PSALM 103:8-14
2 CORINTHIANS 5:20b—6:10
MATTHEW 6:1-6, 16-21
Sermon
– 2/13/02
Ash
Wednesday and Valentine’s Day
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Now that I’ve said that, some guys’ minds may be wandering to wondering if there are any florists open after the service tonight. But let’s stay with this thought for a moment. Valentine’s Day is a pseudo-holiday some people celebrate appropriately and with gusto, others celebrate inappropriately and with gusto, still others forget and wish they hadn’t, others get their hopes up and then have no celebration, while others ignore the day (or try to) completely.
It
is, in short, a divisive pseudo-holiday, prompting widely differing
reactions from people depending on their situations and perceptions. And it is a pseudo-holiday saturated with
images of however the advertising industry defines “romantic love” in any given
decade.
Ash
Wednesday, on the other hand, is a unifying day. We are all sinners. Everyone has fallen short of the
glory of God. The two greatest
commandments are “love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind
and all your soul and your neighbor as yourself.” The only human being who has never broken either of these
commandments is Jesus Christ. The rest
of us are all sinners.
Valentine’s
Day is a day some people try to make up for past inattention to their special
someone by buying some expensive bauble or splurging on a big night or weekend
away…and then they go back to a regular pattern of always being “too busy” for
their special someone until the next one-day effort. This doesn’t cut it. The special someone can see through this for
the hypocrisy it is, unless that person is the same way, or unless that person
has become so depressed or cynical that’s all she or he expects.
Ash
Wednesday is also a day some people try to make up for past inattention
to their relationship with God, their treatment of other people and
their treatment of themselves by a big, showy, one-day effort. A “binge” of religiosity, if you will.
God
sees through that, too.
That’s
exactly what the reading from Isaiah 58 criticizes: people who make a big show of public prayer and fasting—and then
go back to ripping people off in business, grabbing for all they can get while
some starve, and accepting structures of oppression or discrimination if these
benefit themselves.
Ash
Wednesday gives us a chance for a fresh start with God: to confess, receive the assurance of God’s
forgiveness and a clean slate. But if we
don’t make changes in our routine behavior, a once-a-year “spring
cleaning of our souls” will not be enough.
Lent is a chance for us to reflect for more than one day and
to make changes.
The forty days dedicated to penitence and amendment of life is a
long enough time to create new habits: greater honesty, greater peacefulness, greater generosity,
greater justice in our individual lives—or any number of other areas we need to
make changes. Start somewhere. Ask God for guidance as to where to start, and
the strength to persevere.
Ash
Wednesday, and Lent, are not about gloom and masochism. They are about facing reality
and having the courage to change. They are even more about love—God’s love for
us.
Valentine’s
Day, really, is a pretty “hokey” pseudo-holiday; for those who are really
in love, every day can be “Valentine’s Day” in some way—we shouldn’t
need Hallmark or florists to remind us to tell someone we love them.
And
those who are really in love make time to be with the one they
love, in some way in some amount, often, not just once a year. I know a guy who was very busy with a whole
lot of worthwhile things who…fell in love and suddenly had time to spend with a
certain most special someone. More
time would be good, of course; my point is that it’s possible to make time if
something’s important.
Those who really
love God also make time to spend with God, including but not
limited to time spent with others in church.
Lent is a good time to start a daily discipline of prayer if you
don’t have one—even five minutes a day is better than setting one’s sights on a
lofty goal and not being consistent.
You could read Forward Day by Day, a
devotional booklet which gives a list of the assigned Bible readings for the
day together with a one-page devotion—or decide to read through, say, The
Gospel of Mark between now and Easter—slowly,
contemplatively, savoring it.
And
what Ash Wednesday is most of all about is remembering that God loves us
and all people and invites everyone to change and be made new.
Do you
like to receive flowers as a token of someone’s love? All the flowers of earth were created by God; whenever you see
flowers, consider them a bouquet from God reminding you of God’s eternal
faithfulness.
You
like a delicious dinner? Food
was made by God and given to us—to share, and not to hoard, and to receive with
thanksgiving. Fasting can remind us who
to thank for our food, and how to share our excess.
You like candlelight and soft music? Guess who invented fire—as well as who gave human beings the ability to create music and to hear it. All of these are some of the gifts we receive from God—not just on February 14, but all year long, all life long.
Ash Wednesday is not a binge but a new beginning, one day at a time, for the rest of Lent, for the rest of our lives.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard