In the ancient wisdom of the church, every Ash Wednesday, to begin the season of Lent, we touch each other with the ashes of our own mortality... It is in the brutal honesty of this ritual, in the bracing truthfulness, the earthy realism of this ritual, that we tell the truth about who we are. And, we are given the opportunity to recommit ourselves to become the people God wants us to be - to become the person our own heart, in truth, yearns for us to be.
One of the books our new Sacred Garden Book Clubs will be reading this year is the latest one by Barbara Brown Taylor, entitled An Altar in the World. And, as usual, Barbara puts it so well. She writes, “For me, at least, the peak of the service comes when the priest invites the congregation forward to the altar rail to receive ashes on our forehead. Those of us who have done it before know that we are being invited to our own funerals. . . Kneeling shoulder to shoulder at the rail, we wait our turn, hearing the priest say to others what will soon be said to us. ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,’ the priest says to me, making the sign of the cross on my forehead. Because she has just dipped her thumb in the cup of ashes, I get the full dose. Extra ashes fall on the bridge of my nose. I worry for a moment about how silly I will look when I stand up and turn around. But then I get a sudden urge to ask for more, to ask for a whole bowl of ashes on my head. But it is not yet my turn for the whole bowl. For now, all I get is a taste of death - while there is still time - while there is still time to say please and thank you to the Giver of all life.”
While there is still time. While there is still time to pray. While there is still time to live. While there is still time to express your gratitude. While there is still time to express your love. While there is still time to be kind, compassionate and generous. While there is still time to express your gifts in the world to the glory of God. While there is still time to be “reconciled” to God, “Be reconciled,” says St. Paul, which means to bring our lives evermore fully into alignment with God, with God’s will and with God’s special purpose for us. Well, the good news is that there is still time. There is still time - there are forty days, at least beginning with these forty days and, beyond that, whatever God might have for us. But the liturgy of Ash Wednesday communicates an unusually clear and honest awareness that there will not always be more time for us. Right now, there is still time. But there will not always be more time for us. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And so this season of Lent, this forty day period immediately before us, brings a certain “graceful urgency” to our spiritual lives.
To this end, the Church - capital C - offers this season of forty days, plus Sundays, a spiraling sequence of powerful liturgies, one building upon the other, and a variety of ancient traditional practices: self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial, and reading and meditating upon God’s holy Word. And this church, Holy Trinity, offers a whole host of regular, structured opportunities for people to engage in such practices through our Contemplative Wisdom Circles, our various book clubs, prayer and study groups, opportunities for walking the labyrinth, a great variety of Lenten devotional guides in the bookstore, and all the Saturday morning spiritual practice sessions offered through the Servant Leadership School. In addition to all of these I want briefly to commend for your consideration two simple - I would say deceptively simple practices, drawn loosely from our gospel lesson, that I intend to include in my own lenten discipline.
Jesus speaks of fasting. And, while I certainly have practiced fasting from food and drink at various times in my life, this year I think what I really need to fast from is hurrying my way through life. I think it’s actually now considered a medical condition, “hurry sickness,” which involves a lot of stress, which of course, in turn, leads to a number of other sicknesses. So, my first practice over each of these next forty days is this: to simply live one day at a time. To slow down enough to be able to consciously experience each day as precious and to offer each day to God. Simply to live one day at a time. Which, for me, means to do some form of prayer at the beginning of the day, offering this day to God, and at least a little praying at the end of the day. Once again, for the end of the day, one of the simplest, most valuable tools to support this practice of “living one day at a time” is the Daily Examen. A classic Christian practice down through the centuries and incredibly relevant today. Simply pausing, at the end of each day, perhaps lighting a candle and taking three deep breaths, pausing to remember the day, to replay it, if you will, and to give thanks to God for the blessings of this day. What was life giving today? What was life draining? What gave me joy? Maybe tomorrow I will want to do more of what was joy-giving and life-giving, and less of what was life-draining. It’s a thought. What am I grateful for this day? What am I not grateful for? What might I want to do differently if faced with the same situation another day? Slowing down enough to really focus on this day, and to really live one day at a time. Jesus taught us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” And this is what he was talking about. Living one day at a time - and being present to and thankful for all that God provides, starting with the gift of life itself. That’s the first practice.
The second practice. If you really want to have a meaningful Lenten experience, over these next forty days, forgive someone. Make the commitment to choose someone you have not yet forgiven - and over these next 40 days simply find a way to forgive them. If you look it up in your Bible, you will discover that in the middle of the words we read today from Matthew’s Gospel, in the middle of this section from Matthew, chapter 6, in the verses that are missing, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he teaches the Lord’s Prayer. He was commenting on the religious practices of the day. He says here’s how to give alms, give generously but don’t brag about it. Here is how to pray, don’t show off. Go inside where God is truly present - and say these words. . . Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sandwiched right between the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ teaching on not looking dismal while fasting are these words: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive yours.” Over these next forty days, and in some cases it may take all forty, if you really want to have a meaningful Lenten experience, forgive someone for whom you have a grudge. Forgive a friend for some wrong. Forgive a loved one for something that happened a long time ago. Forgive your children for being children. Forgive those who live with a free spirit and go against the grain. And, while you’re at it, forgive yourself.
I want to close with a prayer that I pray to begin every season of Lent because, for me, it focuses and sums up the meaning of this sacred season. Let us pray.