Connections

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday

          Every year on Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells us to beware of practicing our piety before others, just as we prepare to go out into the world with ashes on our foreheads.  Then, Jesus gives us three spiritual practices we are to practice in the privacy of our homes.  Give alms, or offerings, pray, and fast or practice self-denial but do not let anyone other than God see what we are doing.  On the one hand, Jesus seems to be telling us that we are going about Ash Wednesday all wrong with our ashes and public litany of penitence.  On the other hand, quite honestly, Jesus seems to be setting the bar rather low in terms of Lenten disciplines.  We make offerings of our time, our gifts, and our resources all year long.  We pray daily, at least.  And while we may fast from different food groups or habits during Lent, we are always called to fast from behaviors the draw us from God or each other. 

          Rather than setting a low bar for Lent, however, Jesus is actually calling us to a much deeper way to be in relationship with each other, all of humankind, and God.  Almsgiving is a tangible way to recognize our deep and undeniable connection with those who have little in the way of resources for food, shelter, medical care, education or other provisions that satisfy basic human needs.  When we are intentional about making our offerings, and give sacrificially, we also recognize our own dependence on God for everything in life that matters. 

          Prayer sets us in deeper relationship with God, clearly.   But prayer also deepens our relationship with those for whom we pray, whether we know them or not.  When we pray, we are connected-with those we know, those we don’t know, those we like, those with whom perhaps we have significant disagreement.  We pray for people in Australia suffering the effects of fire, people battling the coronavirus, friends of friends and countless others, not as empty words or as a magic formula, but because prayer connects us with God and with people beyond our own circle of friends and acquaintances.  The power in that connection changes lives.  Prayer broadens our connection with the whole human family.

          Fasting seems pretty personal, denying myself a pleasure large or small to remind myself of my dependence on God.  But the reading from Isaiah reminds us of the fast God chooses for us: “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed to free, and to break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house.”  All of a sudden, fasting sounds a bit like the baptismal covenant where we promise to seek and serve Christ in all people, to work for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being.   On Ash Wednesday, as Jesus calls us to such a fast, and to deepen the promises we made in baptism.  We are reminded in the Litany of Penitence of all the ways we fail to keep those promises-the ways we fail to live as people who are deeply connected with each other.

          Jesus is not criticizing the actions of this day, whether the ashes themselves or the disciplines we take on.  Rather, Jesus is calling us to deepen our practices and the relationships they enhance.  Jesus is criticizing practices that call attention to ourselves rather than God, and actions we take to make us look good in the eyes of others.  We are marked this day with the cross of Christ as we were marked at our baptisms with the cross of Christ.  That cross tells the world that we belong to God, not to ourselves, and connects us with the whole human family.  On Ash Wednesday, Jesus calls us to spiritual practices that deepen those connections.

                                                                   Amen.