Lent is an old English word referring
to the lengthening of days. It refers to the season and particularly
tells about a season in our church year. Spring is twofold in
character; barrenness and death are everywhere, but something
hidden is coming to light; what is dead is coming to life, what
has been asleep awakens. A beautiful line from a poem of Gerard
Manley Hopkins (from "God's Grandeur") says, "
"There lives the dearest freshness deep down things."
This dearest freshness must struggle to push its way through
incrustation, overcrowding, and stagnation. Somehow the freshness
breaks through and behold! there is renewal.
Lent is a time like that -
only the outcome is not always so reliable as with nature's annual
triumph. Ours is a struggle against the darkness of self-indulgence,
sluggishness, and indifference - a struggle against the crowding
out of what is fresh and bright in us. How do we break through
what is incrusted and stagnant in us? through the disciplines
of prayer, fasting, penance, and giving. As we take these steps,
what is hidden comes to light, what is dead in us is awakened
to life and we find we can take in the rain and sunlight of God's
love bringing new life to our depths. This is what we hope for
and pray for. We long for the dearest freshness of our very selves
to rise up and meet God.
The ashes we receive today trace the cross that was marked on
our foreheads at the time of our baptism. That first cross celebrates
our connection with God through God's faithful LOVE for humankind.
In the story God says that we are very good. The ashes remind
us of disconnection - the many ways we are separated from God.
If you remember the eruption of Mt. St. Helena in 1980, you remember
stories about ash. Ash clouded the air and blocked out the sun.
Ash covered everything for miles around. It seeped through closed
windows and doors and covered every surface. Ashes remind us
of our separation from the Light of Christ. Ashes remind us of
the times we slide into a place of spiritual dimness, covered
over by layer of spiritual dust that separates us from the Holy
One and from the holy life we long to live. It's so easy to live
disconnected from God, from our neighbor and from ourselves.
We are so very human, so mortal and we are dust.
But we of the Hebrew and Christian traditions tell a story about
dust. There is a message in the story that goes like this: In
the beginning of time, God took a handful of dust and breathed
into it. A human one came from the dust and was animated by the
breath of God. This breath of God is the secret of maintaining
our life in Christ. Our Lenten discipline will be only dust if
we try to muscle our way through the 40 days. If we are successful
on our own and are perfectly observant we will have failed. We
will learn that we can rely on our will power and sadly the dust
of our self-sufficiency and the illusion of our personal powers
will further separate us from God.
Ash Wednesday is a time to
repent of our sins, our self-sufficiency, our self-indulgence,
and our forgetfulness of God. The disciplines of Lent are not
to make us miserable but are to make us mindful. Aware of what
we eat. Aware of how we spend our time. Aware of how we spend
our money. Aware of the role of prayer in our life. This is a
time to become aware, to reconnect, to become attentive to the
great LOVE who forgives us for our nature of dust and breathes
new life into us day by day. Today as you feel the cross of ashes
marked onto your forehead, be aware that the cross is marked
over the cross you received at your baptism. One is our
confession. One is our hope. Amen.
