Tag: ash wednesday

What Do You Value? (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis (1939-2021)

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you….

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (New International Version)

Spiritual Disciplines

In Christ’s day, there were three spiritual disciplines that were especially important: giving, prayer, and fasting. For the Jewish faithful, these three practices were meant to work together in helping them to know God and serve others. 

Yet, over time, although the disciplines were maintained, they were observed for all the wrong reasons. Jesus was concerned to communicate that not only are people to do the right thing, but that they do the right things for the right reasons.

To do any less, is to be a hypocrite who maintains an outward form of religion, but is inwardly motivated by the praise and recognition of others. Such a person is, in reality, far from God. 

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent on the Christian Calendar. This season is a time devoted to spiritual disciplines, especially fasting.

Fasting

Those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness take the time eat spiritual food in order to pursue God and seek right relationships in this world. It’s not a matter if we fast, but when.

The Bible has a great deal to say about fasting:

  • Fasting is a sign of humility and brokenness before God in recognizing both personal and corporate guilt. (1 Samuel 7:2-6)
  • Fasting is a means of preparation for ministry. Jesus used fasting in the desert as preparation for his ministry, and to face down the devil (Matthew 4:1-2). And the apostles fasted when seeking God’s direction about a new ministry. (Acts 13:2-3)
  • Fasting is meant to connect with God and serve others; and not to simply go through the motions. (Isaiah 58:3-7)

Therefore, fasting is a time to get in touch with God, to know the divine will, and then to do it. 

God doesn’t operate on a point system. If we only go through the motions of a spiritual discipline, or do it so that others will notice that I am doing my duty, then we have come under the condemnation of Jesus and are proved as hypocrites.

True fasting in an outward practice reflecting an inner attitude of heart; it’s an expression of devotion in order to connect with God and do good works of service to others.

Framing the topic another way: Why don’t we fast? Because it’s culturally okay not to? Because nobody cares whether I do, or don’t?

The spiritual disciplines of giving, praying, fasting, and other Christian practices have changed my life because they are a vital means of connecting with God and engaging the world.

A farmer disciplines himself to plow, plant, and cultivate – not because he wants to impress others (“Y’all see my big ol’ tractor and my implements!?”) but so that he will receive the reward of reaping a harvest at the proper time. 

So, we also, can engage in spiritual disciplines, like fasting, in order to see a harvest of righteousness.

Earthly vs. Heavenly Treasure

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. What are earthly treasures? It’s stuff, money, possessions, as well as control, power, position, and recognition from others.

You may rightly ask, “Is this really, in and of itself, wrong?” No, it’s not. The real question is not whether we possess earthly treasure (because we all do) but rather:

Do I use my earthly treasure to build heavenly treasure? Do I hoard earthly treasure for my own purposes apart from Christ’s kingdom values?

Jesus once illustrated the difference:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”(Luke 12:13-21, NIV)

Again, earthly possessions are tools to be used; and not for accumulating personal wealth, esteem, and success for the sake of security in money. Rather, everything the Christian has is for the advancement of God’s kingdom values. 

Why do this? Because earthly treasure is temporary, and heavenly treasure is permanent. 

Is what you are pursuing today really going to matter in 50 billion millennia?

Heavenly treasure is righteousness as defined by Jesus: right relationships with both God and other humans.  Humility, peace, grace, mercy, purity, forgiveness are all relational values. The only thing that we will take with us when we die is relationships.

If I am genuinely committed to God’s kingdom, my most cherished values will be established by God. 

Our real values consume our thoughts and our efforts; what is in our hearts directs our work. And our ultimate values derive from how we perceive our identity. 

For a great many Americans, the primary noun that characterizes and defines us is not American Christians, not American citizens, not American workers; we are known primarily as American Consumers. 

Jesus is not necessarily advocating that we take vows of poverty, or that we ought not to enjoy the good things we have; what he is asking of us is to make a decision where your loyalty is placed.

Spiritual disciplines such as fasting help us to maintain our most cherished values, to see them clearly, and to choose wisely based upon those values.

May it be so, to the glory of God. Amen.

Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:16-34)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (New International Version)

Traditional Ash Wednesday services focus on the brevity of life and remind worshippers that they came from dust and will soon enough return back to the earth, dust once more. For our many of our parents in the faith, Lent was typically a sad season in which they gave up something in order to prepare themselves for eternal life.

The salvation promised and hoped for led them to look away from the joys of Spring and the beauties of the earth. Faithful Christians, in generations past, trained their eyes on heaven, forsaking time for eternity.

Yes, life is serious and risky business, and no one gets out alive. Yet is salvation really all about escaping this world of constant grief and death? Or is it seeing everlasting beauty in each passing moment?

It could be that you struggle with Ash Wednesday services and the season of Lent precisely because of its focus on giving up something, or because when you were a kid this time of year seemed like such a downer. Maybe your typical approach to Lent in the past has been a shoulder shrug and a response of “meh.”

So, therefore, I want us to get a different take on the meaning of Ash Wednesday and look at it from a different angle.

I will take away the ashes on their head, and I will give them a crown. I will take away their sadness, and I will give them the oil of happiness. I will take away their sorrow, and I will give them celebration clothes. 

Isaiah 61:3, ERV

The uncertainty of life can invite us to praise and wonder, to seize the moment—for this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice in it! All that I love and care for is mortal and fleeting, but mortality is the inspiration to celebration and love.

