2012 Lent 1: Ash Wednesday

Again this year I will endeavor to blog during Lent. Again this year I expect to fail to live up to my own goals for consistency, but I will at least make the effort to reflect on my journey this Lent.

No, not that journey. It's Lent, for heaven's sake. Although I suppose you could do much worse...

Anyway. I did not preach from a script today, but I will start with just a couple of reflections from my Ash Wednesday sermon. We used the alternate first reading, from Isaiah 58 (look it up; I don't have time to figure out how to link directly to the text), which I find to be a breathtakingly beautiful passage.

After God tells the prophet not to pull any punches, God reflects on these curious people who beg for God's presence while constantly ignoring God's ways and commands. Then the people whine about how God ignores their fasting, and God smacks them down proper: fasting and humility are not about self-pity, and are certainly not about showing off your piety to others.


 The "fast" God wants is justice:

⁶Is 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? ⁷Is 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?

Repentance, see, is not about feeling sorry for yourself, or even about being sorry. Repentance is about  a change of heart and mind, to bring them in line with God's way of justice and love. The one semi-intelligent, original thought I had in today's sermon was this: Repentance is not about the wrong you did in the past. Repentance is about the good you will do in the future. God wants to forgive us, to let us recognize our sinfulness and failings, and then let them go, free love and serve God and neighbor in the new day.

So that's what we'll talk about this Lent, at least at Lutheran Church of the Savior. How do we best follow Jesus - who, by the way, was not much of a whiner? By moping around being sorry, or by accepting God's forgiveness and going forth to live the life God calls us to, a life of flourishing for everyone, of justice and love and service to others? As we journey with Jesus to the cross, let his life guide ours.