Ash Wednesday
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Roman Catholic
Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20--6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Episcopal
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Theme For The Day
Return to the Lord!
Old Testament Lesson
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Return To The Lord With All Your Heart
This passage begins with a shout, "blow the trumpet in Zion" -- the same signal typically used to warn of an enemy attack. Here, however, the invader is not so easily defended against: it is an invading army of locusts (1:4). Joel calls the people to repentance: "... return to me with all your heart," says the Lord, "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing" (v. 12). Who can fend off an army of locusts? Who, for that matter, can fend off sin? The Lord is the only refuge.
Alternate Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 58:1-12
A Fast Truly Pleasing To God
Isaiah criticizes those in Israel who go through the motions of fasting, but who have not truly changed their behavior. "Is such the fast that I choose.... Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?" (v. 5). No, God is looking for a different sort of fasting: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice...?" (v. 6a). What God cares about most is not the outward veneer of religious practice, but rather the transformation of the heart. God welcomes not so much words of penitence, as deeds of justice.
New Testament Lesson
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Now Is The Acceptable Time
Advising against judging others "from a human point of view," Paul has just observed that "anyone who is in Christ is a new creation" (5:17). We who have received this good news have been given "the ministry of reconciliation" (v. 18), by which we are "ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us ... " (v. 20). Quoting Isaiah 49:8, about the "acceptable time" and "the day of salvation" in which the Lord heard the people's pleas, Paul says, "See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" (6:2). The lectionary editors have undoubtedly included this passage because "now is the acceptable time" can serve as a call to renewal of spiritual discipline. Also, in the latter part of this passage, Paul speaks of his triumphs over adversity.
The Gospel
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Spiritual Practices That Are Not Ostentatious
Here is pastoral advice from Jesus that is particularly timely for those who will soon undertake intentional spiritual disciplines: "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven" (v. 1). Do not pray in an ostentatious public way, Jesus advises, but go into a room and pray in private. Then, as an example of how to pray, Jesus teaches his disciples the text we have come to know as the Lord's Prayer. Finally, there is his advice for those who are fasting: try not to look "dismal, like the hypocrites" (v. 16).
Preaching Possibilities
Joel calls the people to repentance "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." What's all that about, Joel? You oughta lighten up! (That's one reaction many of us may have to what seems to be a blanket indictment of the human race.)
But Joel's right. It is said that there was once a wise old rabbi, who carried in his pocket two stones. One stone had written on it, "For me the world was created." The other said, "I am dust and ashes." The rabbi carried those two stones as a constant reminder that he lived his life within a certain tension. His life contained two contradictory aspects: an aspect of celebration, and an aspect of penitence.
Most of us in twentieth-century America much prefer celebration. It's no mystery why. To reach into our pocket and pull out the stone that says "for me the world was created" is to revel in God's love, in the simple, joyous exuberance of living. It's optimistic, upbeat, "can-do," affirming. The stone that says "I am dust and ashes" is a very different matter. It appears gloomy, morose, life negating.
"Dust and ashes" is the dominant theme of Lent. Whether we follow the worship tradition of literally placing ashes on our foreheads or whether we don't, the theme of Ash Wednesday worship is still the same. In the old days, back when every house contained a fire for cooking and warmth, ashes were a part of everyday life. (Those of especially long memory among us may recall what it was like to carry the ashes from the coal or wood stove outside each morning, and deposit them in the "ash can.") In biblical times, whenever tragedy intruded -- in the form of death or some horrible deed that called for extreme repentance -- those in the household knew what to do. They reached into the leftover ashes and smeared their faces with them, a sign to all the world of inconsolable grief.
The church picked this custom up from ancient Israel, and from a very early date used ashes as a symbol of penitence, especially during Lent. Yet, this whole idea doesn't sit so well with us modern folk. This is, after all, the era of self-help, of self-improvement, of shedding our negative emotions and realizing our fullest potential. The whole concept of sin seems, to many, a curious anachronism. All we have to do to achieve true happiness (our culture insists) is to eat healthy, think positive thoughts, avoid hurting anyone else, and follow our dream.
