A Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Well I hope you used up all the fat and non essential cooking ingredients yesterday on Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday takes its name from the Medieval word ‘shrive’, which means absolution.  Many towns and cities in this country used to have a Shrovetide Fair, a day of celebrating and eating and using up all the fats and excess food ready for Lent, which starts today on Ash Wednesday. That’s why we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. In some parts of the world Shrove Tuesday is known as Mardi Gras, which effectively means Fat Tuesday, when they have a carnival, celebrate and eat and drink as much as they can ready for the fasting of the Lenten Season.

Lent isn’t for the deeply religious people among us, who think they know what to do to get right with God.  Jesus told us in Matthews Gospel, ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.  Truly I tell you they have received their reward’. Those words always seem rather scary to me - ‘They have received their reward’ - Its as if God says, ‘these show offs, leave them to it, there’s nothing else I can teach them’.

The poet, T.S. Eliot, wrote a poem called ‘Ash Wednesday’, which starts: ‘Because I do not hope to turn again; Because I do not hope; Because I do not hope to turn again’. These words are in sharp contrast to the words of St Paul to the Corinthians, which were read earlier, ‘We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God’. In other words turn away from sin and turn to God. This poem is an inner journey of someone who seems to think that reconciliation with God is beyond his capabilities, something that Eliot feels he cannot attain.  He seems to have given up on hope of reconciliation with God.  Eliot seems to speak for all of us who want to hope in the saving power of God, but feel they have no hope.  For all of us who are struggling to find faith but don’t know where to look for it;  For all of us who want to be reconciled to God our Heavenly Father, but don’t know how to begin;  Lent belongs to all of us who feel just like that. And yet Eliot is a man who is in tune with the whole idea of Lent, for Lent isn’t for those who deal with the emptiness of life by striving to do better than the next person, driven by the human desires and greed this material world manifests.  Lent is for those who feel that all the material rewards life can offer them are transitory, meaningless, empty things. As Jesus reminds us about the rich man who stored up treasurers, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have stored up, who’s will they be?’

Lent hope is a tough hope, grounded in self-awareness, in a consciousness that life is slender, that goodness is hard to achieve and even harder to sustain. This is how God wants us to come to Him, at Lent and anytime in our lives, recognising how mortal and imperfect we are, recognising how we have abused the gifts of creation He has given us, recognising how we have failed to love one another as He commanded us to, acknowledging that we are nothing without God’s unconditional love for us. The Ashes we will receive in a short time are a visible symbol of suffering and mourning.  Not because we have decided to give up chocolate, wine or other luxuries to show how pious we are, during the Lenten season, but rather because we are truly sorry for all that is wrong in our lives and our genuine wish to change, or to use the religious word, REPENT.

Repentance may not be fashionable in our modern times, when we prefer to blame others for our sins, our parents, our upbringing, our lack of opportunities or any other excuse. By accepting the sign of the cross in Ashes on our forehead, we are saying we know that there are things which we can do to change and be better Christians.  The Ashes are a symbol of sorrow for that which is wrong in our lives and a willingness to change for the better. Its not about making people feel bad about themselves and guilty for our shortcomings, it’s a reminder that as mortals we all sin, but we have the offer of redemption by repenting our sins and making a determined effort to change.  Jesus reminds us, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone’.

Lent helps us to face ourselves honestly, and face God through it all.  ‘Neither do I condemn you’, Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, ‘Go your way, and from now on do not sin again’.  It is that liberation of God’s love that we all need; and Lent is for resolutely putting ourselves in the way of it, by prayer, study, fasting, and love for others, which will bring us face to face with God’s love and forgiven.  Amen.