Ash Wednesday: The Desire to Fast

A Sermon by Andrew Colman based on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

It seems funny to hear tonight's Gospel reading where Jesus tells us to wash our faces! Put oil on our heads! Do not look sombre.

All the while we are putting ash on our faces, marking our foreheads with the sign of the cross with those ashes, which in its original context was the clearest sign of torture and death one could have imagined - far more over the top than simply not washing ones face or looking sombre.

But tonight we are not marking ourselves with our own sense of sombre or plea for pity or recognition but with the sign of our own mortality. We are marking ourselves with the sign that we are all going to, eventually, die. But even more than that we marking ourselves with the death of Jesus - entering into a kind of death right now - this very evening.

What Jesus was getting at in tonight Gospel is that When we don't wash our faces and make a point of looking as sombre when we are fasting, we are not participating in the fast for the right reasons. Jesus says it himself when you do these things and put on a show of your piety you will have received your reward - people will look upon you and maybe they will think - wow look at that person they really are a Holy Person. However, chances are that is not really what they will think.

But it doesn't actually matter what they think - they will be looking and giving attention and that attention is the reward for better or for worse. If attention or accolades or whatever you're looking for is filled up by demonstrating your righteousness, then it will surely come.

But as soon as it comes it will fade. And it will because we all live our own lives and have our own thoughts. The person putting on the big show must continue to do so so that each passerby notices them, and the attention meter gets that little boost just as it starts to drain.

Treasures/ rewards on earth, will be consumed, stolen, or simply fade with time, become useless to us in our truest hours of need or in final hours…

When we try to fill our spiritual lives with the treasures of this world, be it attention and accolades or gold and silver, there will never ever be enough of any of it, or even all of it combined.

Trying to fill the space that God has opened for us for Godself in our lives with the treasures of the world is like trying to fill an empty ocean one bottle cap full of water at a time using only the water that is in that water bottle.

It is something that we can work at, and we might, if we're really smart, make a little puddle that lasts for a few moments. But that's about as far as we'll get.

Or maybe it's like we're trying with all of our might to light up the night's sky with a book of matches. Constantly looking up and down while fumbling to light the match and then lifting in the air so that we can bring its light to the world. Only to have it blow out because we raised our arm too fast, the breeze was just a little bit too strong, or we dropped it because we weren’t even paying attention to what we were doing, and it burnt so low it caught our fingertips.

The sign of the cross in ashes on your forehead is an invitation to stop. Stop looking for attention, accolades, Silver, and Gold. Stop trying to fill the ocean with a cap full of water or light the night sky with a book of matches.

The sign of the cross in ashes on our forehead is an invitation to put down the bottle and the matches, lay down on the beach, and die. Die to all of the ideas that drive us to think we even can fill the ocean or light the night sky.

Lay down on the beach and close your eyes and enter into Jesus’ death on the cross.

And then, and then when we've finally given it all up we'll hear something. Waves. Not 20 meters ahead. At first, just one every couple of moments and barely audible. But then more and more and louder and louder we'll hear those waves and wonder where in the world they are coming from. Finally, once we've had enough and just need to see where all of this water has come from, we'll open our eye and they will be filled by the dazzling darkness of the night sky. Filled with planets, solar systems, stars, and galaxies, nearly blinding us after our time lying dead to the world.

It turns out that in all our efforts to fill our own empty ocean we missed the fact that the ocean that is the Love of God was not but a few steps away waiting for us to plunge in and explore its unsurpassing beauty and unsearchable depths. And all our efforts to light the night sky did nothing but drown out the stunning celestial darkness that surrounded us from the very beginning.

So while we will eventually wipe off or wash these crosses from our foreheads, they are our invitation to our way into Lent.

Lent is the time when we enter the wilderness not because we have to but because we want to be reminded of what it is like to let go of the worldly things that distract us from the currents of God's Love moving through us and the world. The glow of God's light pours off of the Pillar or Fire in the dazzling darkness of the wilderness.

During this season of Lent, I invite you to consider where it is in our own lives that we are trying to fill our own ocean or where we are holding on to the match too long that burns our own fingers while trying to light the sky.
Whether it be trying to hoard these treasures on earth, or holding on to something we know we need to let go of. And either give something up or take something on that helps you put that water bottle down, or drop that book of matches. Do something that lets you die to things that the world is calling you to and so allows you to hear and feel the waves of the Ocean of God's Love. To see the glow of God's creation in the Night Sky.

But above all, do not expect that we can do this on our own - but only by the Power of the God through the Holy Spirit. So maybe, let's say we're giving up chocolate for Lent, that's our treasure in heaven... but it just feels too hard.

Don't give it up on day one or week one... but spend those first few days asking God for the strength we need to give it up. Or even tthe desire to give it up, and then on week two as for the strength we need to act on that desire that God has put in your heart.

We don't get any extra points "giving up the chocolate on day one as opposed to day 15..." The point is not about giving up the chocolate The point is to intentionally draw nearer to God - to work towards taking a deep dive in the ocean or mapping out the stars of God's love. That doesn't happen at the flick of the switch... it happens slowly So may that journey begin with the crosses on our foreheads tonight that will lead us through the wilderness of Lent into depths of God’s love.Amen