February 21, 2007 Sermon
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Ash Wednesday – 2007 Allan Conkling
February 21, 2007 Emmanuel, San Angelo
What is it about this day that appeals to us? Why would anyone want to come to a service like this? We kneel and bow and ask for forgiveness as though we have done something really wrong. Our eyes are cast to the ground like a child awaiting a spanking for bad behavior. “Worthily lamenting our sins”? “Acknowledging our wretchedness”? Is that true? Are we really that bad? It was just 2 months ago at Christmas that we jokingly told our kids that Santa would bring them a lump of coal or ashes and sticks if they misbehaved, but nobody would ever really do that to a kid. Yet here we are ready to get something we say we deserve…ashes on our foreheads. It always amazes me that the most favorite hymn in America, sung at every funeral and public gathering is Amazing Grace, “how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Do we really think we are that wretched? Do we have that low a self esteem in this country?
There was a time in history when the Church exercised such power and control over people that their lives could literally be made or broken. Individuals who had committed notorious sins, who were “different”, or who brought scandal upon the community could receive a punishment worse than the stocks or the rack, thumbscrews, or the lash. It was excommunication. In Christendom in the middle ages, the Church was all powerful; it could say whether you lived or died. And punishment was eternal. Kicked out of the Church you could not find work, you had no friends, you were shunned, and your family was shamed—and that was just in this life. “Abandon hope all ye that enter here” was the inscription over the gates in Dante’s inferno. Ash Wednesday in its early days was a form of public humiliation—the ashes marked you as a sinner, worthy of hell and God’s wrath. After fasting, prayer, intercessions by the faithful, and acts of contrition…then maybe you would be allowed back. Maybe. Moreover, everyone seeing your torment would be chastened by your example. Talk about peer pressure! Psychologists have a field day with the neuroses brought on by that kind of emotional abuse. Even today, some denominations and preachers still think they can exclude or condemn someone as a “sinner” but thank God we don’t have that power now!
So what does bring us to a service like this? If not guilt or fear, then what? Fasting and extreme self-denial are not the draw—they are more like a new year’s resolution. Is any of this essential to salvation? Will a smudge of ashes on our forehead get us into heaven? Of course not. So what’s in it for us today?
To make this service be more than just a relic from the past, more than something we do, “just because”, it needs to find meaning and connection in our real world. “Now is the acceptable time,” says Paul. “Now is the day of Salvation.” But what does that mean? As a religion, Christianity has been far from perfect. It has missed the mark on many occasions, and has much to confess. But at its heart seems there to be something eternal, a way expressed through liturgy, ritual, and symbolism that ties us to something greater than ourselves. On this day and for the next 6 weeks we will be given an opportunity to grow in our spiritual life. Being marked with ashes now can be an outward symbol of a decision we make to deepen our relationship with our Creator, to put down roots as it were, and grow - growing in knowledge and love of the Lord. By listening and attending to the litany of prayers we will recognize just how far we have to go in that endeavor.
More than that, the ashes remind us of something we would prefer to forget: our mortality. In the ancient wisdom of the church, each Ash Wednesday we are touched with the ashes that used to be the living palms of Palm Sunday, once alive now dead. They expose our most terrible secret, that no one is here forever: “Dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.” We have such a short time as flesh and blood—a as sons and daughters, as wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, as lovers and partners. Shouldn’t we start now to live life to its fullest, to love abundantly even wastefully, to be peacemakers; to work for justice and to make the world a better place? The wisdom, the counsel of Jesus invites us to choose what is lasting over what perishes: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
This is not a day of frivolity and celebration—not like Mardi Gras last night. But it can be a time of renewal. Out of the ashes, like the Phoenix can arise new life within us. So pay attention to the present moment and listen to the stirring in your heart. Be marked on the outside as with ashes; receive the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. Then inwardly receive the assurance of the everlasting goodness of God. Have a blessed and thoughtful Lent.
Copyright © 2003 Emmanuel Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
Revised: 03/12/07