Years ago I heard a story about a priest who went to a new parish. I don’t know if it really happened; it probably didn’t, but I think there’s some truth in the story. 

Anyway, the priest was meeting and getting to know the people and would ask about their relationship with God. Most responded with the usual and expected answers, the kind of things you and I might say. But there was this one parishioner who was so enthusiastic and positive in response to the priest’s question. “It’s great, couldn’t be better,” the parishioner said. “Really?” the priest said, “Tell me more.” The parishioner said, “Well, it’s really pretty simple. I like to sin. God likes to forgive. We get along just fine.”

So, how’s your relationship with God these days? Is it growing and challenging you? Does it make a difference in how you view the world, your priorities and concerns, the way you live? Or is it routine and comfortable, you get along fine?

And what might be next? What do you need from this Ash Wednesday and Lent? How do you want your life to be different?

I don’t really think that story describes your or my relationship with God and it probably overstates its case but it makes me want to rethink Ash Wednesday and Lent, why we’re here and what we’re doing. That’s the challenge I’ve set for myself and I wonder if you might join me. Actually, I’m asking you to join me in this challenge.

I want this Ash Wednesday to be more than “worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness” (The Book of Common Prayer, 263), receiving the ashes and remembering that we are but dust, and then going on with life as usual. That’s the kind of thing that has God saying to Isaiah in today’s Old Testament reading (Isaiah 58:1-12):

“Announce to my people their rebellion.”

The people are keeping their fast day and acting “as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.” But they’re not. It’s all “as if.” That’s why in today’s gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) Jesus calls some people “hypocrites.” They’re doing the right things but nothing is changing.

They are pretenders and play actors. What you see isn’t necessarily what you get, and what you get doesn’t look or sound much like Jesus. I know there are times when that describes me, maybe it does you too, but I don’t want to be a pretender or a play actor and I don’t think you do either.

The Ashes

So let’s begin with the ashes and those familiar words, “Remember that your dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

What are we remembering? Is it only our individual sins and misbehavior? Is it just an awareness of the past, a memory, or a recollection? I think it’s more than that.  

The thing that strikes me is that despite how different and unique our individual lives may be we are all marked with the same ashes, the same remembering. The ashes that are smeared on my forehead are the same ashes that are smeared on your forehead.

What if Ash Wednesday is asking us to remember that we share a common beginning and a common ending? Isn’t that’s what God says, “Out of [the ground] you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return”? (Genesis 3:19)  

The ground from which I was taken is the same ground from which you were taken. The dust that I am is the same dust that you are. The mortality that will return me to the dust is the same mortality that will return you to the same dust. (Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies, 246)

What if the ashes that will mark our foreheads are a sign of human connection, a reminder that we all share a common humanity? We share the beauty of life and the disfigurement of life. We always have and we always will – not just with those we like and with whom we agree but also with those we don’t like and with whom we couldn’t disagree more, as well as with those we’ve never met.

What if we lived with our shared and common humanity at the forefront of our minds? What if that mark of our connection was the first thing we saw when we looked at another person? What if we acknowledged our shared humanity before we ever said or did anything? I wonder if it would change what we say and do, and how we relate to one another. And what if that is the first challenge of Lent this year? To see our common humanity.

And a challenge it will be because we can so quickly and easily forget. We see evidence of that every day. So did Isaiah, and he named it:

“Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.”

Any of that sound or look familiar these days?

The Confession

After we receive the ashes we’ll pray the litany of penitence. We’ll confess our failure to love, our deafness to God’s call to serve, our unfaithfulness, our love of stuff, our dishonesty, and a whole lot more. We’ll confess all the things we have done and left undone. 

Is that “a day acceptable to the Lord?” Did we come here only “to humble [ourselves],” “to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?” That’s Isaiah’s question to us today. What do you think? Is it?

The answer seems to be no, it’s not, because Isaiah goes on to describe what God wants from us:

• “To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” 
• “To share [our] bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into [our] house,” and “when [we] see the naked, to cover them.” 
• To not break off relationship with one another. 

Is that what you also want this Lent? What do each of those mean and look like in your life today? In what ways will you do them? What else do you imagine God wants from you and me?

Making A Change

So here’s my second challenge. What if we focused less on what’ve done and left undone and more on what we will do for each other and what we won’t do to each other? What if we made this day less about a confession of our past and more about a vow to one another and our shared future? 

That’s my lenten challenge to you and to myself. Now let’s get our ashes to work. There are breaches to repair and streets to restore. 

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Image Credit: Photo by Rineshkumar Ghirao on Unsplash.