Friday 12 February 2016

"Is not this the Fast that I choose:...."(Isaiah 58:1-12)

Ash Wednesday the day that Marks the beginning of Lent, the season of repentance over these next forty days.  A time when we reflect on our own mortality, marking our foreheads with ashes with the words you are dust and to dust you shall return.  What does this all mean to us today?

Traditionally in the church this day was as if it were a day of mourning, reflecting on our sin and sinfulness that we might strive to live better.   Recalling the Ash Wednesday service from my early years growing up in the Anglican church, I can remember our school day beginning with all the children being marched of to church for the Ash Wednesday service.  And while I am sure at the time we had little understanding of what it was all about, or why we were doing it, we knew that there was great significance in it for us. When we left the service to go back to school I always remember the overwhelming solemn feeling I came away with, but yet feeling so much better because of it.  It was as if I knew that somehow I had been given another chance, perhaps to get things right again.

That opportunity to get it right,  is what Ash Wednesday is really about, it is about recommitting ourselves to having a better relationship with God.  And why we put ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our recommitment to that relationship. 

St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, says, “we entreat you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God.”(2 Cor 5:20b)  We are to put our life right with God.  “As we work together with him”(6:1), he says.  We work with Jesus, we don’t do it on our own, but through Christ working in us, we make the change that is needed.  That is what lent is about making space for God to move in, that we might live more fully in him. 

Jesus in the gospel for this day, (Mt: 6:1-6,16-21) speaking to the three spiritual acts of Piety, shows how even these can be used for ones own self-glorification, or gratification rather then for the purpose of strengthening our relationship with God.  The Pharisees were known for putting on great shows of piety and while they were the ones who were supposed to be the teachers of faith, the religious elite, in the sense that their practice should have set an example for others to follow, in essence it was creating self-worship, rather then worship of God.

They were becoming devoted to self, giving alms in a way, that others knew what they give, rather then giving for the sake of contributing to the work of God in the world. There prayer life and fasting became acts of show, so that others could see how righteous they were, rather then about spending time with God, enhancing that relationship.

Lent is a time for us to consider too, how our own acts of spiritual disciplines could become about self or show rather then about our relationship with God. About what we do and how we do it, placing self-importance on that, rather then about spending time with God, or giving because our heart calls us to give, in caring for the least among us.   

In the old testament reading the prophet Isaiah speaking to the people of his day, when they complained that they were doing all the right things, but God was not responding to them.  He says,  “look you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers, you fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with a wicked fist.  Such fasting you do today will not make your voice be heard on high.”  (Is.58:3b-4) Although the people performed their acts of repentance, they did not change their ways.  They continued to live in the same old way, and so their acts were purposeless, no point to them.  Fasting is an act of devotion that is meant to turn our hearts toward God, with a commitment to change, to turn our lives around,  live more fully as God intends us to live. 

Perhaps fasting is not something even taken seriously in our culture today,  but if it is something done for lent over these forty days as a self-decipline, or has a religious practice through out the year, then there should be some thought put into it as to what this is about and why.  It should be about creating not only a positive change for oneself, perhaps physically if it is giving up chocolate or some other self indulgence,  or over-indulgence for that matter, but also about spiritual improvement.  It should also create change in our relationship with God and with  others.  Jesus (speaking of those who were putting on public shows of piety), said, “truly I tell you, they have already received their reward.”(6:2b)

If you are going to fast from anything this Lent, make it count, it should cost you something. There should be some real commitment in it.   Don’t just go through these forty days with the end result or goal to be just that, you made it through these  forty day and start doing the same things again, make it a change that contributes, gives back in a way that will last.

Isaiah speaking to the people of his day about their wrongful understanding of what God expected of them, says , “is this such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?    “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break the yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house….?(Is 58:6,7).

Let your fast create real change, maybe there is some charity you can step in and help out with, give a hand at some neighbourhood function in your community, there are a million things that one can do to help the least among us, just take a look around you.  Or has Pope Francis said in a recent article posted on ‘what to give up for Lent this year’, he said, “you should give up indifference toward others. “ “Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.”(Christopher Hale, “Pope Francis’ Guide to Lent).

 Yes,  we come with a humbleness of spirit to have our foreheads marked with ashes on ash Wednesday,  not as a sign of our own religious piety, but as a sign of acknowledging our own need for repentance. Recognizing  God’s gracious favor toward us we intend to try harder. In other words the mark of the ashes are a sign of our acknowledging that we haven’t done as good as we know we could have done, in following after Jesus and we want to do better. 

Perhaps our prayer life haven’t been what it should be, perhaps our giving hasn’t  been up to par, perhaps we have committed some wrongdoing  or other,  that we haven’t made right, and we need to make our confession, or perhaps offer forgiveness to another. But unless we make a serious effort to follow through, to change, to do better, then , all the ashes in the world will do nothing for us in bettering our relationship with God.   

As Jesus says in the gospel, “do not store up treasures for yourself on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:19-21)

God wants us to commit our lives to him, in that we strive to do better, and we do that through following our practices of piety not with our self in mind but with God in mind, asking God, as the psalmist says, to “create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit with in me.”

 Ash Wednesday calls us to spiritual reflection, it calls us to reflect on our own acts of spiritual discipline, prayer, fasting and alms giving, and to consider how it is we might need to change or improve the way we do these in our own lives that they might better reflect who we are as a people of faith, those who believe and trust in God.

So I Invite you in the name of the Lord, to Keep a Holy Lent…. 

Amen, God Bless.


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