A Sermon preached on Ash Wednesday March 1st
2017 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Isaiah 58:1-12, 2
Corinthians 5:20b-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
While we probably
all have been guilty of doing exactly the opposite of what God and Jesus tell
us to do, it rarely seems so obvious as today:
In just a moment,
I am going to mark a visible sign on your forehead – a cross of ashes. And yet,
we just heard Jesus say: “Beware of practicing your piety before others in
order to be seen by them.” And also, “Whenever you fast, do not look dismal,
like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others
that they are fasting.” (Matthew 6:1, 16)
So, why are we
doing this? Is it to practice our piety in public, as a show? Is it to look
dismal? I hope not. In fact I want you to receive your cross of ashes with joy,
and not with a dismal look on your face, and I will explain why in a moment.
But first I want
to unpack Jesus’ criticism, which is actually similar to Isaiah’s. What both of
them can’t stand is hypocrisy: saying one thing, and doing another. Isaiah passes
on to Israel God’s message that fasting while oppressing, quarrelling, and
fighting is not the sort of fast that will be heard “on high.” (Isaiah 58:3-4) Humbling
yourself just on a fast day, wearing sackcloth and ashes just when the calendar
calls for it, is not acceptable to the Lord. The fast God chooses, the fast God
appreciates is what we do and stand for 365 days a year: “to loose the bonds of
injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to
break every yoke ….. to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the
homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them.” (Isaiah
58:6-7)
Just last week,
Pope Francis is supposed to have suggested that it's better to be an atheist
than a bad Christian, at least that’s a simplistic and not fully accurate newspaper
headline summary of his sermon during morning Mass. What he said was: “It is a
scandal to say one thing and do another. That is a double life. There are those
who say, ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to mass, I belong to this and that
association.’ But they should also say ‘my life is not Christian, I don’t pay
my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder
money, [I lead] a double life’” “‘There are many Catholics who are like this
and they cause scandal. How many times have we all heard people say ‘if that
person is a Catholic, it is better to be an atheist’?” [1]
And this is what Jesus
is criticizing too: using the outward signs of piety, without action and
without the transformation of our hearts and minds that our piety – prayer,
fasting, worship, scripture, meditation – are supposed to bring. Pretending to
fast – or to be particularly strict in fasting - by putting on a dismal face, presumably
as a sign of the pangs of hunger, is equally pernicious. It would be better to
eat normally and share your bread with the hungry.
As I don’t believe
you are hypocrites and I know you are not putting on a show of piety, what are the
ash crosses for?
According to the prayer
that I will say over the ashes before using them, the ashes are to be to us a
sign of our mortality and penitence. Mortality and repentance are two things we
don’t like much nowadays. Either we hide death in hospitals and try and delay
it as long as possible with the help of all our machines and medicines. Or at
the other extreme we want full control over the when and how we die. As Christians,
we acknowledge that this life has an end. Christ’s victory over death is realized
in the promise of new and renewed life for us and all creation. Yet as
Christians we also rejoice in this life, which is gift from God, and try live
it in the best way possible. That is one thing your ash cross stands for.
Repentance is also
not very popular. We do not like to acknowledge our mistakes, instead we double
down, we create facts to prove we are right, we blame other people and in doing
so we destroy relationships or worse. As Christians we must be willing to repent.
We know that we are sinners, but we also know that our God forgives those who
truly repent. Repentance is not a sad and dismal act, but really another occasion
for rejoicing. Through the act of repentance we are repairing and renewing our relationship
both with that other human being we have harmed or hurt, and with God. That is the second thing your ash cross stands
for.
But there is one
more reason why should receive your cross of ashes with joy. The prayer over
the ashes starts with the words: “Almighty God, you have created us out of the
dust of the earth.” God created each and every one of us with a purpose: To
love and to be loved. To be God’s stewards of that creation and all created
creatures, to love and care for the world and one another.
To sum up, your
ash cross is not some outward sign of a piety that has not reached your hearts.
It is a sign that we accept that we are mortal, but still rejoice in this life,
as we look forward to the next. . It is a sign that we accept that we are
sinners and in need of forgiveness, but know that we rejoice in God’s love. .
It is a sign that we accept and rejoice in our role as God’s partners in God’s
mission for this world and all who live on it.
If that is our
understanding of the cross of ashes then we are definitely not guilty of doing the
opposite of what God and Jesus tell us to do. On the contrary, we are doing
exactly what we have been created and called for. Come and get your sign!
Amen.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/23/pope-francis-better-to-be-atheist-than-hypocritical-catholic
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