Our Ash Wednesday Worship is Cancelled.
While I wish we could be worshiping together this evening, the blizzard and the lack of heat in the church means we will not be gathering this evening.
I wanted to share a bit about the history of Lent and a few thoughts, prayers and scriptures with you today.
On the History of Lent and Ash Wednesday
Lent is one of the oldest Liturgical Seasons of the church year. Historians generally point to The First Council of Nicaea in 325 as the official origins. The council recommended that new converts to the faith should set aside the 40 days prior to Easter as a time of fasting and preparation for baptism. Yet, the tradition of fasting prior to Easter was practiced long before in local assemblies. According to a fragment of a letter preserved by an early church historian, Irenaeus (c. 130 – 202) mentions a dispute about the 40 day fast in a letter to the pope. Irenaeus was only two generations removed as a disciple of Jesus, and considers the various practices as inherited from the “forefathers.” However early it started, Lent is a time inspired by Christ’s forty day fast, his temptation in the desert, and the forty hours he spent in the tomb before rising Easter morning.
Variations in Lenten practices and traditions have been accepted from early on. In the Orthodox Church the Great Lent begins on Clean Monday. In the Roman Church, Lent took on the shape we recognize today at the turn of the 7th century. It was Pope Gregory I (590-604) who described Lent as “the spiritual tithing of the year.” Among his innovations was to move the beginning of the season to Wednesday, 46 days prior to Easter. Why 46 days and not 40? In the season of Lent we don’t count Sundays–every Sunday is a little Easter! So, even though Ash Wednesday is a 1400 year old tradition, it remains a later innovation in the season of Lent.
At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the practice of Lent was retained but restrained by reformers like Luther, and rejected by reformers like Zwingli. Zwingli, that early Swiss reformer, was at the Lenten meal that broke tradition and included meat–causing a hubbub which became known as “the Affair of the Sausages.” He would later write a work contrasting church traditions like fasting during Lent with his understanding of true Christian liberty. In the centuries that followed, many Protestants rarely noted Lent. In recent decades, however, there has been a change. Protestants of all kinds have begun to re-examine and embrace Lent and lenten practices. Led first by liturgically minded Lutherans, and Episcopalians, soon other protestants Methodists and Presbyterians, and those who consider themselves “low church” have begun to embrace Ash Wednesday services and explore rich traditions of Lenten practices.
Getting to the Point of Lent and Ash Wednesday
Always with an eye on the celebration of the resurrection which is to come, the focus of Lent is spiritual renewal in the pattern of Christ. We seek renewal by cooperating with God’s grace in practices that both add and subtract from our routine lives. The old tradition of threefold Lenten practices–rooted in the sermon on the mount–are still worth exploring: prayer, fasting and the giving of alms. Lent is often also marked by special study, instruction and holy reading.
In the spring of each year Easter and New Life will arrive. In Lent we prepare for it. We get a clean start. We seek the Spirit anew. We are encouraged to change our minds and our ways. Reminded of our mortality at the outset on Ash Wednesday, we hope with an honest and open frankness for renewal and look to participate in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter.
A Prayer for the Day
God of our salvation,
we long to be reconciled to you.
Help us to clear away any obstacle
that prevents us from accepting the grace of Christ.
No matter what we face in this life,
increase in us knowledge and patience,
kindness and holiness of spirit,
genuine love and truthful speech,
so that, by the power of God at work in us,
we may live even as we are dying
and rejoice even in our sorrows.
Though it may seem that we have nothing,
if we are reconciled to you, we possess everything,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,so that they may be praised by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, put oil on your head and 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.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
A Call to an Observance of a Holy Lent
Friends in Christ, every year at the time of the Christian Passover
we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lent is a time to prepare for this celebration and to renew our life in the paschal mystery.
We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance,
and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes.
This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life,
and marks the penitence of this community.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ,
to observe a holy Lent:
by self-examination and penitence,
by prayer and fasting,
by works of love,
and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.
Charge and Benediction
Practice your piety not before others, but before God.
Give generously, but quietly;
pray constantly, but confidentially;
fast with gratitude to God;
and store up that which is in your heart;
for it cannot be taken from you.
The blessing of God, who hears when you call;
the grace of Christ, who reconciles you;
the power of the Holy Spirit, who sustains you;
remain with you in these Lenten days,
for all your days, and for evermore. Amen.
Peace to you,
Pastor Peter