February 14, 2018 St Paul's, Monroe

Ash Wednesday Homily: St. Paul’s, Monroe

Lectionary

Begin liturgies where actions speak as loud as words

Today it is ashes.

• Later it will be dramatic readings of the Crucifixion
• Washing of feet
• Bow before the cross in adoration
• Baptism:
• Why I have been an advocate of lots of water at baptism – preferably a pool so that it looks and feels like a bath – which the word baptism really means.

Owen as youngster was scared of ashes – didn’t like masks at halloween either.

Young people can often see spiritual reality that older folks can’t.

1st priest boss:

this gospel is an occasion where the church does the opposite of what Jesus literally says. “Don’t show off your piety before others” – and I clearly found it powerful to wear ashes in public as an affirmation of my faith.

Is this Jesus having a sense of humor? Being ironic? It is crucial to my experience of Jesus that he can laugh and be ironic.

Should we rub off the ashes when we go out the door? Not? The fact that tonight it is late and we probably won’t run into very many people means that it’s not a significant question tonight.

But it’s not really the point of the gospel passage, is it.

Why here? because tradition? Because we’ve always done it?

The gospel is forceful in preaching against hypocrisy

• Be genuine. Be who you are. No pretending to be what you are not.
• How do we come to figure those things out? So that our yes is yes and our no is no? Our self-awareness is flawed and we are in need of inner healing and renewal
• The path to being exactly who we were made to be by the God who loves us profoundly is laid out for us in the liturgy today.

From the liturgy:

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and
meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning
of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now
kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving

For myself the most powerful moment in this liturgy is when I read the words inviting us to the keeping of a holy Lent.

These are 3 of the 5 Pillars of Faith in Islam (the others being Pilgrimage & Profession of faith)

That it fits the life of Muslim as it fits the life of a Christian is a reminder that this is what we do – it is how we live - what gives us life.

We fast from something in order to cleanse ourselves. In order to regain focus. To rediscover what is important and what is not.

POPE FRANCIS’ WORDS (Lent 2017)

Do you want to fast this Lent?

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries and trust in God.
Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

We give alms out of a sense of the need to give. We don’t do it from obligation, but from our own need to give. There was a man who approached me one day in the church parking lot and asked me for a couple dollars to buy some gas for his car. I reached in my pocket and gave him what I had – either a 10 or a 20.

I was chastised by one of the people in the church who was renowned for being responsible with money. He told me that he was probably just going to use it to get “high.” – I knew that. I tried to teach him something that day – I don’t really think I succeeded. I tried to teach him that I gave at that moment because I needed to give. It did not have to do with the merits (or not) of person receiving the alms.

We pray. Not because there are some words or form we are supposed to follow. It is not a time for telling God something he doesn’t already know. Prayer is a time for aligning ourselves with God’s purposes. Through listening, speaking, reading, singing, – and silence. Something like this prayer from Thomas Merton.

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
– Thomas Merton

I invite you then to the keeping of a holy Lent. By means of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting may you grow more fully into the knowledge of who God made you to be so that as you go forth into the world in the power of the Spirit, the world will see and know the glory of the One you follow as Lord and Savior.