Know Lent

Propers: Ash Wednesday, A.D. 2017 A

Homily:

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

Let it all fall away.

The stresses, the uncertainties, the agonies of daily life. The drudgery and the boredom, the disappointments and the fears. The thousand-thousand questions that assault us every day, from what to eat to what to wear to what to watch. Let it all fall away, that we may quiet our souls, and listen to the still, small voice of God.

Lent is not a time for outward acts of piety, for boasting of what we’ve given up or playing holier-than-thou for the crowd. Lent is a time of blessed silence, of re-centering ourselves amidst the hustle and bustle of a frantic and increasingly unbalanced world. It is a time to put first things first, to remind ourselves that life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. We must unplug from our devices, pull out the tube of nonstop 24-hour infotainment. By relieving ourselves of diversions and distractions, we are freed to look beyond immediate goods to transcendent goods, even eternal goods. Lent allows us to stop looking ahead, and start looking up.

Don’t give up something frivolous or silly. Don’t take on a Lenten discipline out of some misplaced motivation for self-improvement. Fasting is not the latest thing in weight-loss programs, to be paired with P90X and an organic juice purge. All around the world, in nations plagued by war and hunger, where fasting is the norm instead of a novelty, men and women, grandparents and grandchildren, are even now preparing for Holy Baptism. They are praying and reading the Word of God. They are quietly giving alms to the poor, and worshipping in secret sanctuaries. They are confessing their sins and reorienting their lives toward what is good and true and beautiful.

At the end of these 40 days, they will gather together with priests and bishops throughout the world at the Easter Vigil, where they will drown in their sins and rise up to new life in Jesus Christ. Their sins will be utterly forgiven, and they themselves will be reborn with Christ’s own eternal life coursing through their veins! And when the dawn breaks just hours later on that glorious Easter Morning, they will gather at the Table of the Lord’s Supper, where they will partake in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ—the Bread of Heaven and Cup of Salvation—for the very first time.

This is the triumph of life over death, of light over darkness, and of wholeness over our brokenness. These are the miracles of our faith, the miracles of Font and Table, of Word and Sacrament. And throughout the world people are willing to risk everything to partake in this promise of new life poured out for all of Creation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

When we remember this, suddenly our car payment doesn’t seem all that daunting. That pile of laundry loses its ability to oppress. Putting first things first—love of God and love of neighbor first of all—puts everything else in its place. And the stresses and frustrations of modern life lose their grip upon our souls.

Here at St Peter’s we are safe and well fed. We do not risk life and limb by going to Church. We need not face down fire and steel to partake in the Lord’s Supper. But sometimes our very freedom in these matters becomes a type of oppression. Without direction, without discipline, with life becoming nothing more than a menu of infinite choice for our perpetual perusal and pleasure, we lose meaning, we lose purpose, we lose sight of who we are and of whose we are. Lent brings to us a refreshing dose of reality. It reminds us of who and whose we are.

For the next 40 days we fast and we pray, we give alms and do good. We confess our sins and reform our lives. We do not do this to be seen by others, or to earn the grace of God which cannot be bought or sold. Rather, we do these things in solidarity with all of those throughout the world who will be entering the waters of Baptism for the first time, and joining us along with all the saints of every age at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

But it’s not just that we have it easy and must remember those who do not. It’s that we too need reformation, need confession, need absolution. While the Christians of the East are drowning in blood, we seem to be drowning in marshmallow fluff: drowning in possessions, drowning in entertainment, drowning in pointless busyness that looks good on a resume but starves the soul of what is real.

So let us eat less, buy less, watch less. Let us read more, give more, pray more. Not to open our chakras or self-actualize our potential, but to remember that we have drowned and now are risen; that our bodies are the temples of God’s own Spirit; that Jesus Christ died upon a Cross for each and every one of us here, and that nothing in all of Creation can ever devalue or diminish the immensity of that love.

Let us take these 40 days to free ourselves of distraction and diversion. Let us lay aside that which is secondary, so as to put the first things first. Let us know Lent—a time of Christian quiet, letting go of the unnecessary, to hear the still, small voice of God.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.