Yet -- as the two stones of the old rabbi insistently remind us -- that's only the half of it. If we go around proclaiming all the time, "For me the world was created," our lives will quickly degenerate into shallow self-centeredness. When we hurt those around us -- and it's inevitable that we will, despite our best intentions -- we will then have no way to deal with that experience, no framework in which to place it. In short, we will end up living a lie, spinning for ourselves sugary self-affirming fantasies that have no more capacity to nourish the soul than cotton candy. It is better, by far, to carry two stones than one -- even if one of them bears the "dust and ashes" message.
Prayer For The Day
O God of our salvation,
we come before you
on this beginning of the season of repentance and reflection,
of turning and returning.
May we always trust in your mercy,
seek the reign of Christ in our lives
and rely upon the Spirit's power.
Through Jesus Christ,
who is the path homeward to you.
Amen.
To Illustrate
T. S. Eliot once said that repentance is getting on the right track, not just slowing down on the wrong track.
***
There is a choice before us during Lent, and the theologian Karl Barth put it very bluntly, with respect to our attitude toward our own sin: each of us can choose, he said, to be either a sick person taking medicine, or a well person taking poison.
***
This story was told by Rabbi Shelton Donnell of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, in Los Angeles:
It is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the rabbi is waxing eloquent before his congregation about the importance of true penitence. At the climax of his sermon, he raises his arms before the Ark of the Covenant, cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself face down onto the floor.
The cantor's looking on, rather surprised. He figures he'd better follow the rabbi's example, so he too cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself down beside the rabbi.
Now this creates an awkward moment for the president of the congregation. He doesn't know what he should do, but then he decides, "Oh, why not?" and so he laments, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and joins the others on the floor.
At this point, a little man who hardly ever goes to temple, sitting way up in the balcony, is so caught up in the spirit of the occasion that he also stands up, and cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself onto the floor.
The president of the congregation recognizes the man's voice. He leans over to the cantor and whispers, "Just look who thinks he's nothing!"
***
Community requires the confession of brokenness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be "confessed." We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional, priestly, or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet, the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable. How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.
-- M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)
***
I would rather be ashes than dust; I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot; I would rather be in a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow than in a sleepy and permanent planet; the proper function of man is to live, not to exist; I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them; I shall use my time.
-- Jack London
***
Repentance is not a fruit problem; it is a root problem. It is the root of who we are that is a problem in God's eyes. So repentance cannot be composed of "I can" statements. "I have sinned God. I am sorry God. I can do better." Repentance, rather, must be composed of "I can't" statements. "I have sinned, God. I am sorry, God. I've tried and tried and tried but I just don't produce good fruit. I can't seem to do better. I need your vinedresser to work on the roots of my life. Give me a new life, God. Give me your life. I can't. You can."
-- Richard Jensen, Preaching Luke's Gospel (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1997), p. 147
***
We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of his living light. The essence of Jewish religious thinking does not lie in entertaining a concept of God but in the ability to articulate a memory of moments of illumination by his presence.
Our quest for God is a return to God; our thinking of him is a recall, an attempt to draw out the depth of our suppressed attachment. The Hebrew word for repentance, teshuvah, means return. Yet it also means answer. Return to God is an answer to him, for God is not silent. The stirring in man to return to God is actually a "reminder by God to man." It is a call that man's physical sense does not capture, yet the "spiritual soul" in him perceives the call. God's grace resounds in our lives like a staccato. Only by retaining the seemingly disconnected notes do we acquire the ability to grasp the theme.
It is within man's power to seek him; it is not within his power to find him. God concludes what we commence.
-- Abraham Joseph Heschel, Between God and Man (New York: Harper & Row, 1959)
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Roman Catholic
Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20--6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Episcopal
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Theme For The Day
Return to the Lord!
