March 6, 2019 Ash Wednesday

1“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. 5“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:1-6 NJKV

Ash Wednesday begins the preparation for Holy Week and Easter. Ash Wednesday and Lent offers us time to reflect on who we were in our Before Christ (BC) days and who we have become in Jesus since our Anno Domini (AD) the time Jesus began the work of forgiveness and renewal in our lives.

American Christianity has become a fast food religious experience where having to”wait on the Lord” is unheard of and undesirable for many. We want to pray and get the answer we want when we want! It becomes easy to perceive God as a celestial ATM spewing out good things as well as cash.

By this we lose the amazing gift of having a relationship with God. We lose the time at the manger adoring the One who came to we who are so undeserving. We lose the time to weep and rejoice at the cross, at the experience of Jesus giving His life for us! We miss the wake up of the stone rolling away and the reality of the resurrection.

The “reward” is not just getting out of hell or even getting into heaven but to regain the wondrous ability to have a relationship with God similar to Adam's. Talking about Adam to many seems ludicrous but that is why the story must be true! A human description of Adam, like many other stories show a fallen person helped by the god's but the Bible shows a perfectly created Adam who fell on his own!

Humanity would not draw such broken and fallen people as the one's used by God is such a way. Over the ages humanity has created fallen gods and heroic people. The Bible gives us neither. 

Indeed Ash Wednesday is a time to recognize we need God! A time to realize we do not understand ourselves or our need. A time to confess our need and in humility to both seek God's help and give thanks God gives us:

not what we deserve but what love desires

not what we want but what we need

not death but full life

and not crying into the darkness but talking with the God Who is Light!