Living in coronavirusword 249: Ash Wednesday

 2/17

2/17

Central Park

Ash Wednesday

After a warm day, the temperature has dropped again. It is the longest winter we have experienced in many years. Snow and ice cow much of the country. Thousands of people in Texas without light or heat. Their Senator Cruz has taken his family to Mexico for a vacation. Beverley Church has asked me to lead an Ash Wednesday service. Here’s what I had or say:

Today is Ash Wednesday,….the beginning of Lent. What do you remember about Ash Wednesday?  I remember that when I was a little kid in school, most all of the kids in my class would get up and leave and I’d be stuck there with only 2 or 3 others. Then an hour or so later, all the other students would come back with smudged crosses on their foreheads which I always found kind of scary. 

My parents when I was growing up always viewed Catholics as next to pagans. Ash Wednesday and ashes was especially suspect and “giving something up for Lent” superstitious at best. In fact recognizing Lent itself was thought of as idolatrous.

I didn’t mark Ash Wednesday for the first  time until I was at Yale and Henri Nouwen, author of the Wounded Healer,  led a service where he placed ashes on the heads of those of us who didn’t want to have a visible cross on our foreheads. From that point on I began to reevaluate the whole idea. Having special seasons to focus on different aspects of the faith began to make sense to me. 

It was always a special day for me at West Park. We would begin by taking the palms from last years’s Palm Sunday and turning them into ashes…We’d have a service at noon then be available to distribute ashes up until 6 o’clock when we had a second brief service. I was always moved by the people who would  walk  in all day long seeking ashes. The moment to be in private prayer with them. My favorite was when a bus driver jumped off his bus at the stop in front of our door, came in, received ashes and went back to his bus. It has come to mean something me, And over the decades, it has become important in our church as well.

For me, I don’t think our focus should be on “giving something up.” Rather, I like idea of taking something on, taking on a spiritual discipline for the 40 days. (Although back home in Pittsburgh, we always looked forward to the “season of fish fries” where every Friday our neighbor Catholic Churches held fish fries…)

In our Gospel for the day, Jesus has some pretty specific advice for spiritual disciplines:

1. Never be doing anything just to be seen by others. (That might seem to be an argument against ashes on your forehead…unless where everybody seems to have them…)
2. Charity too should be anonymous. The best charity  is when the giver and the receiver are not aware each other…like a deacon’s fund, fo0r example.  And it’s sure an argument against wanting your name on anything…
3. Once again, prayers are not for public shows of flowery flowing words…it’s about you communicating privately with God in your own language, own words…intimate….
4. Fasting. Jesus is all for fasting. It’s part of all our our Abrahamic religions…the total fast in Judaism on Yom Kippur, the fasting from leavening during passover, the daylight fast for Muslims during Ramadan….our tradition was meat…the very word for carnival has as its root the Latin word for meat, carne…it’s literally putting away meat, so last night was Mardi Gras…the last time for meat, for “fatness”….I always love that Catholic cultures celebrate with parades, music  and revelry and Episcopalians cook pancakes…Jesus says how and what you do should be between you and God that’s it…what gets in your way? What distracts you? Try and set that aside…
5. Finally…and this is the bottom line…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..take these 40 days to evaluate what you treasure…where you heart is …try to get where you put your time an energy more where your heart is….what’s really and truly important….strip away all that isn’t necessary…

Even as restaurants reopen, maybe even  soon our churches, spring will come.. Let us begin this journey tonight so that we might greet Easter prepared for a true rebirth, a true new beginning….let us begin tonight…

When we reach the part of the service where we begin Lent, you  can have with you ashes, dust, or taking from Matthew…oil or just a bit of water…

Let those with ears  to hear, hear.

Amen.

I have created a service where we can use ashes, dust, oil or water, water is as comfortable or convenient in our own homes. Ashes and dust from tradition…you are dust and to dust you shall return.  Water from our baptism. Oil from anointing for healing.

And so we begin our Lenten journey in  coronavirus world

Gospel Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

1“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2“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. 3But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5“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. 6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

16“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so 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.

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.