Old Testament Lesson
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Return To The Lord With All Your Heart
This passage begins with a shout, "blow the trumpet in Zion" -- the same signal typically used to warn of an enemy attack. Here, however, the invader is not so easily defended against: it is an invading army of locusts (1:4). Joel calls the people to repentance: "... return to me with all your heart," says the Lord, "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing" (v. 12). Who can fend off an army of locusts? Who, for that matter, can fend off sin? The Lord is the only refuge.
Alternate Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 58:1-12
A Fast Truly Pleasing To God
Isaiah criticizes those in Israel who go through the motions of fasting, but who have not truly changed their behavior. "Is such the fast that I choose.... Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?" (v. 5). No, God is looking for a different sort of fasting: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice...?" (v. 6a). What God cares about most is not the outward veneer of religious practice, but rather the transformation of the heart. God welcomes not so much words of penitence, as deeds of justice.
New Testament Lesson
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10
Now Is The Acceptable Time
Advising against judging others "from a human point of view," Paul has just observed that "anyone who is in Christ is a new creation" (5:17). We who have received this good news have been given "the ministry of reconciliation" (v. 18), by which we are "ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us ... " (v. 20). Quoting Isaiah 49:8, about the "acceptable time" and "the day of salvation" in which the Lord heard the people's pleas, Paul says, "See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" (6:2). The lectionary editors have undoubtedly included this passage because "now is the acceptable time" can serve as a call to renewal of spiritual discipline. Also, in the latter part of this passage, Paul speaks of his triumphs over adversity.
The Gospel
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Spiritual Practices That Are Not Ostentatious
Here is pastoral advice from Jesus that is particularly timely for those who will soon undertake intentional spiritual disciplines: "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven" (v. 1). Do not pray in an ostentatious public way, Jesus advises, but go into a room and pray in private. Then, as an example of how to pray, Jesus teaches his disciples the text we have come to know as the Lord's Prayer. Finally, there is his advice for those who are fasting: try not to look "dismal, like the hypocrites" (v. 16).
Preaching Possibilities
Joel calls the people to repentance "with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." What's all that about, Joel? You oughta lighten up! (That's one reaction many of us may have to what seems to be a blanket indictment of the human race.)
But Joel's right. It is said that there was once a wise old rabbi, who carried in his pocket two stones. One stone had written on it, "For me the world was created." The other said, "I am dust and ashes." The rabbi carried those two stones as a constant reminder that he lived his life within a certain tension. His life contained two contradictory aspects: an aspect of celebration, and an aspect of penitence.
Most of us in twentieth-century America much prefer celebration. It's no mystery why. To reach into our pocket and pull out the stone that says "for me the world was created" is to revel in God's love, in the simple, joyous exuberance of living. It's optimistic, upbeat, "can-do," affirming. The stone that says "I am dust and ashes" is a very different matter. It appears gloomy, morose, life negating.
"Dust and ashes" is the dominant theme of Lent. Whether we follow the worship tradition of literally placing ashes on our foreheads or whether we don't, the theme of Ash Wednesday worship is still the same. In the old days, back when every house contained a fire for cooking and warmth, ashes were a part of everyday life. (Those of especially long memory among us may recall what it was like to carry the ashes from the coal or wood stove outside each morning, and deposit them in the "ash can.") In biblical times, whenever tragedy intruded -- in the form of death or some horrible deed that called for extreme repentance -- those in the household knew what to do. They reached into the leftover ashes and smeared their faces with them, a sign to all the world of inconsolable grief.
The church picked this custom up from ancient Israel, and from a very early date used ashes as a symbol of penitence, especially during Lent. Yet, this whole idea doesn't sit so well with us modern folk. This is, after all, the era of self-help, of self-improvement, of shedding our negative emotions and realizing our fullest potential. The whole concept of sin seems, to many, a curious anachronism. All we have to do to achieve true happiness (our culture insists) is to eat healthy, think positive thoughts, avoid hurting anyone else, and follow our dream.
