March 1, 2006 - Ash Wednesday - 7 PM Service - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Isaiah 58: 1-12
PSALM: 103
SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10
GOSPEL: Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21

I was reading a blog from a friend of mine on-line, and he was talking about how his Ash Wednesday's service, while not usually a place for mirth and laughter, was especially somber. And what is interesting is that, with these lessons, one might assume that an Ash Wednesday service could have its share of mirth, but not necessarily with all of the lessons.

I mean, if you read what St. Paul is talking about, you want to think about your Lenten discipline and put it in mind of this, "We have commended ourselves in every way, through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger". So, those of you who are going to fast - over here. Those of you who want to riot . . . No. What Paul is talking about is, in his work for the Gospel, those are the kinds of things that have happened to him.

One of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, talked about, "Wherever St. Paul went, there was either a riot or a revival. Wherever the Archbishop goes, they serve tea". In a sense, that is often the way we domesticate these kinds of disciplines and celebrations and special days of observance - we domesticate them. We take the kinds of challenges that St. Paul relates to us were his for doing the Gospel, and we replace them with things like giving up chocolate, and maybe cutting out a meal here or there. Now, I don't want to dissuade anybody who really thinks that they need to cut out chocolate from doing that. Just looking around the room, there are several of you who I am thinking probably could use . . . . I mean, I know for myself . . . Well. . . But to be realistic about it, there has to be more to it.

Now, Jesus, in His Gospel, in the reading that we read from Him, He is talking to His disciples; and one of the things that he is sharing with them is not so much what they ought to be doing in their lives, but, over and over again, letting them know that the things that they do for their spiritual life is not something that they are doing for public consumption. It is something that they are doing so that God will see.

Now, even in this, there is a challenge. Are we doing it for a reward? In whatever discipline we engage, in whatever abstinence we take on, in whatever extra work for the sake of the Kingdom of God we take on, are we doing it for a reward? Do we honestly believe, as people, that God is sitting up there and kind of saying, "Well, you know, when I look out, and I see Andrew, you know, I mean he really had a pretty lame discipline this Lent. I think I am not going to save him. On the other hand, there is Stephanie - Stephanie was so diligent at it. I am going to save Stephanie". Do you believe that that really is how God is working?

There is another line in the Epistle that says, "Don't accept the Grace of God in vain". Another translation says, "Make use of the Grace God is giving." I think it changes, for me at least, some of the understanding, in all of the things that we do.

Coming to Church is not about coming to Church because, if we do it enough, and we do it right, God will be happy with us and will think better about us. What if we thought of it this way - that, as people who have received the Grace of God, we want to live in a way that shows we are thankful for it, that we are joyful servants of God, not folks who are running around with their heads bowed like bulrushes, hoping that if we bow enough, God will love us.

And then there are the disciplines, themselves. Isaiah is railing against empty disciplines. There are some folks - and I think to some extent, me - when I get really up-tight about the way a liturgy goes or the way a service goes, I am very knowledgeable about everything that might have gone wrong, either done by me or, in my picky mode, done by others. Isaiah is saying, "Do you really think that God is that concerned about that?"

What do you think God is concerned about? Going way back, we have all sorts of examples of what God really cares about. The summary of the Law: Love God first, with your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbors as yourselves". Who are our neighbors? The reading from Isaiah reminds us that it is not so much who are our neighbors, but is there anybody out there that is not? We need to make sure that the people of the world who live in need, whether they are near or far, understand that they are neighbors to us, individually, and that they are neighbors to our community of faith. We need to make sure that those items are raised up - not the perfection of our liturgy, not whether or not every discipline that we take on is practiced with perfection. God knows our hearts. God knows what is going on there, and God knows our intentions before we come to worship.

We are worshiping here because of God's invitation. We were the recipients of God's Grace before we ever woke up this morning, and God is asking us to live as people who have been recipients of Grace - not people who are anxious and worried and guilty and shameful supplicants, trying to figure out some way around the doom we know that God has in store for us. We worship a God who is freely giving of love and an abundance of creation, and asks us to mirror that love and understanding of abundance when it comes to those around us who are encountering injustice, who are encountering need, and who are having challenges with their clothing . . . (we did have a thing that said "cover the naked", but, for the most part, they stay out of Church).

The idea is that that love and Grace that we have received from God, we should not take in vain. We should make the use of what God has given us, and we should make sure that people know that God is giving Grace to them through the kind of care that we offer, the kind of stands that we take for justice, the kinds of people of peace, compassion, and justice that we are working on ourselves more and more to become.

That's the kind of fast - whether it includes getting rid of chocolates, or whether it doesn't - if that is what is going on in our hearts, that is the kind of fast that shows that we understand God's Grace.

AMEN