This is a copy of my talk given at all three churches in the Anglican Church of Paphos on Ash Wednesday, 14 February 2024. The Bible Readings were: Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 and Matthew 6:1-6 & 16-21.
Prayer
Heavenly Father
I thank You for Your word
By the power of the Holy Spirit
May You speak to my heart
And change my life
In the precious name of Jesus I pray
Amen.
Introduction
Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day are two days, steeped in tradition, and don’t have too much in common beyond their religious roots. Valentine’s Day, named after Saint Valentine, a third-century martyr, is all about romance with its emphasis on cards, chocolates and flowers where Ash Wednesday takes a more sombre tone as the start of 40 days of prayer, fasting and the almsgiving of Lent. There are three simple points to my talk today: Fasting, Mourning and Pausing.
Fasting
Lent, for many people, provides a focus to practice some form of abstinence: Chocolate; Alcohol; TV; in the hope that it will enhance their spiritual life. Jesus’ focus for his 40 days in the wilderness was his preparation for a ministry to transform the world. Have you ever considered that Lent is a time of transformation rather than abstinence? Rabbi Michael Lerner:
I simply cannot understand how somebody can be a spiritual being and not be actively involved in the transformation of the world.
Our reading from Isaiah 58 speaks about how people fasted for their own self-interest and how this caused them to quarrel and fight rather than an opportunity to humble themselves. The failure of the people of Judah to actively seek the transformation of the world had caused other nations to ask: ‘Where is their God?’ In Corinthians 2 Paul reminds us that we are ambassadors for Christ and the way we live our lives should demonstrate that in every way.
Isaiah reminds us that the purpose of fasting was to satisfy the needs of the afflicted and shine the Light of God in the darkness. And in fasting with the right approach means, says Isaiah 58:11: “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones string and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.”
Our reading from Matthew 6 reminds us how when we fast/pray we should do it secret not in the public arena as the hypocrites do.
Isaiah also points to the fact that works of penance, if not related to that inner conversion to God in love, are worthless. External works of penance have no value in themselves, according to Matthew, unless if affects our heart. However, if we do confess, God is merciful and willing to forgive He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
Mourning
As well as a time for spiritual renewal, Lent is also a time of mourning our sins. It is a time when we are called to repent and change our ways. We do this by following the custom of receiving the mark of ashes on our forehead as a sign of mourning and penance.
There are several examples in the Bible where ‘sackcloth and ashes’ are used as a symbol of mourning and grief. You may remember how Job covered himself in ashes and sat before God as a sign of mourning – as did his three friends when they came to visit him. After the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4) a Benjamite, with his clothes torn and dust on his head in grief, informed Eli what had taken place.
The soldier who informed David that Saul had died (2 Samuel 1) also arrived with his clothes torn and dust on his head as a sign of grief and mourning. In Joshua 7 we read how Joshua and the elders got on their knees in prayer to seek God’s face, tearing their clothes and covering themselves with dust.
Job in 42:6 used dust and ashes in his repentance before the Lord. Jesus, in Matthew 11:20-24, denounces the cities that did not repent, despite the signs and wonders he performed, and suggested that they should have repented in sackcloth and ashes a long time before.
Pausing
It’s been observed that hitting the ‘Pause’ button on a machine makes the machine stop while hitting the ‘Pause’ button on humans makes us start. We start to reflect. We start to observe. We start to ponder, behold, and ‘take stock.’ In Biblical language, we ‘consider our ways’. We are all aware of the current state of accelerating change in technology, nature, and market forces which deeply affect us all – the need to step back from the relentless demands of the technological age is not an altogether new message. T.S. Eliot, wrote movingly of our lapse into this many years ago in his poem ‘The Rock’.
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
“Where is the life we have lost in the living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” What piercing questions.
The irony of Ash Wednesday is that by bringing us face to face with the reality of our death, it also serves to bring us into communion with God’s matchless love and mercy. It’s the front door of Lent, that forty-day pause from the passions that dominate us, moving us towards the slower, more ordered and observant habit of beholding – of seeing God in wonder of creation and the gift of our work and leisure.
Conclusion
And so may each of us, this Lent fast, mourn and repent of our self-reliance and self-seeking and accept the grace and forgiveness that marks us out as a child of God which enables us to be a transforming presence in our world. May we also hit the pause button and allow God to speak to us in new and wonderful ways. May God’s richest blessing be upon you and your family this Lenten season.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.
Lent: Self-Examination and Confession
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