Yet -- as the two stones of the old rabbi insistently remind us -- that's only the half of it. If we go around proclaiming all the time, "For me the world was created," our lives will quickly degenerate into shallow self-centeredness. When we hurt those around us -- and it's inevitable that we will, despite our best intentions -- we will then have no way to deal with that experience, no framework in which to place it. In short, we will end up living a lie, spinning for ourselves sugary self-affirming fantasies that have no more capacity to nourish the soul than cotton candy. It is better, by far, to carry two stones than one -- even if one of them bears the "dust and ashes" message.
Prayer For The Day
O God of our salvation,
we come before you
on this beginning of the season of repentance and reflection,
of turning and returning.
May we always trust in your mercy,
seek the reign of Christ in our lives
and rely upon the Spirit's power.
Through Jesus Christ,
who is the path homeward to you.
Amen.
To Illustrate
T. S. Eliot once said that repentance is getting on the right track, not just slowing down on the wrong track.
***
There is a choice before us during Lent, and the theologian Karl Barth put it very bluntly, with respect to our attitude toward our own sin: each of us can choose, he said, to be either a sick person taking medicine, or a well person taking poison.
***
This story was told by Rabbi Shelton Donnell of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, in Los Angeles:
It is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the rabbi is waxing eloquent before his congregation about the importance of true penitence. At the climax of his sermon, he raises his arms before the Ark of the Covenant, cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself face down onto the floor.
The cantor's looking on, rather surprised. He figures he'd better follow the rabbi's example, so he too cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself down beside the rabbi.
Now this creates an awkward moment for the president of the congregation. He doesn't know what he should do, but then he decides, "Oh, why not?" and so he laments, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and joins the others on the floor.
At this point, a little man who hardly ever goes to temple, sitting way up in the balcony, is so caught up in the spirit of the occasion that he also stands up, and cries out, "O Lord, I am nothing, I am nothing!" and throws himself onto the floor.
The president of the congregation recognizes the man's voice. He leans over to the cantor and whispers, "Just look who thinks he's nothing!"
***
Community requires the confession of brokenness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be "confessed." We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional, priestly, or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet, the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable. How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.
-- M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)
***
I would rather be ashes than dust; I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot; I would rather be in a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow than in a sleepy and permanent planet; the proper function of man is to live, not to exist; I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them; I shall use my time.
-- Jack London
***
Repentance is not a fruit problem; it is a root problem. It is the root of who we are that is a problem in God's eyes. So repentance cannot be composed of "I can" statements. "I have sinned God. I am sorry God. I can do better." Repentance, rather, must be composed of "I can't" statements. "I have sinned, God. I am sorry, God. I've tried and tried and tried but I just don't produce good fruit. I can't seem to do better. I need your vinedresser to work on the roots of my life. Give me a new life, God. Give me your life. I can't. You can."
-- Richard Jensen, Preaching Luke's Gospel (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1997), p. 147
***
We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of his living light. The essence of Jewish religious thinking does not lie in entertaining a concept of God but in the ability to articulate a memory of moments of illumination by his presence.
Our quest for God is a return to God; our thinking of him is a recall, an attempt to draw out the depth of our suppressed attachment. The Hebrew word for repentance, teshuvah, means return. Yet it also means answer. Return to God is an answer to him, for God is not silent. The stirring in man to return to God is actually a "reminder by God to man." It is a call that man's physical sense does not capture, yet the "spiritual soul" in him perceives the call. God's grace resounds in our lives like a staccato. Only by retaining the seemingly disconnected notes do we acquire the ability to grasp the theme.
It is within man's power to seek him; it is not within his power to find him. God concludes what we commence.
-- Abraham Joseph Heschel, Between God and Man (New York: Harper & Row, 1959)
