To Hell and Back

Scripture: Ash Wednesday, A.D. 2014 A

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

We come to it at last, brothers and sisters—the great 40 days of the Lenten fast.

Legend has it that Lent goes all the way back to the earliest days of the Church, that even the 12 Apostles and Mary the Mother of our Lord observed a 40-day Lenten fast. This is the season when the story of Jesus Christ reaches its climax—when God in the flesh lays down His life, pours out His Spirit, suffers and dies, not only for His friends but for all the world and for untold multitudes yet to be born. This is the God Who loves us so much that He is willing to die for us, even when we are the very ones nailing Him to the Cross, piercing Him with the spear.

Lent answers the question of just how far God loves you: all the way to hell and back.

Now, why does Lent last for 40 days? Well, in the Bible, 40 is a very prominent number. Noah’s Flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights. The Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert. Moses and Elijah each fasted for 40 days before seeing God. Over and again, this same number, 40 days, 40 years, and each time it is associated with new beginnings, with new birth. That’s because it takes roughly 40 weeks, you see, for a pregnant woman to bring a child to term. 40 is the number of birth. So every time we see the number 40 in the Bible, that’s what we look for: new life, new birth, something or someone coming to fruition. God is doing something new.

Upon beginning His public ministry, as soon as John baptized Him in the river Jordan, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the Judean wilderness where He fasted 40 days and was tempted by the Devil. Where Adam fell, Christ stood strong. And so for these 40 days we join Jesus in the wilderness, in the fasting, in resisting the temptations of the Devil, the world, and the flesh. And Christ stands strong in us.

But what is fasting, really? What does it look like? Traditionally Christians would consume only one meal a day during Lent, though in the West we are allowed as much coffee, tea, milk, or beer as we like to supplement this thinner diet. Alternatively, some people give up some indulgence such as sweets or chocolate. I have some friends who are attempting a Facebook fast this year. Why do we do these things? Why give up food or pleasure or other good gifts of God? Why not simply enjoy as much as we can, whenever we can?

It is true that any good thing may become an idol when worshipped in its own right. Food, for instance, is the gift of God’s abundance; our proper response should be gratitude. Yet often we focus not on the Giver but on the gift. If we worship food, it ceases to become a good gift and instead becomes an idol, a demon, a false god. The same applies to money or sex or talent or even family. By fasting from something good, we remind ourselves just how good it is, how grateful we should be for it. But fasting also reminds us not to become dependent upon, or obsessed by, the worldly things of this life. The purpose of good things is to point us towards God from Whom all blessings flow—not to themselves apart from God. For the Christian there is a time to feast, and a time to fast. Lent corresponds to the latter.

Another way to speak of fasting is simply to call it moderation, which everyone hails as a virtue, yet everyone has a hard time practicing in daily life. I know I do, anyway. Lent is a time to exercise these virtues, to exercise temperance and fortitude, so as to strengthen the soul and discipline the flesh. It’s good for both spirit and body.

And, of course, it’s biblical. All of Lent is deeply biblical. 40 days is a biblical period. Fasting is a biblical practice, in both Old and New Testaments. Placing ashes on your face is a biblical sign of repentance and returning to God. Even the mark of the Cross on your forehead hearkens back to the biblical prophet Ezekiel. It is biblical to fast, to pray, and to give to the poor. Indeed, these three practices are interrelated, because fasting purifies our minds for prayer, and the money saved from meals skipped we are encouraged to give to the needy.

In all these things we are reminded of our need for repentance, to return to God; of our need for renewal, as promised to us in our Baptism, and in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and of our need for life in community. As Americans we like to think of ourselves as self-made men, independent, lone rangers. As Christians we know better. We know that we are people in need of community, in need of love and forgiveness, in need of the Christ Whom we see in our neighbor. Jesus calls us not to break apart but to come together. He prays that we may all be one, just as He and the Father are One.

So in summation, here’s Lent in a nutshell: 40 days of fasting, prayer, and giving; 40 days of repentance and renewal within the community of God’s people. And it all begins tonight, Ash Wednesday, with ashes on our foreheads and the Cross upon our brows. But there’s one last thing that we really ought to know. And that is the fact that Sundays, brothers and sisters, are not part of Lent.

Remember that fasting is really an exercise in moderation, and we should take all things in moderation—especially moderation itself. Clever Sunday school students have but to consult a calendar in order to realize that Lent doesn’t actually work out to 40 days unless we don’t include the Sundays. They’re exactly right. Sundays, you’ll notice, are referred to as being in Lent but not of Lent. Sunday is the day of our Lord’s Resurrection; it is the “little Easter” every week. As such, Sunday remains a perpetual feast day, and fasting on a feast day is, I’m afraid, quite discouraged by the Church. Sundays are freebies. Fasts don’t apply.

So whatever you may or may not give up, whatever discipline you might try, remember that the point of it all—the point of both fast and feast, both sorrow and joy, both Lent and Easter—is to call us back to God, to the God Who loves us all the way: even to the Cross, even to the grave, even to hell and back.

Thanks be to Christ, the God of the Cross and empty Tomb. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.