious practice: “by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.”1
Now growing up as a Southern Baptist I had never heard of Lent until I was in high school. Prior to that the only “lint” I knew about was spelled L-I-N-T and had been something you pulled out of the clothes dryer filter or your belly- button. But upon entering high school I noticed how each year after Groundhog Day my friends from other denominations kept asking one another what they each were giving up for Lent, things like chocolate, deserts, or movies. I thought why would someone ever want to give up chocolate?!
On the other hand, about this same time each year we in the Baptist church and other denominations would begin to prepare for something known as the “Spring Revival.” This would be where a travelling Evangelist would come to town for a week or two and we would have church every night. Fiery sermons were delivered with themes such as the “end-times” and based upon the Book of Revelation. At the end of the sermon and generally scared half to death many would come down front for the altar call to make sure that they would make it to heaven and avoid hell.
Years later as a budding Episcopalian I discovered the season of Lent and was a bit worried when I found out that it lasted more than a couple of weeks but 40 days, no less. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the emphasis was not so much about fear tactics as it was about our moving away from an ego-centric life toward learning to live a more Christ-centered life. In fact, it wasn’t about demeaning ourselves it was about becoming our best selves, our true selves – the person God had intended for us to be all along.
Not to mention there was a cool ritual where ashes were smeared on people’s foreheads in the shape of a cross and were reminded that life was short and that we all would be turning to dust sometime in the not-so-distant future. This ritual known as the “imposition of ashes” was an ancient practice that served to remind us, as it has everyone else who has gone before that not only life is precious but our lives are precious and all of our days are numbered- it really matters how we live our lives.
We are not ordered to repent and engage in spiritual disciplines out of fear– but by Love. We’re simply invited, invited to allow the Great Physician to examine us and see what may be going on in our lives that needs to change so that the light of Christ can shine ever brighter and using a musical metaphor, where we are enabled to sound our best and truest note! We aren’t forced or shamed into doing anything unless we choose to. Anything that we give up during this season is not to punish us but to help us make room for the Spirit to work at a deeper level in our lives.
Think about all the flowers that are currently just seeds or bulbs underground, or buds locked in the sap of trees just waiting for the right soil temperature and just enough increase in sunlight that will create the right conditions for their buds and blossoms to appear and emerge. Green blades breaking through the soil will soon appear, some daffodils have already begun to show themselves.
The Lenten journey is about our cooperation with God’s operation of bringing our spiritual lives into bloom! Through spiritual practices like fasting, prayer, spiritual reading, special instructional classes, meditation, and devotions like the Stations of the Cross, we seek in the church to provide an atmosphere that creates an environment conducive to our growth in grace. Our Wednesday evening study in Lent this year is entitled: Spiritual Guidance in an Age of Anxiety. We will be inventorying and practicing spiritual practices that are available to guide us higher, deeper, and closer in our friendship with God.
Fasting, for example, is not just refraining from eating, (and some people due to health conditions can’t fast from food) but, we can all fast/take a break from television, social media and doom scrolling. If you don’t believe that you have the time, just take a look at how much screentime we are spending each week on our phones. By taking a break there, some of us have several hours a week to add some spiritual disciplines into our schedules.
Try spending some extra time with God and just being open and allowing the Holy Spirit to act. We won’t regret it!
As we ponder the Spirit’s work of renewal in our lives I leave us with a quote from the 19th cen. novelist George Eliot:
“It’s never too late to become what you might have been.”2 Happy Lent!
1 The Book of Common Prayer p.265
2 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeelio161679.html