Ash
Wednesday 2013: Choosing a Both/And Lent
We
have arrived at Ash Wednesday again –
the
entry point for yet another 40-day Lenten journey toward Easter.
We
hear again the words as familiar
as
their outward-and-visible signs etched on our foreheads:
“Remember
you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
On this Ash Wednesday,
as
the liturgical season shifts from Epiphany to Lent,
we
are called to make a shift, too.
During
these weeks since Christmas
our
lessons have focused on the “epiphanies”
of
those who encountered Jesus along the way
and
knew somehow,
at
some point,
in
some perhaps indescribable way,
that
they had experienced the holy:
had
experienced what a clergy colleague once called
one
of the “Ahas!” of God.
And
now our focus shifts,
as
it does every year at this time,
from
stories about those outward manifestations
of
God's presence among us
to
a more interior place
as
we journey with Jesus
on
the road we know leads to Golgotha –
to
the cross –
and
ultimately, to the resurrection.
And
so, on this Ash Wednesday,
I want to call us to a "both/and" Lent
with my annual advice for the journey ahead:
Don't give up
epiphanies for Lent.
A
both/and Lent is one
where we refuse to become so inwardly focused
that
we forget to notice –
to
give thanks for –
to
respond to –
those
encounters we can and will have with the holy
in
the next 40 days.
A both/and Lent
prevents
us from succumbing to the temptation
to
become so focused
on
our own “journey with Jesus” that we forget
that
as long as there are still strangers at the gate,
"walking
humbly with our God" is not enough:
and reminds us that we are also called to "do justice."
A both/and Lent empowers us to
claim “justice doing”
as
essential to our identity as Christian people –
as
Lenten pilgrims and always.
And a
both/and Lent gives us the grace
to
pray silently to God
who
is in secret,
and gives us grace
to proclaim loudly to the world
that
our gospel call to do justice is rooted
deeply
in our history as a people of God –
as we hear today in
these words of the prophet Isaiah:
"Why do we
fast, but you do not see?
Why humble
ourselves, but you do not notice?"
Will you call
this a fast,
a day
acceptable to the LORD?
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?
Then you shall
call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
“Here
I am,” our God promises –
ready
to lead us through whatever wilderness we face:
to
accompany us wherever the journey goes.
And on
this Ash Wednesday 2013,
I
believe one of the wildernesses we are being called into
is
labeled “gun violence”
as
we continue to work with those committed
to
ending the culture of violence
in
our streets and in our nation.
Another
is called “economic justice”
as
we continue to advocate
for those on the margins
who are most vulnerable
to the changes, chances and challenges of the global economy.
And
yet another is marked “equality”
as
we strive to live out our baptismal promise
to
equally respect the dignity of absolutely every human being,
regardless
of race or gender,
sexual
orientation or gender identity,
class
or culture.
If
we are to be a people
who
have bread to share with the hungry
we
must continue to challenge those
who
prioritize drone warfare over child welfare.
If
we are to serve the God
whose
fast is “to let the oppressed go free”
we
must speak out when gay and lesbian families
continue
to fall short
of
the equal protection guaranteed all Americans.
And
if we are to choose the fast Isaiah offers us this Lent,
we
must continue to undo the thongs of the yoke of oppression
as
we work for just immigration reform.
Because, my brothers and sisters,
my fellow Lenten pilgrims:
Now
IS the acceptable time.
And
may the God who calls us into this wilderness
be with us and bless us on the journey
with
a “both/and” Lent
as
we walk with Jesus
on
the road we know leads to Golgotha –
to
the cross –
and ultimately,
to the resurrection
and to new life.
Amen.
