Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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A number of years ago, I had a choir member who we’ll call Peter. It was Ash Wednesday, like today, and Peter had a solo to sing.
Now on a typical Sunday, you’ll see the choir come up and receive before they need to do what they have to do. That’s been my general experience at least. When Peter didn’t come up, I assumed he just didn’t wish to receive ashes.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Immediately following the service Peter goodheartedly demanded his ashes, as if that is the only thing he came there for.
That’s what it seems like we’re here for: the ashes. It is a sign of our mortality. More often, the way we seem to wear them, they are a sign of our piety, sometimes even more for others than ourselves.
The great irony is that we receive the ashes on our foreheads after our reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Towards the end of this passage, part of Jesus’ larger Sermon on the Mount, our Lord tells us, “when you fast,… wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
We begin this time of Lent which is a time of fasting preparing for the Great Feast of Easter. We don’t do this fasting out of a sense of piety. We do it to become closer to God.
That is the point Jesus is trying to make to us today. If you go out and make a big deal about how prayerful and pious you are, then you’ve received your reward in how others perceive you. But if you make your praying and fasting about your relationship with God, then you will become closer to our Lord.
The ashes are an important reminder to us. They remind us that we are mortal, that we do need the sacrifice of Jesus in order to keep on living. That’s all they should be really.
Do me a favor on this day. As you leave, at least think about washing your ashes off. Then they will not just be a reminder of our mortality, but that our Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Most of all, as we enter Lent, whether you take on something or give up something, whatever you do, make sure it is something that brings you closer to our Lord.