This is the sort of approach I saw in a dear friend who died fifteen years ago from a very long struggle with cancer. Bea always found ways to rejoice in her suffering, to be attentive to the working of God around her, and to bless those who needed God’s grace more than she did. More than once I found Bea, in one of her many hospital stays, out of the bed and in someone else’s room playing her dulcimer (she had once been a music teacher) and singing a hymn of praise to a fellow patient.

This Ash Wednesday, I’m not only fasting and giving up a few meals a week; I’m also letting go of everything that keeps me from rejoicing in the passing beauty of the earth.

Yes, we are dust, but we are real earthly sacred dust. Dust is good, after all, emerging from God’s intergalactic creativity. We are frail, but we are also part of a holy adventure reflecting God’s love over thousands of years.

Ash Wednesday is a time for us to pause, notice, wake up, and discover that God is in this place. This day invites us to take a much needed break and open up to the precarious yet beautiful world in which we live. So in this season of Lent, I plan on considering the lilies and the birds of the air.

In some Christian traditions, the imposition of ashes is accompanied by the words, “repent and believe the gospel.” And that I plan to do this year. I plan to turn around and be more present to the moment, appreciating God’s grandeur, and believing the good news—the embodied, everlasting, beautiful, wondrous, and gracious good news of walking with the Lord who is with me, surrounds me, and goes before me and after me.

Pastor and author, Jan Richardson, lost her husband to cancer several years ago during the season of Lent. She chose to cremate her husband so that his ashes might remind her and her family that there is beauty in the dust.  She wrote the following poem at her first Ash Wednesday without him:

Blessing the Dust

All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—

did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

Amen.

Psalm 51:1-17 – Ash Wednesday

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
    Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
    purify me from my sin!
Because I know my wrongdoings,
    my sin is always right in front of me.
I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
    I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
    completely correct when you issue your judgment.
Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
    from the moment my mother conceived me.
And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.

Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean;
    wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and celebration again;
    let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
Hide your face from my sins;
    wipe away all my guilty deeds!
Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach wrongdoers your ways,
    and sinners will come back to you.

Deliver me from violence, God, God of my salvation,
    so that my tongue can sing of your righteousness.
Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
You don’t want sacrifices.
    If I gave an entirely burned offering,
    you wouldn’t be pleased.
A broken spirit is my sacrifice, God.
    You won’t despise a heart, God, that is broken and crushed. (Common English Bible)

Ash Wednesday is an ancient holy day on the Church Calendar. It marks the beginning of the season of Lent—a time of penitence, discipline, and renewal.

We are reminded of our mortality, we confess our sins, and we experience forgiveness through Christ’s death and resurrection. The “imposition of ashes” is a central part of Ash Wednesday observances, whereby the penitent worshiper receives ashes on the forehead in the sign of the cross.

In Holy Scripture, ashes serve both as a symbol of mortality and as a sign of mourning and repentance. But neither sin nor death is the final word. So, we also have confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death, and nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus, our Lord.

Today, on this Ash Wednesday, the appropriate posture of the devout Christian is prayer. Specifically, prayers of confession of our great and many sins, shortcomings, and moral failures. 

This might sound negative and a major downer. Yet, to not look evil square in the face and call it out for what it is, is at best denial, and at the worst allowing a bitter seed of unforgiveness to gestate in the depths of your soul. 

It seems to me there is no better way to confront the darkness within than with using the ancient prayer book of the Old Testament Psalms. I encourage you to pray Psalm 51 out loud and slowly, with a generous amount of emotional flavor – even, and especially, if you don’t feel like it. 

Pray the ancient psalm over more than once, and perhaps several times punctuated throughout the day today. In doing so, you will be joining the faithful across this entire big world who today offer to God a prayer of subversion against the blackness on this earth.

Holy God, as the season now turns to Lent, we pray that you will guide us in the days ahead.  As we journey with Jesus, give us an abiding sense of your presence, an unguarded sense of ourselves, and an awareness of the needs of this world.

Loving God, as we are marked with the ashes of earth, we bring before you the frailty of our very human lives:  our fragile health; the uncertainty of our plans; the changing nature of our relationships. Grant us patience in suffering and healing from our ills. Give us, in equal measure, humility and hope in our pursuits. Bind us in love that is constant, yet able to change according to the needs and circumstances before us.

Just God, you call us to action; to bring freedom to the oppressed; to care for those in need; to lift the burdens of others. We ask you to increase our courage and our will to work for the peace you envision and desire. We pray for an end to warfare and conflict, accepting our call to be peacemakers. We pray for an end to hunger and homelessness, knowing we are called to share with others and show hospitality. We pray for an end to false righteousness, evil speech, and shallow faith in our lives, in the church, in our public life, and among all the nations.

Eternal God, we pray your kingdom will come in fullness; that what is perishable will be raised imperishable; that death itself will be swallowed up in victory; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Ash Wednesday

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Welcome, friends! For Christians all over the world, today begins a 40-day journey to Easter. Click the videos below, and together we will start that journey toward Jesus…

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Pastor Tim

Forgive, almighty God, those things we have done which have caused you sadness, and those things we should have done that would have brought you joy. In both we have failed ourselves, and you. Bring us back to that place where our journey began, when we said that we would follow the way that you first trod. Lead us to the Cross and meet us there. Amen.