Reflecting on Ash Wednesday 2021

As Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, I have prepared several sermons over the past year during this time of pandemic that have been offered to congregations as a way to give the clergy a break. COVID has been taxing on our clergy, and normal tasks like sermon-writing and preparing for worship have taken more time and energy, which can zap creativity. So the idea has been to free up some time for and with mostly on-line worship, there is definitely an opportunity for those of us who do diocesan work to be in numerous places at once. I believe that these efforts have been appreciated, and we just finished up a series that offered sermons to every congregation throughout this past liturgical season, from the Feast of the Epiphany to the Mount of the Transfiguration.

I love Ash Wednesday and I considered recording a sermon that might be used in this same way as we begin the forty-day journey of Lent. In lieu of that, however, I thought it might be more helpful for this day to offer some reflections on the texts and day that might help in preparing preachers for the work ahead. Others who normally just listen to sermons might also find these "ruminations" interesting. They are somewhat random, but offered as a way in...

The readings for Ash Wednesday can be found here.

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Many years ago, now, I read a book by Belden Lane called The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality. I commend it to you because I think as we prepare to enter a "wilderness season" in the midst of a "wilderness pandemic" it helps to be reminded that the wilderness is neither a punishment nor devoid of life. A simple time of drawing on the right side of our brains might be to recall times when the preacher has been in the desert or on a mountain top and what those places are like. A simple reflection on those places in the Bible (Mount Sinai, Mount Nebo, the Judean Wilderness) may get one's creative juices flowing. In the review that is linked above, these words:  

In the counterculture spirituality of the Christian desert fathers, these fierce landscapes signaled the death of self, the limits of language, the unknowability of God, and the threat of nothingness. Lane rediscovers the meaning of love in his encounters with the Holy One in desolate places.

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The Desert Mothers and Fathers are another way to pray into Ash Wednesday and the forty-days that follow. Sister Joan Chittister's Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today and Alan Jones' Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality are two writers who introduced these ideas to me, and they build on Lane's understanding of what the Lenten journey can be about. Here is an example: 

One day Abba Arsenius was asking an old Egyptian man for advice. There was someone who saw this and said to him: “Abba Arsenius, why is a person like you, who has such a great knowledge of Greek and Latin, asking a peasant like this about your thoughts?” And Abba Arsenius replied, “Indeed, I have learned the knowledge of Latin and Greek, yet I have not learned even the alphabet of this peasant.”

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In Christ, there is no east nor west. But the western world has much to learn from eastern Christians. One of my own teachers in this regard has been Alexander Schmemann, who wrote a little book about Orthodox Lenten practices called Great Lent: Journey to Pascha. I love his image of Lent as a time of "bright sadness." And I love the Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephraim, which goes like this:

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me a spirit of despondency, sloth, love of money, and idle talk. But give to me, your servant, a spirit of sober-mindedness, humility, patience, and love.

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Trumpets or no trumpets for Ash Wednesday? Both of the Old Testament prophets (Joel and Isaiah) suggest "blowing the trumpet in Zion" and to "lift up your voice like a trumpet." Matthew, on the other hand, says not to sound the trumpet when you give alms. But I think that's different. Yes, we can (and should) be generous without tooting our own horns. But what the prophets see as vital is a kind of call to reveille, a wake-up call to put first things first in our lives.  

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These words from, T. S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday."

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated 
 
And let my cry come unto Thee.

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Here is a link to an Ash Wednesday sermon I preached at our cathedral seven years ago, on the epistle reading, which comes from First Corinthians: Now Is The Day of Salvation!

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The Gospel Reading from Matthew 6 is so rich but I wish that we were not reading about "washing faces" on the day when we smudge ashes on our foreheads. I think it gets confusing for folks. Maybe this year with virtual liturgies we just skip the ashes. But it's still always there and we should address it once and for all: Matthew isn't criticizing the Ash Wednesday Liturgy; he is challenging false piety and yearning for authentic practices of faith. If the ashes help us to move toward turning back to God, they are helpful. Maybe this Lent we will recognize that moth and rust do consume everything and focus on where are treasures are as we get ready to live in a post-pandemic world.