Ash Wednesday 2013

Ash Wednesday 2013 It’s an interesting effect of this time of year that people often like to post what they are giving up for Lent of Facebook. Some of my friends have posted that they are giving up chocolate, sweet tea and soft drinks, and even Facebook itself for Lent. Which got me to thinking about, not so much this concept of giving something up for Lent, but the larger issue of what undergirds that. The question of Why do we fast? But to answer that question, first we must look at what fasting is, exactly. In the Episcopal church calendar, we have two designated fast days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. People fast for a variety of reasons in our day and age: to be closer to God, weight loss, detoxification. Fasting is a common practice that we see throughout scripture, and it was believed to be a humbling act of commitment or repentance that was intensified when combined with prayer (Feasting on the Word p3). Fasting can range anywhere from not eating at all from sunup to sundown to severely restricting food intake. But it is the willingful abstaining from food, drink, or both for a period of time. So why do people fast? The BCP says, in our service today, that we are preparing to “observe with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection” by observing a season of penitence and fasting. We fast to be restored and reconciled in our relationship with God. We fast to remember the good news of Jesus’s absolution and pardon as set forth in the gospels. We fast to renew our repentance and our faith. And we fast to prepare us for the glorious celebration of Easter. But there are some things that we need to remember in this season of fasting. First, there is nothing that we can do that can draw us nearer to God; there is no way, through any actions of our own, that we can earn our forgiveness or our salvation. Both are already freely given to us. God cannot love us any more than God already does. God cannot forgive us any more than God already does. Second, our readings for today make it very clear the importance of the connection between our inner works and our outer works. The reading from Isaiah today, which is from the 2nd part of Isaiah that was written to the children of Israel who are growing weary and tattered in their exile from their homeland, says that we fast because we “delight to draw near to God,” but God reminds God’s people, through the words of the prophet that God is not happy with fasting when it does not accompany transformed behavior. Isaiah reminds them and us that God’s preferred fast is to “loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke…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 the breach…” Through Isaiah, God calls God’s people to the kind of fast that would lead them to be “repairers of the breach.”Isaiah is reminding them, and us, that fasting is never an end unto itself nor a substitute for righteous living. Fasting and righteous living should always be interconnected. Finally, I think that this quote from the New Testament professor Pheme Perkins, gets to the heart of why we fast during Lent. She writes, “The penitential season [of Lent] is not a lapse into ‘holiness boot camp’ as though human beings make themselves righteous before God. Lent asks us to open our hearts to the grace of God.” (Feasting on the Word p15) Lent asks us to open our hearts to the grace of God. The grace of God…..Our prayer books defines grace as being “God’s favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.” This year, perhaps instead of asking yourself what you are going to give up or take on for Lent, I would encourage you to think about it slightly differently. Ask yourself, “How is God calling me to open my heart to God’s favor toward me that is unearned and underserved? How is God calling me to open my heart to God’s forgiveness of my sins? How is God calling me to open my heart and my mind to God’s enlightenment? How is God calling me to open my heart to be stirred and my will to be strengthened? How is God calling me to open my heart to God’s grace in this Lenten season that I might be fully prepared for the joy of Easter?