ASH WEDNESDAY REFLECTION

ASH WEDNESDAY SERMON  2024:

 

As we begin our Lenten journey, the first thing that generally comes to mind is; “what will I give up this year?   Lent is known as a time of fasting – a time when we give up something enjoyable and in that struggle, we remember that this is a holy time of preparation. 

As we enter this season, I believe it is important that we understand the heart of God.  Our God has communicated His heart over and over through the prophets of the Old Testament and then through Jesus Christ himself.  Through the prophet Isaiah God declared: (Isaiah 58:6 -7) “ Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

God, like a loving parent, cares that we take care of each other.  He is grieved when there is injustice and when His people are burdened.

 

Today we mark our face with ashes.  We are told “whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.”  And yet it seems that this is what we do today.  Which is a good example of not taking a single text of the Bible out of context.  Because there are many other examples of the great heroes of the Bible grieving in sack cloth and ashes.  King David was one, Job was another, as well as the whole city of Nineveh when God’s word came to them through Jonah. 

 

All of these who fasted in sack cloth and ashes were genuine in their grief and desperation before God.  Later on, in the journey of God’s people, there were many who came who were not so genuine, but they made a show of their fasting.  They were, in fact, hypocrites.  A hypocrite is actually an actor.  Someone who pretends to be something that they are not.  The theatre is comprised of hypocrites – they are actors.  The church is called to be the followers of Christ, worshipers of God.  This means we will do some of what God does, and not merely pretend to do what He does.  We will have His same heart of compassion and justice and desire to see people set free from those things that are destroying them.  To step out in our faith is not an easy challenge for most of us…. It is huge….  But what an incredible adventure and what an exhilaration when we connect with people, and through our caring or helpful actions they sense God’s love.

 

If we go to church but we don’t embody the heart and ministry of Jesus, we are mere actors.  Today we pledge to be more than an actor.  Today we strip away any pretence of grandeur and we acknowledge who we are before our omnipotent God – we are mere mortals created by God and finite, but loved by Him and for that we are so grateful.

 

Today is about recognising who we are in God.  We are mere mortals, but God loves us.  God loves us so much that He sent His son, who was without sin to take on the sin of the world.  You’ve heard that there is one baptism for the forgiveness of sins – that baptism is Christ being emersed into the sin of mankind.  He took that sin to the cross and, emersed in that sin, He died, thus doing away with sin.  Sin was the spiritual reality of our condition.  Jesus took that sin and paid the price.  The reason wasn’t so that we would forever hang our head in shame, but so that we could be set free.  Being set free we can truly live and live in the righteousness that is now ours through our union with Christ.

 

In our baptism we are said to die and rise with Christ.  Baptism units us to him, such that we, spiritually, become righteous through Christ, and we become free from all that keeps us separated from God.  In this freedom we thank and praise God.  God as a loving parent, does not want us hanging our heads in shame and being down cast, but he does want us to live in the reality and likeness of Christ, who loves and sets people free.

 

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Christ dwells with us by His Holy Spirit, and moves us to do all the good that Christ would have us do as His holy people.  Perhaps one thing we can do this Lent is to strive to have our spiritual eyes open to see the people God brings into our lives where HE wants us to be his hands and feet…. They may be strangers, or they may be our own family.

 

We put on the ashes to remember who we are; we are but dust.  Yet we put those ashes in the sign of the cross because there is another reality operating in our lives.  Through the sacrifice of the cross we are reconciled with God, will rise with Christ.

 

These ashes today, are our acknowledgement AND our pledge to walk in the way of Christ.  He calls us to a new kind of fast… the kind that binds up the broken and sets free the oppressed.  The kind that speaks for the voiceless, and the kind that proclaims the Good News that God loves them and died for them so that they and we can enjoy all the gifts of Gods goodness.  We step into this time, both in penitent reflection of our reality, and in the victory of our future with God, rejoicing in God’s amazing love and goodness.

 

May our prayers, reflections and actions this Lenten season see us step out in faith into the adventurous life that God has planned for us, remembering that we are but dust, but while we now cling to the old rugged cross, we know that one day we will exchange it for a crown.

 

 

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