Ash Wednesday: Time to Stop Kidding Ourselves
If we had been able to have our Leviticus dinner and study this past Sunday, we would have done more than just eaten chocolate covered grasshoppers. We would have also heard about the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was established by God to give God’s people one day when they were forced to stop kidding themselves. For one day all – and I mean all – God’s people gathered together to remember that they had sinned against God. They had sinned against God as individuals, they had sinned against God as families, they had sinned against God as towns, tribes, and villages, and they had sinned against God as a nation. And as sinners they all came together to say they were sorry and atone for their wrong-doings.
We don’t celebrate the Day of Atonement as its called for in the Book of Leviticus – and it’s a good thing too, as it was pretty bloody! Blood thrown all over the place.
But we do have a day when we are given a chance to stop kidding ourselves: and that day is today.
Today we are confronted with two realities, and they’re hard realities to face: we are one day going to die; and we are sinful people.
Most of us probably, and hopefully(!), don’t obsess with either of these two realities. To be consumed with our own mortality, or our own brokenness, wouldn’t be healthy, productive, or even holy. But, to block these two realities out completely – to kid ourselves – isn’t healthy or holy either.
It’s easy to triumph in the illusion of immortality. And it’s tempting to think, ‘gee, how sinful and bad can I really be? I’ve never killed anybody or stole anything big. . .’
Those illusions are easy, and tempting; and that’s why it’s called kidding ourselves.
But, tonight, there’s none of that. Tonight young and old alike are sealed with the ashes of last year’s triumphant palm branches from Palm Sunday, with the words: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Tonight we fall to our knees to pray the words of Psalm 51: “Indeed I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother’s womb. . . create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
No, little chance of kidding ourselves. In fact I’ve heard some people speak of Ash Wednesday as the most uncomfortable day of the church year. It can be uncomfortable because it holds a mirror up to our faces, and shows us the parts of us that we’d rather forget about – the parts we’d rather deal with later. . . much later.
And so, what we get today is a reality check. And reality checks are good. But, there is a larger reality check: reality beyond our impending death and inherent sinfulness. It’s the reality of God.
We are going to die one day, but that needn’t be a bad thing: because with God, death doesn’t need to be an end, but can be a new and wonderful beginning.
We are sinners in God’s sight, but in one respect that can be ok too: because with God there is plentiful redemption, there is forgiveness, and there is the hope of new beginnings.
The real reality check of Ash Wednesday is that we’re human – fully human. We’re flawed, fragile, and frequently unimpressive.
But with all our limitations and shortcomings, God sent his only Son to come and live among us as one of us: he became human too. He didn’t have the problem of sin, but he had the problem of fragility, emotions, pain, and death. And he had love, for us.
With all that we are and all that we are not, tonight we are ashed and reminded of our sinfulness, but we are also invited to God’s table. We are fed with the bread of angels, and the cup which Jesus called ‘of the new covenant.’
Today we are reminded exactly who we are, and where we sit in the grand scheme of things. And, when you look at it, not from the perspective of our own neediness, but from the perspective of God’s overwhelming generosity, it’s not a bad place to be after all.
The Day of Atonement was established by God to give God’s people one day when they were forced to stop kidding themselves. For one day all – and I mean all – God’s people gathered together to remember that they had sinned against God. They had sinned against God as individuals, they had sinned against God as families, they had sinned against God as towns, tribes, and villages, and they had sinned against God as a nation. And as sinners they all came together to say they were sorry and atone for their wrong-doings.
We don’t celebrate the Day of Atonement as its called for in the Book of Leviticus – and it’s a good thing too, as it was pretty bloody! Blood thrown all over the place.
But we do have a day when we are given a chance to stop kidding ourselves: and that day is today.
Today we are confronted with two realities, and they’re hard realities to face: we are one day going to die; and we are sinful people.
Most of us probably, and hopefully(!), don’t obsess with either of these two realities. To be consumed with our own mortality, or our own brokenness, wouldn’t be healthy, productive, or even holy. But, to block these two realities out completely – to kid ourselves – isn’t healthy or holy either.
It’s easy to triumph in the illusion of immortality. And it’s tempting to think, ‘gee, how sinful and bad can I really be? I’ve never killed anybody or stole anything big. . .’
Those illusions are easy, and tempting; and that’s why it’s called kidding ourselves.
But, tonight, there’s none of that. Tonight young and old alike are sealed with the ashes of last year’s triumphant palm branches from Palm Sunday, with the words: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Tonight we fall to our knees to pray the words of Psalm 51: “Indeed I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother’s womb. . . create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
No, little chance of kidding ourselves. In fact I’ve heard some people speak of Ash Wednesday as the most uncomfortable day of the church year. It can be uncomfortable because it holds a mirror up to our faces, and shows us the parts of us that we’d rather forget about – the parts we’d rather deal with later. . . much later.
And so, what we get today is a reality check. And reality checks are good. But, there is a larger reality check: reality beyond our impending death and inherent sinfulness. It’s the reality of God.
We are going to die one day, but that needn’t be a bad thing: because with God, death doesn’t need to be an end, but can be a new and wonderful beginning.
We are sinners in God’s sight, but in one respect that can be ok too: because with God there is plentiful redemption, there is forgiveness, and there is the hope of new beginnings.
The real reality check of Ash Wednesday is that we’re human – fully human. We’re flawed, fragile, and frequently unimpressive.
But with all our limitations and shortcomings, God sent his only Son to come and live among us as one of us: he became human too. He didn’t have the problem of sin, but he had the problem of fragility, emotions, pain, and death. And he had love, for us.
With all that we are and all that we are not, tonight we are ashed and reminded of our sinfulness, but we are also invited to God’s table. We are fed with the bread of angels, and the cup which Jesus called ‘of the new covenant.’
Today we are reminded exactly who we are, and where we sit in the grand scheme of things. And, when you look at it, not from the perspective of our own neediness, but from the perspective of God’s overwhelming generosity, it’s not a bad place to be after all.
posted by Fr. Rick Morley at 6:33 AM
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