Ash Wednesday 2018

Ash Wednesday 2018 Back in my early 20’s, my housemate and I decided to do a juice fast. It was pretty simple: for 36 hours, we would consume nothing but apple juice diluted in half by water. And at the end of the time, we would be a few pounds lighter and feel better. We determined, in our 20 year old wisdom, that we should also include in our fast as much sugar-free gum as we wanted to help us survive our 36 hours without food. We did ok the first day, but half-way through the second day, we ran into each other at work and each of us confessed that we were experiencing such light-headedness, that we could scarcely function, and so we determined that this was probably not a helpful course to continue pursuing. I tell you this story because the season of Lent is a season which we begin today by talking about fasting, and during which many folks like to “give up” something as a part of their practice. However, like my ill-fated juice fast, many of these practices seldom last beyond the first couple of weeks of Lent because they are not necessarily helpful. I often wonder if it isn’t because we are thinking about fasting all wrong. We think that fasting may be a way for our self-improvement, to prove our worthiness before God, to sacrifice so that we feel that we are accomplishing something, that we are “making the most of our Lent”. This is what fasting has come to mean in our culture that is so fixated on self-improvement. But this is not what Jesus or the other writers of scripture meant when they talked about fasting. Look at the Isaiah reading for today. This part of Isaiah is happening when the children of Israel have been taken into captivity in Babylon after forsaking the way of the Lord. They say to God, “"Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" And God retorts, “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. 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? 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? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…” For Jesus and the writer of Second Isaiah, fasting had a connection with justice, with taking care of the poor and oppressed, with considering interests beyond our own selfish needs and desires and to do that work as a whole people, as the people of God. Another writer put it this way: “Jesus did not intend to use Ash Wednesday to give up chocolate. Jesus has a deeper intention as the following story illustrates: While teaching his students, a Rabbi asked, "What is the difference between night and day?"i The students in their pride tried to give their best existential reasoning, "Is it the difference between a cloned sheep and a natural one? Between a boat and a car?" All of their reasoning was wrong. Fed up with being wrong, the students asked, "Then what is the difference?" The Rabbi answered, "When you look in the face of another person and do not see your sister or brother." This past Sunday, Rev Aimee quoted a famous line from Les Miserables: “to love another person is to see the face of God”, and she reminded us that this should be at the heart of our keeping of a Holy Lent. What if, instead of giving up chocolate or sugar or Diet Coke for Lent, we gave up being on our cell phones in pursuit of mindless activities when other members of our family are in the room with us? What if we gave up judging other people for Lent? What if we gave up mindless consuming—eating, drinking, buying? What if we gave up fear for Lent? What if we, like Pope Frances suggests, gave up indifference for other people for Lent? It sounds a lot harder to me than giving up chocolate. But there is a gravitas to taking on a challenge. We may very well fail; we may fall short. We will definitely be imperfect in our pursuit. But one of the truths of Lent is that in God, always we can begin again. So your invitation today (and really for all of Lent) is to choose deliberately how you will try to keep a holy Lent. Will it be a fast that is worthy of the Lord or will it be something to further your own agenda or goals? Will your giving up or your taking on during this Lent be a way that you show the face of God to other people in your life and a way that you can more easily seek the face of God in others? i. Michael Battle CREDO meditation 2/22/12